InchDairnie Distillery in Fife, has released its first whisky using sophisticated technology to extract flavour from Scottish-grown rye and barley, to create the new luxury whisky, called RyeLaw.
This whisky is characterised by its distinctive spicy rye flavor, which is made of 53% malted rye and 47% malted barley, ground extra finely for optimal flavour. The cereals are mashed using one of only two Meura mash filters in Scotland, and the fermentation process utilises a rye-specific yeast, which yields less but delivers a higher flavour intensity.
The spirit is double distilled in pot stills, using a rare double condenser in the first round and a custom Lomond Hill still, co-designed by Ian Palmer and Frilli, in the second, making it the only precision-distilled rye Scotch whisky crafted in this manner. Lastly, the whisky is matured in charred new oak casks, sourced from traceable trees in the Ozark Mountains, USA.
Its first distillation was on Christmas Day in 2015, and InchDairnie Distillery has been building its stocks of whisky, producing different styles, driven by the seasons.
Commenting on the release of Ryelaw, industry veteran of 45+ years and InchDairnie Distillery Managing Director Ian Palmer, said, “We’ve been preparing for this day for well over a decade, and it is only now that we feel the quality of RyeLaw meets our exacting standards that we are putting it into bottles. And what a whisky it is… While we are rooted in Scotch whisky tradition, we have explored what is possible when agriculture meets industry and innovative technologies combine with methodology, to create a superb rye whisky that is sure to excite palates.”
“The rye spiciness with vanilla, sweet biscuit cereal and dried fruit notes seem much more defined than rye whiskeys from America we’ve compared it to. There’s a richer, more luxurious mouthfeel and great balance, which are certainly helped by the favourable maturation conditions we have in Fife compared to Kentucky. The use of malted rye in the mash means we have a softer, more sippable style of rye whisky. We look forward to hearing if our American cousins agree”, added Scott Sneddon, Distillery Manager.
With distillation of this inaugural RyeLaw release taking place in just a single week in the whole year, only 200 casks of the ‘year one vintage’ have been bottled and made available worldwide. Subsequent vintages are already maturing in different types of cask to those from year one’s Ozark Mountains. In a field of its own, RyeLaw is free from colourings and is non-chill filtered.
The elegantly designed bottles of this 2017 vintage are available from today, RRP £110 (70cl/46.3% ABV), at select retailers including Royal Mile Whiskies, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Fortnum & Mason.
