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Top 10 distillery openings of 2024
By Georgie CollinsWe love new distilleries at The Spirits Business because new distilleries mean exciting new spirits, fresh brand homes and fun visitor experiences. These were our favourites to cut the ribbon in 2024.

For all of the difficulties the global spirits industry went up against last year, there were still plenty of wins for many producers, including the openings of some hotly anticipated distilleries.
We’ve shared 10 that opened their doors in 2024 and are set to make some very exciting spirits over the coming years.
Scapegrace Distillery, New Zealand
Costing NZ$30 million (US$17.8m/£13.95m) and spanning 3,000 square metres, the new state-of-the-art distillery from Scapegrace was unveiled in November last year, after eight years in the making.
Speaking to The Spirits Business, Scapegrace Distilling’s co-founder and managing director, Daniel McLaughlin, explained how the location of the distillery was chosen specifically for its position on the 45th Parallel, which, he said, is the exact midpoint between the Equator and the South Pole. “This unique location experiences extreme seasonal variations – intense heat and dryness in the summer, and very cold winters.
“This means over a 12-month period there is considerable ‘talk’ and influence between our new make spirit and barrels, providing a lot more depth and flavour over a shorter period of time. The early signs with flavour development that we have seen over the past three years has been extremely promising.”
The new facilities will allow Scapegrace to produce 160,000 cases of single malt whisky per annum and enough gin and vodka to meet its long-term forecasts.
The Guqi Distillery, China
Cognac maker Camus made its move into the world of whisky production last year, as it opened the doors to its US$30 million Guqi Distillery in China, which it launched in collaboration with Gujinggong, one of the world’s biggest baijiu brands.
The Guqi Distillery, located adjacent to Gujinggong’s distillery in Bozhou, aims to make the ‘most aromatic whiskies in the world’.
Its focus is on two types of whisky: premium single malts featuring ‘intense aromatic profiles’ and herbal whiskies infused with traditional Chinese herbs.
The new site is said to represent a ‘groundbreaking fusion of Eastern and Western spirits expertise’ by combining Chinese baijiu fermentation techniques, France’s ‘complex’ distillation and blending methods, and Scotland’s ‘mastery of oak maturation’.
Rosebank Distillery, Scotland
Was this one of the most long-awaited openings of 2024? It certainly was for team SB, as after a four-year restoration project, Rosebank Distillery finally reopened to the public in June.
Known as the ‘king of the Lowlands’, the distillery had lain dormant since 1993, and was acquired by Ian Macleod Distillers for restoration in 2017 with the objective to bring the site ‘back to its former glory’.
Now out of its 30-year slumber, the newly-restored site mixes modern updates with old features retained from its original run, which honour the distillery’s heritage, such as the the Victorian red brickwork that faces the Forth and Clyde canal, contrasted with a new glass-fronted stillroom. Here, visitors will see exact copies of the original stills, replicated using blueprints salvaged from the Rosebank archives. The 108ft chimney stack has also been repaired and continues to ‘dominate’ Falkirk’s skyline.
YunTuo Distillery, China
Camus wasn’t the only brand to turn to Chinese whisky production last year. In November, Diageo revealed its US$120 million distillery, YunTuo, located 2,100 metres above sea level.
The YunTuo Single Malt Whisky Distillery is said to benefit from a temperate climate, rich biodiversity, and natural resources, including spring water from the nearby Erhai Lake.
Furthermore, the distillery will be able to use Yunnan oak for cask maturation alongside other local ingredients in its production.
Debra Crew, Diageo CEO, said the new site reflected the company’s “confidence in the future of Chinese whisky. Our ambition is to combine our global heritage and whisky-making craftsmanship with deep local insights to create the highest quality China-origin single malt whisky that will fire the imagination of whisky enthusiasts worldwide and place China firmly on the global whisky map.”
Cazcabel Distillery, Mexico
If you’re the number-one independent premium Tequila brand outside the US and Mexico, it’s only right that you build yourself a £37 million (US$44.9m) brand home and distillery in San Francisco de Asís, Jalisco.
