An entire whisky distillery amounting to a whopping 35 tonnes including stills, flooring, control valves and pipework is leaving Buckie in Moray bound for the port of Tianjin in China today where it will eventually be assembled at a site in Inner Mongolia (an autonomous region of China) and become its first whisky distillery.
It’s due to open at the end of the year.
It’s part of a £3m design and build deal signed between Forfar firm Valentine International and China’s Mengtai Group in 2019. One of Inner Mongolia’s largest private firms, it’s Mengtai’s first venture into the world of whisky, its core businesses being coal production and electricity generation.
All of the equipment was built by Rothes-based firm Forsyths, which is also sending a team of five engieers to supervise assembly.
In a separate development, Valentine International has signed a strategic agreement with Mengtai to supply bulk whiskies for China.
