Dingwall dram toasted as community owned distillery opens doors
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And now GlenWyvis managing director and founder, John Mckenzie, is keen to develop plans to put the town on the map and establish it as destination on the North Coast 500 route.
Mr Mckenzie sees the venture making a major impact: “From the outset we have envisaged the project as much more than a distillery,” he said.
“We recognised this was an opportunity for all social investors to help reinvigorate the town of Dingwall and build on our whisky heritage through community-ownership.
“We are exploring options for distillery tours and a proposed GlenWyvis visitor experience that will help to benefit the community and develop Dingwall in to a leading craft distillery town in Scotland, and a quality destination on the North Coast 500 tourist route.”
More than 60 per cent of members come from the Highlands with barley sourced from the local farmers co-op, Highland Grain.
Some £3 million has been pumped in to the venture.
Master distiller Duncan Tait, who will oversee final commissioning and the first run of new make spirit, described the GlenWyvis venture as “truly inspirational”.
He said: “To join a brand-new distillery and shape the flavour profiles of a new single malt from the start is a dream come true. After today, we get down to the hard work of distilling a whisky that will put GlenWyvis and Dingwall on the international spirit map.”
