Kythe in Perthshire looks for the whisky of the future in old-time methods

This is a distillery I plan to follow. Kythe in Perthshire, Scotland, has started production, and the idea is to recreate qualities the founders love in older Highland whisky.

The first spirit ran from the stills on 2 July 2026, after construction began in 2024. The distillery sits on Hills of Bendochy Farm near Blairgowrie, in two converted farm buildings. Behind the project are Angus MacRaild, Jonny McMillan and Aaron Chan, and their shared interest in older whisky has shaped the whole site.

A few details that made me sit up:
- Planned output of around 60,000 litres of pure alcohol a year, with a one-tonne mash tun and stills of 6,000 and 4,000 litres.
- Floor-malted Maris Otter, mostly grown on the farm.
- Recycled brewer's yeast from Belhaven together with an M-strain distiller's yeast with roots in the 1950s. Fermentation takes place in wooden washbacks and normally lasts three to seven days, with room for trials of up to two weeks.
- A directly wood-fired wash still, while the spirit still is steam-heated. Both are connected to traditional worm tubs.

The casks will be bourbon and sherry, in the long run with an emphasis on refill casks that let the spirit speak. But the 2025 cask programme already included first fill bourbon, refill hogsheads, hogsheads that held oloroso and then cream sherry, and old sherry butts from solera ageing. The first official bottling is about eight years away, and maturation happens at the distillery.

There's no finished whisky to taste yet, only the choices of raw material, yeast, equipment and casks to examine. That's exactly what makes it exciting: how much of the old Highland character they're after will still be there when the first glass is poured?

Source: Allt om Whisky