Distillers moving forward with vision to create unique island whisky from historic base on Benbecula

Abigail Taylor

North Uist Distillery is looking to the future with big plans in development, twelve months after the acquisition of iconic Nunton Steadings.

“We were very excited to get Nunton Steadings because of the character and history, which is the type of thing you just cannot build. It really ties in with our plans to make whisky which is the heritage of these islands. People have been so supportive of us taking on the building.

Some who have worked here before have been in and are excited to see it having its next lease of life and that it is going to be looked after in the future. It’s nice to have a contemporary brand surrounded by all of the character of Nunton Steadings,” said Kate MacDonald, Creative Director, speaking with Am Pàipear.

Following a delay due to the pandemic, work got started on the building in the autumn of 2020. Each section of the u-shaped structure has been allocated a different role in the whisky-making process. One side will be the area for production, the opposite will be maturation and the middle section is the space for visitors to the historic premises on Benbecula.

In the next stages for the building the team plans to open a tasting room and complete the production room that will be used to produce whisky using local barley.

“We are working on planning permission in order to move all production here together when the changes are complete. So eventually we will be able to move the gin production here when the building is ready to begin the whisky production,” continued Kate.

During the last few summer months of 2020, the islands saw an increase in visitors after lockdown over COVID-19. North Uist Distillery hosted pop-up shops in Nunton Steadings, which led to the idea of having a permanent base there for this season.

“Up until now, from launching two and a half years ago, we haven’t had a shop base that people were able to come and visit. We have industrial units on North Uist but they are a bit too small to have people coming in and out, so it has been really nice to be able to open up and meet people in our own shop.”

Having a physical shop has proven to be a success among locals and visitors said Kate.

“We have had a really positive response and people have been so friendly and happy to call. Locally people seem to like having the shop to come into because before it was a case of ordering online but now they can come in, have a chat and see what we have on offer. Having regular opening times in a permanent shop is great for the passing custom too, visitors driving past who have never even heard of Downpour Gin are able to come in and see what we are about.”

Online sales soared throughout lockdown due to the popularity of ‘make your own cocktails’ and recreating a ‘dining out experience’ at home, continued Kate.

“We bought this place and the plan was to promote our product and brand across the mainland. We had signed up to gin festivals and the diary was booked to sell to bars and hotels and get our name out there. When lockdown happened, everything was cancelled and the calendar got cleared. Thankfully though, what we weren’t expecting, was that the online sales shot up.”

Inspiration for the new tasting room came from a few online sessions hosted at the beginning of this year where packs containing miniature gin bottles were sent to people with selected tonics. However now the plan is to have set days and times for tasting sessions in the distillery.

Come next year the team hopes to be using the courtyard for pop-up style events such as cocktail days and cafe style lunches.

Soon a crowdfunder is to be launched which will offer a return in shares for the business to create a community owned business and an advance cask sale offering so that people can “club together with friends” to buy one of the first casks produced at Nunton Steadings.

Kate continued: “Once the investment is there, we will be purchasing the whisky equipment, which takes around a year to install and by the end of 2022 and into 2023 we will be producing our first spirit from those whisky stills. We will use the cobblestoned section of the building to store our casks.”

Legally the spirit coming from the still must be in a cask for three years and one day before it can be sold as whisky.

“As we are using Bere barley, a unique and tasty grain, one that crofters across these islands are harvesting, that is the flavour we want to come out of the whisky. We don’t want to age it for too long as the flavours of the wood would overpower the grain. So the product will be quite a young whisky but as it ages we will be tasting to ensure the flavour of the heritage grain remains.”

North Uist Distillery shop at Nunton Steadings is open from Monday to Saturday (10am to 4pm).