Arbikie

The Stirling family has farmed since before 1660, first on Scotland's west coast; a great-uncle moved to Lunan Bay in Angus in the 1920s, and the land passed down through the brothers' grandfather and father. The brothers David, Iain and John Stirling grew up working on the farm but followed other careers. According to ScotchWhisky.com, the idea of a distillery came up on a night out in New York; they founded Arbikie Highland Estate in November 2013, and Companies House shows Arbikie Distilling Limited incorporated that month. They spent 18 months building the distillery in an old cattle shed, using the farm's own blacksmiths and mechanics to assemble stills made by CARL in Germany. It began operating in 2014 and has since released its first 10 year old single malt.

Arbikie lies near Inverkeilor between Arbroath and Montrose, overlooking Lunan Bay on the Angus coast; the company calls its whisky Highland (Highland region). The distillery stands a short distance from the fields that grow its grain. The company says it uses its own crops and its own water, grows juniper (about 1,000 plants a year since 2014) and keeps bees for honey. Distilling waste goes back to the farm as cattle feed or fertiliser.

Arbikie calls itself a field-to-bottle distillery: it makes its own base spirit from its own crops, which gives it control over the grain. Its copper stills came from CARL in Germany. Besides whisky it makes gin and vodka, including Nàdar, made from peas because the crop needs no nitrogen fertiliser, a choice the company attributes to research by its master distiller Kirsty Black. It reports that it is installing a green hydrogen electrolyser to raise steam. Whisky matures in warehouses on the estate. Fermentation times, still sizes and cask policy were not found in the sources opened.

Arbikie is best known for rye. The company says it made the first Highland rye Scotch whisky in over 200 years, a claim this entry has not checked, and sells a Highland Rye Single Grain and an expression called 1794. Its first 10 year old single malt is a recent release. The opened sources give no tasting description of the single malt.