After an eight-year wait, it's finally here... The first whisky release from Isle of Harris Distillery! They may be more famous for their very successful gin, but that's set to change!
Hearach is the Gaelic word for a native to the Isle of Harris, like an Ileach is to Islay. A different approach to just naming it "Isle of Harris Whisky" I suppose, which will help to to separate the newly-established whisky from the long-established gin brand. The success of that gin has undoubtedly helped this small privately-owned operation take its time with their first whisky release, which has been in the works since the distillery was established back in September 2015. Rather than being a gin distillery that dabbles in whisky, this is a whisky distillery that also makes gin, which means that they didn't need to push a whisky out the door on its third birthday for cashflow reasons. Instead they could make sure the whisky was exactly where they wanted it to be before releasing it on an almost-unsuspecting fanbase. Rather than doing a pre-release bottling for "founding members", or some one- or two-year old spirit releases to keep people's attention, or releasing a couple of hundred "halo effect" bottles at an exorbitant price, the launch of The Hearach single malt was kept relatively quiet until only a few months ago. Rather than a single cask or a small batch bottling for their first release, tens of thousands of bottles have been launched at an age of 5-7 years, at 46% ABV, and crucially at a very reasonable price. Waiting more than seven years after establishing the distillery would not have been an easy decision, and I'm sure there was pressure from some internal and external parties to release it sooner, and also to do more releases. But this is not a distillery that rushes things or one that takes shortcuts.
Harris is a small island in the Outer Hebrides with a population of under 2,000. The stunning-looking island technically shares the same landmass as the Isle of Lewis to the north, with the official name of the island being "Lewis and Harris", but they're usually referred to as two separate islands. Lewis to the north is much larger both in population and geographically, with the main town of Stornoway being the largest in the Hebridean islands with a population of 8,000 people, whereas Tarbert, Harris' main town and ferry port, is home to less than 600. While only an hour's flight north-west from Glasgow or a 1.5-hour ferry from Skye, Harris is still a small and remote island, only really famous for Harris Tweed fabric. But that has started to shift since Isle of Harris Distillery, the island's first legal distillery, was established in 2015. Today the distillery employs over 50 permanent staff, which is significant in such a small community and is in stark contrast to many of the larger corporate distilleries in Scotland. The distillery's gin is produced on separate equipment to the whisky, although both use copper pot stills that were made in Italy. The two smaller stills are only used for malt whisky, with casks filled on-site and matured on Harris in a mix of both dunnage & racked warehouses. There are five wooden washbacks, using a split fermentation time of either 72 or 120 hours, and all malt whisky so far has been lightly peated to 12-15 ppm using Scottish malted barley sourced from Bairds in Inverness. That obviously means mainland peat rather than local peat, although there's talk of using the latter for a heavily peated release in future. Regardless, there's no mistaking the coastal influence in The Hearach.
As you'd expect from the design of the Isle of Harris Gin bottle, no shortcuts have been taken with the presentation or packaging of their first whisky release. Famous London-based design company Stranger & Stranger was responsible for the design and packaging of both products, in consultation with the distillery of course, and as you can see from the images below The Hearach bottle does share some broad similarities with the "straked" design of the Harris gin bottle. The whisky bottle is a squat almost-square shape, and the fully recyclable outer packaging is beautiful - it's even been debossed to resemble the gneiss rock that is found on the island. There's even a rather nice booklet (we need more whisky booklets!), and a branded thick cardboard coaster included, which was made from the excess cardboard used in the making of the outer packaging. As much as we whisky geeks try to argue the opposite, little extra details like these really do make a difference!
