Undiscovered Scotland

 

Jackton Distillery stands on the western side of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, about eight miles south of the centre of Glasgow. The distillery is a remarkable place and one it’s well worth travelling to see. What you find is an exciting venture: a young, female-led family distillery that aims to shake up the whisky world. We suspect it will succeed in that aim.

There was a time, not long ago, when the small village of Jackton stood clear of the edge of its much larger neighbour, but by the time of our visit it had been pretty much engulfed by the western expansion of East Kilbride. The transformation of Jackton Distillery from a farm into a superb high-tech distillery and visitor attraction has been no less dramatic.

The surprises begin when you turn off the minor lane it’s located on. It becomes immediately obvious that someone has thought about what they really wanted from a distillery: and then gone out and built it. From the welcoming gateway to the superb reception, shop and tasting area, everything exudes a sense of quality. (Continues below images...)

 

The distillery’s origins as a farm are important to understanding what is being achieved here. The idea from the outset was to take the products of the farm and turn them into alcoholic drinks. The barley grown on the farm is malted on site, meaning that every part of the process right through to bottling takes place here. As production has expanded, barley grown on an associated farm near Prestwick has also been used.

Meanwhile, the draff from the brewing process goes to feed the farm’s beef cattle which in turn might one day be served up to visitors. You get the sense of a team that is fizzing with ideas. The distillery promotes itself as a wedding venue and has a garden that is ideal for photographs; and there are twelve letting cottages on site that can accommodate up to 28 guests.

But it’s only when you enter the main production hall that you really begin to understand what’s been achieved so far at Jackton Distillery and its remarkable potential. You can find out more about Making Malt Whisky from our series of feature pages showing the stages in the process.

What you find is a symphony of copper and stainless steel. In one area there is a fascinating group of modern stills. Production of spirit for Scotch whisky takes place in the gleaming spirit and wash stills that will be recognised by anyone who’s ever visited a whisky distillery. But there are less familiar products of the still-maker’s art here too. The Kothe still produces spirit intended for other types of drink. When the time came to work out how to expand production, instead of extending this through the roof, they added a Haygo system whose central still looks like something out of a 1950s science fiction film.

Elsewhere in the production area are the mash tuns and fermentation vessels, all in stainless steel. There’s also a small bottling plant. What’s been built here is not a traditional Scotch whisky distillery: or a traditional anything else. What’s been built here is a distillery intended to respond nimbly and flexibly to the cycles of market demand by producing a range of products including gins and vodkas and even beer.

And, of course, Scotch whisky. The first new spirit was produced at Jackton Distillery in February 2020 and set aside in the bonded warehouses here to slowly become Scotch whisky. At the time of our visit, we got the sense that the first release of single malt Scotch whisky was imminent. Looking around the warehouse and the samples in the laboratory it’s clear that the distillery will in due course be releasing a range of single malts finished in a wide variety of casks.

At the time of our visit, the available whisky was a blend which it is intended to continue to produce once the single malts become ready. What is striking was the way their blended whisky is also available in three different finishes, having been stored in casks for up to two years after blending. This is another indication of a strategy that is seeking to appeal to the widest possible range of markets, for different spirits and for different styles and types of Scotch whisky.

We very much enjoyed our visit to Jackton Distillery and we suspect others will too: whether they’ve visited dozens of distilleries before or none at all.