Kingsbarns

According to ScotchWhisky.com, the project began with Douglas Clement, a former golf caddie, who set up The Kingsbarns Company of Distillers in 2009 to build a distillery near Kingsbarns Golf Links; Companies House confirms the company's incorporation on 5 May 2009. He raised an initial £100,000 from 32 private investors and £670,000 from a government grant, but a crowdfunding campaign left him short of the £1.6 million needed.

In 2013 he sold the business to Wemyss Distillery Ltd, owned by the Wemyss family, who had founded the independent bottler Wemyss Malts. Building began about six months later, and the distillery and visitor centre opened in December 2014. The first expression was named Dream to Dram; in 2023 a longer-matured bottling called Doocot became the flagship.

The distillery stands on the edge of the village of Kingsbarns in the East Neuk of Fife, near St Andrews and next to the Kingsbarns Golf Links, in the Lowland region. The company explains the village name as coming from the barns where grain was kept before going to Falkland Palace. Barley comes from local farms in Fife, and the surrounding fields are still farmed. Water is drawn from the distillery's own aquifer, which the company says is filtered through 300-million-year-old sandstone, and is returned to the land through reed beds.

The distillery makes about 300,000 litres of new make a year, which it puts at about 48 barrels a week. Two yeast strains, one British and one French, ferment the wort for three to five days. The company says the height of the copper pot stills and the angle of the lyne arm were chosen for a lighter, fruitier spirit, and that it takes a very high cut point. Casks come from America, Portugal, France and Spain; Doocot is matured in 90% ex-bourbon American oak barrels and 10% STR (shaved, toasted and re-charred) American oak barrels. Spent grain feeds local cattle, and the site runs on renewable electricity. Still sizes are not given in the sources opened.

The company describes its aim as a light, floral single malt in the Lowland style. It says the new make balances orchard fruit with light floral, citrus and tropical notes, and that maturation adds vanilla, gentle spice and sweetness. It reports that the World Whisky Awards named Dream to Dram the World's Best Lowlands Single Malt in 2020.