Isle of Harris

Anderson Bakewell, an Anglo-American musicologist who, the company says, has been coming to Harris for nearly sixty years, was troubled by the island's falling population. He incorporated Isle of Harris Distillers in 2007 to build the island's first commercial distillery as a social as well as a commercial venture. Simon Erlanger, formerly of Glenmorangie, joined as managing director designate in 2011.

ScotchWhisky.com reports a GBP 1.9 million grant in 2012 from the Scottish Government's food processing scheme, followed by further public grants and private investment from many countries. The distillery opened officially in September 2015 and launched Harris Gin a few weeks later, while the whisky matured. The company says its Hearach whiskies are the first single malts from Harris and revive a tradition lost in the Pabbay clearances of the 1840s. Companies House shows no corporate parent.

Tarbert is the main village of Harris and its ferry link to Skye; the distillery stands by the harbour, on the main north-south road. Harris lies in the Highland region. Water comes from the Abhainn Cnoc a' Charrain, which flows over Lewisian gneiss, rock dated to between 2.4 and 2.6 billion years old; the company believes the water is the softest used by any Scottish distillery. Casks mature at Tarbert and in a second warehouse near Ardhasaig on the west coast. ScotchWhisky.com says the draff feeds the island's cattle free of charge, and that staff rose from 10 at opening to more than 20.

ScotchWhisky.com gives a capacity of 230,000 litres of alcohol a year. Malt from Bairds of Inverness, peated to 12-14 ppm for the core whisky, is mashed 1.2 tonnes at a time in a semi-lauter mash tun, leaving a partly cloudy wort. Five Oregon pine washbacks hold fermentations of 72 to 120 hours. There are two onion-shaped stills, a wash still of 7,000 litres and a spirit still of 5,000 litres. The company says there is little automation: its distillers, with an average age of 25, judge the cut points by nose and sight and adjust the steam valves by hand.

ScotchWhisky.com describes the intended style as a complex island malt, lightly peated, with extra layers from the cloudy wort and long fermentations, matured mainly in ex-bourbon casks with some oloroso butts. The company says it chose its casks on visits to Kentucky and Spain and calls its whiskies "slow whiskies". The Hearach range now includes oloroso-matured, higher-strength and older bottlings.