I suppose we should talk about the whisky itself at some point! As mentioned above The Hearach is a lightly peated 5-7 year old single malt. It's been matured in 85% ex-bourbon casks from Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace, 11% ex-Oloroso sherry casks, and 4% ex-Fino sherry casks, all matured separately and married together for a minimum of 12-weeks. It was bottled at 46% ABV and is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour. Eight different batches of the first release were released simultaneously in October 2023, with each batch consisting of around 12,000 bottles. Combined together that's a massive first release, which allows The Hearach to get into as many hands as possible at quite a reasonable price. The only notable difference between the batches is the marrying time after the casks are disgorged - largely because the distillery bottles everything on-site, so the bottling stage was always going to be a bottleneck (pun intended) for a release of this size. For Batch 1 that marrying period was 12-weeks, which increased with each until Batch 8 was married together for nearly 22-weeks. There'll naturally be some variance between batches of course - the batches are identified by a code printed on the paper seal across the closure, with all labelled as 'First Release' followed by the batch code. We'll be getting Batch 2 in Australia, with stock expected to arrive in early December thanks to the usual delays that often happen with international shipping. Pricing is expected to be under $175 AUD, which is very reasonable for a 700ml bottle of 5-7 year old single malt at 46% ABV, let alone for the first whisky release from a respected distillery. Thanks to those shipping delays the bottle I'm reviewing is from Batch 7, while the stock that arrives in Australia in December will be Batch 2. As mentioned, aside from the minor natural batch variation the only actual difference between these batches is how long they casks are married together prior to bottling.
Before we get into the actual review, a quick disclaimer. I do work part-time for Alba Whisky, the Australian importers for both Isle of Harris Gin and The Hearach single malt. I don't normally review any products that we import or distribute, which is quite the challenge when some of them are fantastic! While I'd never let this skew my opinions or reviews, I decided to keep the two "halves" separate, purely so there is absolutely no chance of a conflict of interest or any questioning of my motives / integrity in either direction. But I'm making an exception here, because this is a brand-new release which has not technically landed in Australia yet, only some advance stock, and that advance stock is not the same batch that we'll be seeing down under. As always, my review is entirely my own honest opinion, and is completely unbiased. Plus this is a brand-new first whisky release that has been long awaited, and we need to know what it smells & tastes like! So let's do just that...
Lightly peated 12-15 ppm, matured for 5-7 years in 85% ex-bourbon, 11% ex-oloroso sherry, 4% ex-fino sherry. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. Approx. 12,000 bottles per batch - Batch 7 tasted.
Colour: Pale-medium gold.
Nose: Oily, fresh, coastal & fruity. Warm sand, oily builder's putty, salty damp rock pools, fresh red apples. Soft & delicate earthy peat smoke, fizzy lemonade soft drink/soda. Maybe a touch of ginger beer. Lovely sweet biscuity maltiness comes through with more time, along with dried lime peel and a touch of dried banana chips.
Texture: Medium weight. Lovely oily & viscous texture for the age. No heat at all.
Taste: Oily, malty, sweet. Flash of rich honey, then dried banana chips, sweet red apples, and crumbly light caramel fudge (Scottish tablet). Some sugared almonds, and that fizzy lemonade soft drink/soda again. Caramel wafer biscuits, soft earthy peat smoke running underneath.
Finish: Medium length. That gentle soft smoke carries through, then some acidic (sour) lime zest, those banana chips and red apples again. More caramel wafer biscuits, some apricot jam underneath which is interesting. Nice damp draff (spent barley) notes rounding things out.
Score: 3.5 out of 5. Easily.
Notes: As first releases go, The Hearach is extremely impressive! In fact it's extremely impressive in it's own right, first release or not. The complexity & depth at just 5-7 years of age is quite remarkable, particularly on the nose. The palate shows more sweetness and less of that coastal character than the nose, but it also has a lovely viscous texture to it that is quite surprising & really enjoyable. I'm assuming that viscosity is at least partly coming from the spirit itself, which is a good thing! I shouldn't be surprised really. As we're constantly being reminded in this wide world of whisky, age is just a number!
Local pricing on The Hearach is very reasonable, especially considering that it's a full-size bottle at a relatively decent age - not the minimum legal age of 3-years. That's the advantage of doing such a large quantity for your first whisky release, of course. The Hearach does hide its relative youth extremely well - there's a great mellow, even-paced balance to this dram. A "crowd pleaser" I'd say, but not by the usual bland & boring definition, more that there's something for everyone. Keep an eye out for this one when it finally lands down under!
Congratulations to The Isle of Harris Distillery on their first whisky release, and here's to many more in future!
Cheers!
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