The team behind the UK's London-based whisky producer Bimber Distillery has begun distillation at Dunphail Distillery in Scotland.
The Speyside-based distillery has capacity to produce 200,000 LPA annually and is set to make around 100,000 in its first operational year.
Dunphail Distillery was created by Bimber Distillery founder Darius Plazewski. The building was completed in the first quarter of 2023.
The Morayshire distillery employs five people and also has a visitor centre and shop which opened earlier this year.
The building was converted from an existing farm steading and has its own malting floor, ‘traditional’ kiln and direct-fire stills. Dunphail Distillery claims its malthouse has the first distillery-based malting floor newly constructed in Speyside since 1898.
Dunphail Distillery will produce both peated and unpeated single-malt whiskies. All maturation will be done on site.
Founder and master distiller Dariusz Plazewski said: “It has long been my calling to produce whisky that has been shaped by the richness of distilling heritage.
“Constructing the distillery over the last 18 months has been both a lifelong dream and one of the biggest challenges of my career. But that time and effort has been well worth it – our first batch of new make spirit is simply astonishing and unlike anything I’ve tasted to date. It is incredibly fat and fruity and already packed full of the personality derived from our traditional production processes.”
Last year, the team launched independent Scotch bottler The Dava Way to bridge the gap until the distillery’s namesake single-malt whisky is ready to bottle. Scotch whisky must be matured for a minimum of three years.
The Dava Way has released eight bottlings available direct to consumer on the company’s website and at its onsite shop.
At the time of The Dava Way’s launch, Matt McKay, director of whisky creation and outreach, said: “Whilst the whisky world is far from short of new independent bottlers, a number are either bottling cask-to-cask using third parties or are in our view placing profit over and above profile and personality.
“The Dava Way will take a different approach. We will be utilising the warehousing and production facilities at Dunphail to actively guide and shape the maturation and character of our whiskies and will likewise be pricing our releases for drinking, not as collectibles.”
Bimber Distillery is based in West London and released its first single malt whisky in September 2019. As well as limited batches of single-malt whisky it also produces an oolong-tea gin and kumquat gin.
