Isle Of Harris The Hearach - Inaugural Single Malt 2023 - Batch 1 - The 1916

Isle of Harris Distillers Ltd was originally founded in 2007 by Anderson Bakewell, an American musicologist with ties to the Hebrides. Bakewell was joined in 2012 by Simon Erlanger, who came to the company after having worked in marketing for Glenmorangie, and the pair soon won a large grant and secured further public and private funding to develop their vision for a community island distillery.

Construction of Isle of Harris distillery began in the island’s capital Tarbert in 2014 and distillation of both gin and whisky commenced the following year. True to Bakewell’s community-focused ideas, the distillery now employs around two dozen local workers and has become a hub for Harris island, hosting local events and donating their draff to feed local livestock. Isle of Harris’s inaugural single malt whisky The Hearach was launched in late 2023 to critical acclaim.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.