Enterprising spirit shines through for Wester Ross 'one-woman band' nurturing dram dream; Little Rhidorroch distillery hopes to be toasting big things in years to come
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Katie Scobie is hoping to bring some New World know-how back to the home of whisky.
Creating a distillery on the family estate at Rhidorroch, just north of Ullapool, was a long-held dream of Katie and her late father Ewen.
Now Katie is taking the first steps towards making that dream come true after converting a former pony trekking shed in the glen into a mini-distillery.
However, Katie’s Loch Achall Gin – named after the estate loch whose waters, are a vital ingredient once all impurities have been removed by UV filter – is just the start of what she hopes will be a line of Wester Ross spirits.
After university, Katie went travelling, and those travels took her to distilleries across the globe.
“I wanted to work somewhere that wasn’t Scotland, just because I wanted to see how it is done elsewhere,” she said.
“I never just wanted to stick to tradition. Obviously there are points that are still important, like working from the land and being in Scotland and the water, but in Australia I was selling whisky that was two years old because you can sell whisky at two years old there, and it was amazing. I blind tested a Scotsman and he was asking: ‘Is this an 18-year old Scotch?’ And I was going: ‘No! It’s a two-year-old Australian whisky!’
“I loved the fact you can make these spirits in so many different ways, which I wouldn’t have known about.”
As well as exploring the developing whisky industry in Australia and Tasmania – which recently beat Scotland to be named home of the world’s best single malt – Katie’s travels also saw her working in a rum distillery in Grand Cayman. Closer to home, she also worked at Strathearn gin distillery near Perth.
She is now incorporating those lessons into her own distilling, including the Australian approach to ageing whisky.
“In my eyes, the way you mature whisky doesn’t have to be a certain amount of years. There are different ways to do that,” she said.
“In Australia it is also a much younger crowd that is into whisky, so it is opening up to a wider market, including women. When I went to Australia eight years ago, girls didn’t drink much whisky. It was very much male dominated and it was the same in the industry itself. Australia was more open in that way, both in terms of drinking and working in the industry.
“With rum, I pretty much learnt everything. It was amazing to see how it is made and all the different flavours they use.”
Katie does all the distilling and production herself – which she believes may be unique for a female distiller – and collects the botanicals from the estate, which is now owned by her sister Kim. However, her civil engineer partner, Lawrie Quibell, was a big help in turning the disused shed into a distillery.
"I was selling whisky that was two years old because you can sell whisky at two years old there, and it was amazing. I blind tested a Scotsman and he was asking: ‘Is this an 18-year old Scotch?’ And I was going: ‘No! It’s a two-year-old Australian whisky!’"
Her other sister Kirstie owns the Seafood Shack in Ullapool, where Katie has plans for a cocktail pop-up hut.
“It’s going to be like a mini version of the trekking shed, so very basic, and selling gin cocktails, selling bottles and just talking to people about the brand,” she said.
“The overall plan is to have somewhere next year or the year after in the village, a bar with a food aspect, but with a distillery in it so you can see the stills working.”
Since its launch in November, a number of Highland retailers have begun stocking Loch Achall, including shops in Dornoch, Alness and Beauly, but Katie’s aim is to start selling further afield.
“At the moment I’m stocking up for summer, because I think it will be really manic here with everyone staying in Scotland. Then slowly the plan is to get in throughout the UK and see how it goes,” she said.
“It depends on how well it sells in summer and in shops. I do all the distilling and bottling, so it is dependent on how much we can produce for the demand.”
By 2023 she hopes to move to a bigger location on the shorefront in Ullapool, which will allow her to distil whisky and rum as well.
That might require more staff, but at the moment Katie takes pride in being a one-woman band.
“It’s awesome that so many women are getting into this business, but I feel I must be one of the only ones on their own,” she said.
Whisky stories from Ross-shire
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