The Evolution of Craft Distilleries: From Ardnamurchan to the New Wave

How did the craft distillery boom begin, and where are we now?

Bari & Gareth walk through the journey of Organic Architects involvement with whisky distilleries, from early pioneers like Ardnamurchan to the new wave of distilleries emerging today. What have they learned? How has the landscape shifted? They discuss how the new generation of distillers is leveraging lessons from the past, crafting nuanced business plans, and building their brand from day one.

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  Gareth Roberts: So how did we get to where we are then?

  Bari Reid: So the first one was Ardnamurchan. That must be more than 10 years ago now, because they're producing their 10-year-old malt.

  GR: Really important.

  BR: Then we're on to Lindores (Abbey Distillery) and Nc’nean around the same time. Then right up to Benbecula, which has just started production. Some others that are on site, Stannergill or Castletown Mill up at Thurso. I think we've worked something like 70-odd over that timescale.

  GR: It's a mad number, isn't it? There's still a lot to go.

  BR: There's still lots on the drawing board, still new inquiries coming in.

  GR: And what's the difference between the new inquiries and the people that we started working with, do you think? What sets them apart.

  BR: I think now people have learned the lesson. of new craft distillers so like Ardnamurchan and Kilchoman I think was around the same time those guys have kind of blazed the trail, people have seen things that have worked, things that haven't maybe worked so well, so you've got clients that have got research to do, before Ardnamurchan, you know you're back to 60s, 70s for the previous kind of wave of distilleries so the lessons from thos have kind of been lost or maybe don't apply to the current markets.

  GR: What do you mean, the lessons of traditional distilleries.

  BR: Well yeah, like just obviously the market's much different now, like the kind of landscape you've got like big Asian markets and Indian markets and American market, I think like before the understanding of those wasn't necessarily, there, so the new distillers can look at all of these things that have been done and come up with it off the shelf, a much more nuanced business plan of how they want to approach things like how much money they want to spend on day one, like do they want to have visitors in on day one or do they want to wait until they're at the point of selling whisky to, maximise what they're getting back from those visitors I think the marketing side is much more nuanced now as well so you've got people building their brand from day one of here's what we're thinking of building a distillery in this location and you start there so that by the time you're selling whisky people know who you are, know who the characters in the business are and where it is.

  GR: Well a lot of that's PR and social media isn't it, I mean that's something that we always advise people, before you go public, before your planning application gets lodged, get a holding page, start to work on the identity, brand the building.

  BR: Yeah, and I think some clients have got different attitudes to that as well, because we've seen some who kind of embrace that, and they do do that, so then by the time they're at year three or year five and they're selling, they've got some kind of brand loyalty maybe, but then you've got others that are much more, we don't want to tell anyone what we're doing until we've got the whisky. I think that feels a bit more risky if you come in blank with, I've got all this whisky to sell now, who do I sell it to.

  GR: Yeah, yeah, because at the end of the day, you're another bottle on a crowded bar. People have to know who you are.

  BR: I think some have been amazing. You look like Lindores is quite distinctive on the shelf. Nc’nean’s done a really good job with their marketing, and Ardnamurchan, I genuinely love Ardnamurchan whisky. You know, they're kind of well established, I think, in the market. And I see that you've got new ones coming in behind them who can learn those lessons and see how they've got to that point, how they've established themselves.