Water of life: rare whisky donated to boost restoration of River Dee

Rare whisky produced at Royal Deeside's first new distillery in 200 years has been donated to an environmental charity to help protect the iconic river that supplies the water used to create the spirit.

Dee side Distillery in Banchory,whichl aid down its first batches of spirits in 2017, has handed over the last four casks of its inaugural limitededition whiskies to the River Dee Trust to help fund one of the most ambitious nature restoration projects in the

Cairng or ms. One of the malts has been laid down in a 200-litre virgin American oak cask – the only one of its kind made by the distillery.

The other three are maturing in 250-litre ex-oloroso barrels.

The four casks are made even rarer by the fact that only 100 will ever be produced at Deeside Distillery, which is shortly moving to a bigger home not far away but cannot take its name to the new site.

Cash raised when the spirits go on sale next year will go towards important r esto ration work, including tree planting and ecological improvements, which will benefit wild salmon and other wildlife.

Well-known whisky writer Charles Ma clean has been lucky enough to sample the new malts, which he described as“superlative” and“better than gold” as an investment.

Sandy Bremner, chairman of the River Dee Trust, has expressed gratitude for the gift, the biggest single donation to the project.

He said :“This do nati on will help us continue our work to save our iconic wild salmon and restore the whole ecosystem .”