Isle of Harris Distillers Ltd. The Hearach 2017 Cask #851

The Hearach is the first single malt ever made on the Isle of Harris, distilled at the Outer Hebrides distillery that opened in Tarbert in 2015 to revive island life as much as island whisky. This 2017 single cask, one of the earliest, was bottled at seven years old for Italy, an outturn of 237 bottles.

The distillery, known as the Social Distillery for the jobs it brought to an island of fewer than 2,000 people, draws its water from a stream running over ancient Lewisian gneiss and lightly peats its malt to around 12 to 15 ppm. Matured in a single ex-Bourbon cask, the American oak keeps the young spirit bright.

Bottled at its natural cask strength of 59.1%. The ex-Bourbon wood gives vanillin for vanilla and oak lactones for coconut, the gentle island smoke threading through. The recorded notes run to citrus and fresh fruit, with a coastal, mineral edge. Young, vivid, and historic.