Located in the Vazquez family’s hometown, Hacienda Cazcabel was built with locally sourced materials, and the distillery showcases the family’s heritage in agave farming and commitment to sustainable practices.
The site employs more than 500 people in the local community from its own agave fields and the new brand home and distillery.
The site officially opened in November, but production at the distillery began in the summer. Hacienda Cazcabel will be open to the public from summer this year, with an agave farming and Tequila production tour, bar and restaurant.
Lighthouse Gin Distillery, New Zealand
Back to New Zealand, where Lighthouse Gin cut the ribbon on its distillery just in time for the start of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer.
The new distillery in located in Martinborough, New Zealand, and is based in a 19,000 square foot building known as The Runholder. The new production facility was custom-built and features a distillery, bottling room and warehouse.
The new site is quite the upgrade from the brand’s first distillery, which head distiller Rachel Hall said was “cobbled together in an old orchard shed”.
“This new distillery was purpose-built from the ground up, which is an incredible luxury for any head distiller, especially when handcrafting a clean, pure gin like Lighthouse.”
Sylva, England
It’s not every day – or even every year – that we hear of a non-alcoholic distillery opening in the industry, but we’ve learned not to let anything surprise us at SB.
In September, Seedlip founder Ben Branson revealed the opening of Sylva, a non-alcoholic distillery and maturation laboratory, which creates luxury dark ‘spirits’ with an ABV of less than 0.5%.
The lab is part of Pollen Projects, a venture studio that Branson launched in 2023. It is led by Branson and Jack Wareing, Pollen Projects’ head of research and development.
The lab extracts ‘the complex character from a diverse selection of wood and cereals’ to create non-alcoholic products. The brand claims it explores ‘the full flavour potential of traditional barrel wood and grain varieties as well as trees never before used in drinks’, using techniques including sonic maturation, vacuum distillation and vacuum kiln roasting.
Coopers Distillery, Australia
Down in Australia, the country’s largest independent brewer, Coopers, moved into whisky production with the opening of its AU$70 million (US$46m) facility in August.
The distillery opened as part of a new brand home, located adjacent to the company’s brewery in Adelaide, and contains custom-made copper whisky stills from Scotland, which can be viewed during the Coopers tour and VIP experiences.
The distillery produces the whisky using its own malt produced on site, which also features a restaurant, three bars, tasting room, a microbrewery, underground stillage for 5,000 whisky barrels, and a merchandise store.
McConnells Distillery, Northern Ireland
Time to cast your minds back to April 2024, when Irish whiskey brand McConnell’s opened its £12 million (US$14.9m) distillery and visitor centre in Belfast after three years of development.
The McConnell’s Irish whiskey brand was resurrected in 2020 after more than nine decades, and now, the new site, located in a Grade A-listed building, is expected to attract 100,000 visitors each year and produce 500,000 litres of pure alcohol annually.
McConnell’s Distillery and Visitor Experience currently employs 34 people.
The opening of McConnell’s marked the 50th distillery to join the Irish Whiskey Association. In 2010, there were just four working distilleries in Ireland. How times have changed – and for the better.
Port Ellen, Scotland
And finally, the distillery opening all Scotch fanatics had been waiting for for 40 years, the once silent Port Ellen roared back into action when it officially reopened its doors again in March last year.
With thanks to a hefty cash injection from parent company Diageo, the restoration of the Islay-based distillery was finally completed, and it’s quite a magnificent thing to behold.
From outside, the new distillery boasts an unobstructed line of sight through the glass still house, overlooking the Islay coastline, across the bay to the Carraig Fhada lighthouse. While inside that light-flooded still house sit two sets of copper pot stills. The first pair – The Phoenix Stills – are exact replicas of the original Port Ellen stills. They distil the smoky-style spirit the brand was known for all those years ago.
The second pair – The Experimental Stills –explore ‘levels of precision’ in distillation ‘never before seen’ in Scotch. For this, Port Ellen has a dedicated on-site laboratory and a full-time laboratory technician, whose job is to analyse and catalogue the new experimental whiskies that emerge.
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