Wester Ross-based distillery Badachro hopes to start own-whisky production by end of 2025 as owners share “exciting culmination” for craft spirit business
Sponsored Editorial
As 2025 comes to a close, a popular Wester Ross distillery is on its way to celebrate a major milestone – by making its own whisky for the first time and bringing whisky production to the area.
Badachro Distillery was founded by husband and wife Vanessa and Gordon Quinn in 2017, after they had already started experimenting with botanical spirits. Since then, they have launched a variety of award-winning white spirits, among which are their Badachro Gin, Dancing Puffin Vodka, as well as the golden rum Surfing Puffin.
Their passion for whisky eventually led to the creation of Bad na h-Achlaise, a range of independent bottlings of Highland single malt whisky, which they finish in a range of experimental casks, which is how Vanessa and Gordon began their journey into the world of casks and flavours.
Now, the family-run independent distillery is gearing up for the inaugural run of new make spirit (the precursor of whisky) in the village, which will make them the only operating whisky distillery on the north-west coast north of Ardnamurchan.
Planning permission was given earlier this year, and now the family is waiting for the stills – hand-hammered by Portuguese makers Hoga – to reach their final destination.
All going well, whisky is expected to be flowing in Badachro for the first time by the end of this year.
“It's a really exciting culmination of the development of our business,” said Gordon.
“We're going to be making whisky on a very small, craft scale. Most of the big distilleries produce millions of litres of spirit every year, but we'll be producing about 12,000 litres of spirit per year; our target is to fill approximately 60 casks annually.
“We will also be bringing in malted barley, grown on the Black Isle. That fits in with our whole provenance ethos at the distillery, the way we make our gin, our rum and vodka.”
The stills are not the only artisanal part of the production that will fit in the new distillery – the plan is also to stir the mash by hand, in contrast with the vast majority of distilleries, which use mechanical agitators for the process.
A long fermentation will also be used to add complexity to the spirit, as well as experimenting with different yeasts and with the cut points.
“Our objective is not to get as much as possible, but to get as interesting flavours as possible,” said Gordon.
“The plan is to produce a very high quality, complex and flavoursome new make spirit (the distilled spirit before it’s put in casks for maturation). Then we’ll wait – not just three years, but we expect to wait for at least 5 or six years before we release our whisky.
Cask-wise, the plan is to start with standard 200-litre barrels and a few smaller casks, with a focus on ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks.
Gordon added that the hope is to keep one cask for community ownership, as well as other potential ways to benefit the community.
Once the distillery is up and running, they will also look into offering an apprenticeship scheme for young people in the area.
The future will also see the team at Badachro launching a new strategy for their export market, which will see them focus on Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Canada.
“We realised that we were stretching ourselves too far – we had a good response from markets in Southeast Asia like Taiwan, Thailand and China, but we are too small to spread ourselves so wide. Vanessa is from Munich so we are focusing on German-speaking countries as well as Canada, where in many of the provinces, alcohol sales are controlled by a state/province monopoly, and slowly but surely sales have been growing.
“We're hoping that because we’ll soon have our own Badachro distilled whisky in production, more enthusiasts, trade customers and importers will be excited about sharing our unique whisky with their trade customers and consumers in other markets too.
To get into the festive spirit, Badachro’s products will be available to purchase online, with a Christmas special offer set to run in December, as well as at local fairs and markets and which make for great gifts for all tastes.
But the treat could be, as completion of the distillery approaches, getting a special gift with a cask of Badachro whisky.
“We will only have about 15 casks per year to sell of our own whisky, said Gordon, for folks to gift to family, buy as an investment or just own, as a unique part of Highland whisky history.
“So if people are interested, they should get in touch with us and we'll put them on our list of people to give information to when it's ready.”
You can find out more about Badachro and news on the coming cask investment opportunities at badachrodistillery.com.