New builds and buses
Are we coming in to another golden period for whisky – Dave gives his views on the latest news
I used to stand, cold and shivering, in Hope Street (never was a thoroughfare so appropriately named) waiting for the No.3 bus to carry me home. Often this would be so prolonged that I’d seek refuge in Eadie Cairn’s pub next to the stop. Positioning myself by the window with an Auchentoshan (Eadie owned Auchie at that time) I could snaffle a quick dram before the bus arrived. Quite often it never did. On other occasions it changed shape. Once, waiting for one in the dark, my friend Les swore he could see it at the next set of traffic lights. It was only after 20 minutes of the bus failing to move that we realised what he had taken for the lights of the upper deck were in fact the lights of a bank.
The sighting of any No.3 therefore soon became the cause of considerable celebration. It used to be the same with new distilleries. Auchroisk, Arran, Penderyn, Kilchoman, Daftmill, like the bus they came around infrequently. Not any more. The number of new builds going on is the equivalent of Hope Street being filled nose to tail with No.3s. These days you cannot open your email box without news of another new plant.
These are real distilleries, not some pie in the sky start-up operations. Diageo’s £100m investment in Scotch includes an increase in capacity in Cameronbridge as well as a new super distillery next to the firm’s maltings at Roseisle. This behemoth will have 14 stills and be able to produce 10m litres a year... that’s twice as big as Dufftown, currently Dia.....
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By Dave Broom
Section : A dram with Dave Broom
Page number : 12
