Going from strength to strength: Wester Ross Distillery Badachro celebrates ‘fantastic’ year
It’s hard not to fall in love with the landscapes and atmosphere of Wester Ross. Its remoteness, the breathtaking views on the coast or among its glens, the feeling of being somewhere back in time.
Here, in the village of Badachro, near Gairloch, a family-run distillery is making waves on the Scottish and international spirits scene,with its products being awarded a variety of accolades.
It has been a pretty fantastic year for Badachro distillery, whose brand new golden rum, Surfing Puffin, won a bronze medal at the recent Scottish Rum Awards in the International Blended Rums category - only two months after its launch.
Surfing Puffin - which follows its widely popular cousin Dancing Puffin Vodka - is made blending together three Caribbean rums and adding locally picked heather and myrtle, as well as another “mystery” ingredient, to create a rum with a wonderfully subtle sweetness.
“All of our drinks have something that is either made here from scratch, or using locally sourced botanicals and ingredients,” said Gordon Quinn who, in 2017 founded the distillery with his wife Vanessa.
“It has to have the influence of this area.”
Creating an incredibly wide range of products for a micro-distillery (five types of gin, four types of whisky, two vodkas and a rum) Badachro has also started welcoming visitors for tours for the first time this spring.
“They have been phenomenally successful! They were sold out all summer.
“We're only doing one per day, because they're delivered by Vanessa or myself. So, people come here for about an hour and a half, we tell them the story of how we opened the distillery and how it developed, then we take them into the distillery building and show them the stills and explain how we make our drinks.
“Then they come back into the tasting room - which is our house actually and taste lots of our spirits and it's just gone down so well.
“We get all sorts of people young and old, locals, UK customers and a lot of overseas customers, and they're pretty spellbound by our little tour. This has been a new venture for us, it’s been very enjoyable and pretty unique, it’s a very personal experience.”
The reviews left on Trustpilot and Google reflect the success of the tours.
“Badachro is a total gem, a must-see spot on the epic West Coast. Small, intimate, boutique but full of charm and class. Don't miss it,” said one customer.
Another reviewer wrote: “Such a personal lovely experience. Story of their journey as a business told by the owner, fascinating to hear while sat in their conservatory! So lovely!”
And another one said: “Gorgeous area already, but Gordon and Vanessa really bring the history of their business and spirits to life during the tour and tasting. We learned about everything from their beginnings to the beginnings of gin and whiskey. So fun and interesting, can't recommend enough!”
With tours winding down and the festive season approaching, Gordon and Vanessa will be gearing up to supply customers from across the country with great gifts and great components to have fun with festive cocktail-making.
“Consumers are enjoying them more and more,” Gordon said. “The cocktail culture is growing just now and both our Surfing Puffin Golden Rum and our Dancing Puffin Vodka are very good products - along with our gin, they make great cocktail bases.”
Things are looking up for Badachro, with the next step being the set up of their own single malt whisky distillery, hoping to start production next year.
“Our two objectives when we first started were to make a living and grow some local full-time, quality employment - which has always been an issue in the area.
“We have grown a lot since then: now, there are eight people working at the distillery, including myself and Vanessa.
“Over the years we've expanded the size of our shed - which is now a very big shed rather than a little shed. We are still very much a micro-distillery.
“We've had huge support from our local community over this time, in terms of their enthusiasm and businesses stocking our products, as well as locals consuming and championing them, which is really heartening.
“It’s fantastic to see where we are at, it's very exciting times.”
You can find out more about Badachro’s Surfing Puffin and all of their products at badachrodistillery.com.
