GlenWyvis Distillery, located in Dingwall, Scotland, stands out as the country’s first community-owned distillery, as well as the first to be entirely powered by renewable energy. The distillery is dedicated to producing a distinctive “Highland style” whisky, known for its green, grassy newmake spirit that undergoes long fermentations with plenty of copper contact. Its maturation process includes both first-fill and refill American oak casks, which add a sweet roundness to the whisky, while a proportion of Sherry-matured spirit deepens its flavor profile with richer depth.
One of GlenWyvis’s most notable features is its complete self-sufficiency. The distillery is off-grid, generating its own energy through a combination of a wind turbine, hydro scheme, solar panels, and a biomass boiler. The wind turbine is owned by the distillery’s managing director, John McKenzie, who also uses the draff (distillery by-product) as feed for his cows. GlenWyvis even operates an electric car and plans to offer tours to visitors in an electric bus in the future.
GlenWyvis was conceived by McKenzie after his retirement from the army in 2002. He returned to Dingwall, where he became a commercial helicopter pilot. While flying clients to various distilleries across Scotland, he developed a passion for whisky and decided to open his own distillery to help revitalize the rural Dingwall community.
McKenzie’s vision for GlenWyvis began in earnest in 2011. He already owned farmland and a wind turbine, and he had worked on the board of a local wind energy cooperative. These assets allowed him to consider crowdfunding as a way to create Scotland’s first community-owned distillery. The name GlenWyvis was inspired by the names of two former distilleries, Ben Wyvis and Glenskiach, both of which closed in 1926.
In 2014, McKenzie received planning permission for the distillery on his 40th birthday, and in 2015, he launched GlenWyvis Gin, which was produced at Saxa Vord distillery. The gin label featured details on how people could invest in the new distillery.
GlenWyvis’s first crowdfunding campaign launched in April 2016 with a target of £1.5 million. The campaign exceeded expectations, raising over £2 million from more than 3,000 shareholders. Construction of the distillery began in January 2017 and was completed by November of the same year. The distillery officially opened on November 30, 2017, and began its commissioning process shortly thereafter.
While some early investors received bottles of three-year-old whisky as part of their reward, the distillery’s first commercially available single malt won’t be released until it reaches its optimum maturity. GlenWyvis’s gin production, which had been outsourced, also came in-house in 2018 with the installation of its own gin still, reflecting the majority decision made by the distillery’s shareholders.
