The new whisky will draw on the Irish tradition of Pot Still whiskey-making and follow the Irish definition by using 60% distillers’ malt with 35% unmalted barley and 5% malted rye in the mash bill.
As far as the company is aware, it’s the first time this century that a distiller in Scotland has announced the production of a Pot Still whisky.
“While this style of whisky was once commonly produced in Scotland centuries ago, it has fallen out of favour in recent times, which is a real shame as there are some fascinating flavour characteristics to come from working with malted and unmalted grains of various types,” said InchDairnie distillery founder, Ian Palmer.
“We’ve bridged the traditions between Scotch and Irish whisky to create a truly innovative whisky that I’m sure will delight drinkers in the years to come.”
While Irish Pot Still whiskey is typically triple distilled, the InchDairnie liquid has been distilled just twice before being laid down in first-fill Bourbon barrels for maturation.
“Our three ‘Ms’ philosophy – materials, method and maturation – is deeply rooted in this latest experimentation,” said distillery manager, Scott Sneddon.
“We’ve kept to a double distillation as is tradition in Scotland, and we can’t use enzymes to improve sugar conversion, unlike in Ireland. While we need to wait for the results of years of maturation in our ex-Bourbon casks, we anticipate a more complex, spicy oily whisky than what you’d expect in an Irish Pot Still Whiskey.”
The distillery’s experimental PrinLaws Collection has seen the distillations of a wheated whisky in 2022 and a sour mash bill in 2021. As with the others, no release date has been set and the final products will only be released when they’re ready.
