From a venerable family-run distillery operating since 1836 (Glenfarclas) to a new community-run player from 2015 with Harris Distillery, our evening was full of delightful contrasts!

Their origin story is simple – a desire to preserve the Island of Harris community facing declining population and limited career prospects. Hence the idea of distillery:

In 2015, the distillery started life with just 10 people and an ambition to double in number over the next five years. Today, we’re proud to say we employ over 50 permanent staff, a highly significant number in an island of fewer than 2000 inhabitants.

As a catalyst for positive change within our community, we continue to work with purpose, bringing new life to our island and supporting its aspirations to survive and thrive as we move forward together.

And now, less than 10 years from founding, a bottle found its way to Nurnberg for an evening of exploration…

The Hearach 4 years (January 2024) HE 00009 24 46% 12,385 Bottles ~Eur 80

• Nose – Barnyard, farm-like in a good way – think farm fresh fragrances, winds over wheat fields, sweet grass, barley, and then awash with a maritime breeze, burnt cake, and wood smoke
• Palate – Super sweet and a bit vegetal, think green veggies, it had a youthful fresh exuberance, peppers, perhaps even a bit herbaceous, a hint of mineral, tobacco leaf, a bit rustic, salty, shifting into campfire embers
• Finish – Salty cinnamon candy
• Water – Oh my goodness! Makes it even sweeter! Like candy sweet, transformed from peat to super duper sweet!

The bottle was quite beautiful, however, what matters more than the packaging is the liquid. We were overall optimistic, it may not be the style for everyone but worth seeing how the team at The Hearach take things from here!

After our session, I did a wee check to see what the folks at Hearach have to say about this particular batch 9. Conveniently with the label details, one can find tasting notes by Gemma McNally Tarbert, Isle of Harris:

“I get a light, fresh sort of woodsmoke on the nose straight away, it reminds me of campfires at Scarista beach on those long summer nights we get in Harris. I get cereal notes, and spiciness on the palate, a sort of pepperiness like rocket leaves. There’s not much smoke when I sip it, but there’s a nice clean greenness instead. A little water makes it very sweet, like the sticky toffee pudding I bake myself at home with dates. It’s smooth and there’s so many lovely flavours unfolding.”

Whilst I didn’t find sticky toffee pudding, the cereal, pepperiness like rocket leaves – now that she mentions it – rings true!

What more do we know? Well, it is ex-Bourbon, Olorosso and Fino with 12,9 PPM. Also for this specific batch, Mike Donald, Chief Story Teller had this to say:

“A new year is underway and the first bottles of our whisky in 2024 have begun to be filled. We are deep into a Harris winter and fat snowflakes have been falling thick and fast across our island, transforming the landscape into beautiful patchwork of dark gneiss and bright ice. Many of us live at the end of long and winding narrow roads so it’s a slow start to proceedings as staff struggle to reach the distillery in the bad weather. But, we bottle batch number 9 with all the hands we can muster and the new white neck seals applied to every stopper fittingly match the snow which continues to float from our Harris skies”

And there you have it – our introduction to yet another new player in the whisky market. With it becoming so crowded and the winds of tightening wallets around the world, one wonders how The Hearach will fare longer term. Already on to their 16th batch, with this core expression joined by a pricier 100% Oloroso expression, time will tell!

What else did I try that September evening in Nurnberg?

• Knockando 18 year (1996) Sherry 43%
• Glenfarclas (2004/2017) Sherry Casks 59.4%
• Bowmore 18 year Oloroso Cask 43%

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