It’s whisky galore in capital renaissance

From the 18th through the 19th centuries, Edinburgh and Leith were great centres of whisky activity. As well as numerous distilleries, Leith and its docks were awash with brokers, blenders and exporters, its streets lined with cask-filled warehouses and blending and bottling halls.

However, as the dark years from 1900 to the 1930s wore on, the industry shrank. The malt distilleries all closed, years later the abandoned warehouses were converted into offices or flats, finally leaving just the grain distilleries Caledonian, closed in the 1980s, and still-thriving North British, standing just a decent penalty kick from Murrayfield Stadium.

However, Edinburgh is seeing a distilling renaissance, both gin and whisky, the capital now boasting a swathe of new distilleries. Soon set to join the list is the £12 million Leith distillery, scheduled to open this summer and said to be the world’s first vertical distillery – it’s nine stories high – with much of the production process done by gravity.

In a nine-storey building, that will mean each part of the process (mash tun, washbacks, wash and spirit stills and spirit receiver) being a floor down from the previous process. It is an interesting concept and may be a one-off in the distilling world.

Those behind the venture – Ian Stirling and Paddy Fletcher – see it being a great visitor attraction and anticipate it attracting 160,000 visitors a year by 2025, especially thanks to its top-floor mezzanine bar and tasting room with magnificent views over the Forth and Edinburgh.

Anticipated output is a million bottles a year from the 7,000-litre wash still and 5,000-litre spirit still supplied by Elgin Copper Works.

Other new whisky distilleries in Edinburgh and Leith include Holyrood and Bonnington and, amid the current fascination for single malts, more distilleries in and around the capital will be in the pipeline.

It also highlights the growing importance to the Scottish economy of whisky tourism, which not only boosts the whisky industry but also hotels, restaurants, plus bus, coach, rail and car hire and many other sectors of the economy. It also raises Scotland’s profile in the wider world.

Therefore, one has to hope this whisky boom makes politicians – keen to impose a tourism tax and to forbid signage to distilleries – think again…

ON THE UP: The new £12m Leith vertical distillery is taking shape.