Arbikie Highland Estate is a family-owned working farm on the east coast of Angus, where the fields have been painstakingly planted, sown, tilled and harvested for four generations with absolute respect for the land. "We are artisans of the soil. With the addition of a distillery, the family has further committed itself to minimising any environmental impact. Provenance and traceability at Arbikie doesn't stop with the crops and water. All of the ingredients in each of Arbikie's products are produced on the farm, a stone's throw from the distillery, to ensure a field to bottle philosophy, with zero waste and using their own renewable energy, meaning the distilling process uses negligible miles from start to finish.
This is a distillery shaped by its environment: the red sandstone soil, the powerful sea and the turbulent weather give Arbikie a character found nowhere else. And it is here, where the land meets the sea, that the distillery stands, converted from an old barn. Brothers John, Iain and David are the visionaries and driving force behind Arbikie Distillery. Like all farming families, the brothers grew up working on the farm and it is this hands-on experience that has given them a deep understanding and respect for the land and the ever-evolving business - as a family business we have the flexibility to be innovative and original. Records show a distillery on the site dating back to 1794. In those ancient times, distilling was done from field to bottle, and it is this approach that has inspired the family's own ethos (making spirits in this way is rare, with large companies producing spirits as a global commodity). Authenticity and provenance are at the heart of everything. Arbikie is the first single estate distillery to distil all its spirits in the same copper pot stills. This distillation process means that all the spirits reflect the traditional Scotch whisky method. John Stirling, "Our ethos at Arbikie from our inception has been to try and create world-class premium spirits where all ingredients are grown on our Single Estate farm. Minimising our carbon footprint and working with the wonderful home grown ingredients to create one of the world’s most sustainable distilleries.”
Since opening in 2014, the farm has invested in the production of the finest ingredients needed for the whole business on the farm. Juniper is essential to the production of gin, but the majority of juniper species in the UK are currently under threat from a pathogen, so it was decided to try and help and has since established a number of juniper plantations across the estate, planting around 1000 plants a year in addition to 1000's of hedges, peas and oak trees. "Oak trees take at least 50 years to grow, but Arbikie Distillery is a long-term project to create a family legacy and these oaks will allow us to have our own new oak casks for maturing whisky in the future when the next generation runs the distillery.
From day one, the distillery has been built with sustainability in mind throughout the process. There are photovoltaic panels on the roof and the by-products of distillation are returned to the fields as natural fertiliser or fed to the Highland cattle. "Our Highland cattle are the oldest registered cattle breed in the world, appearing in the Highlands and Outer Hebrides of Scotland in the 6th century AD. Arbikie's owner, Iain Stirling, refers to these natural beauties as "our 'recyclers' as they are a vital part of regenerative farming and our natural environment, recycling our spent distillers grains to enrich our farmland". Arbikie Highland Estate is also working to become a green hydrogen powered distillery. The project will include a single 1MW wind turbine which will export the electricity generated to a green hydrogen hub via a dedicated private line. The green hydrogen hub will include an electrolyser, compressor and storage, putting the company on track to become "one of the world's most sustainable distilleries", noting that it has already distilled Nadar, heralded as the world's "climate positive gin and vodka", in partnership with the James Hutton Institute and Abertay University.