The inaugural release from one of the newer breed of Lowland distilleries, albeit one that was founded nearly ten years ago!
Aberargie Distillery is located in Perthshire, Scotland, around an hour's drive north of Edinburgh. The distillery is owned by Morrison Distillers, the previous owners of Bowmore, Auchentoshan, and Glen Garioch Distilleries, before they sold all three to Suntory in 1994. The company is behind lesser-known independent bottling brands like Carn Mor and MacTalla and blended Scotch brand Old Perth, finally opening their own malt whisky distillery, Aberargie, in late 2017. They kept quiet for quite a few years, finally ramping things up prior to the first release hit the shelves in March 2026. Like many of the younger Scotch whisky distilleries Aberargie decided to "go big" with their inaugural release, much like Ardnamurchan's Inaugural and Isle of Harris's Hearach first release. While these larger and more reasonably priced inaugural single malts do help with the negative side of a distillery's first release, i.e. hoarding of bottles and flipping for profit, the downside of this approach is that they are far less collectable and also get far less attention on the internet. With the amount of new releases coming out these days it's easy for a bottling like this to get lost in the noise, which is pretty much what has happened thus far with Aberargie's inaugural. Which is a shame, because this is a reasonably priced and tasty single malt that is doing things differently to most. The relatively standard - but always good to see - small distillery boxes are all ticked here; being non-chill filtered and natural colour, and being bottled at 46% or above (48.2% here), and being matured in quality casks, both first-fill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks in this case. It's relatively well priced at around $160 AUD, which puts it inline with Isle of Harris's Hearach and slightly above neighbouring distilleries in the Lowlands like Lindores Abbey and Lochlea.
The Morrison family already owned a 300-acre farm near the namesake village of Aberargie, giving them an ideal location to build their own distillery from scratch. The main USP with Aberargie Inaurugal is the different mix of barley varieties used, with 52% of the spirit being distilled from the heritage variety Golden Promise, and the remaining 48% being distilled from the modern variety Laureate. I've covered Golden Promise in more detail in this review of Ardnamurchan's Heritage Barley release, but the short version is that it was a popular barley strain from the 1960s-early 1990s, gradually being dropped in favour of more reliable strains which offered higher yields and better disease resistance. Golden Promise is now making a bit of a comeback as more newer distilleries look for a point of difference to separate themselves from their competitors, and as more emphasis is being put on new make spirit character and texture rather than cask finishing and marketing stories. Aberargie Distillery may be a farm distillery, but they aren't malting their farm-grown barley on site. This is the modern approach where rather than installing malting floors and keeping things in-house the farm-grown barley is shipped to a commercial maltster, just like Bruichladdich do with their Islay barley whiskies, and Ireland's Waterford did with their single farm bottlings. While I don't have an objection here personally, plenty of attention is directed at the barley itself while the malting process is either skimmed over or skipped altogether in all marketing materials and press releases. The distillery and its whisky are still referred to as "farm to bottle", which muddies the waters a little since it sounds like every step of the process is carried out at the distillery. Keeping things in-house and using a traditional floor maltings is more authentic, and adds more provenance to a whisky made using local barley - like Springbank and Kilchoman do with their local barley products. But that's an expensive operation and involves a lot of human labour.
Aberargie plan to feature these two barley varieties separately in their next round of single malts, with a 100% Golden Promise bottling and a 100% Laureate bottling, although rather than relying on barley variety alone they've chosen to flip the cask recipes between the two; the Golden Promise release being 68% ex-bourbon and 32% ex-sherry casks, and the Laureate release being 68% ex-sherry and 32% ex-bourbon casks. Barley aside, Aberargie Distillery is a relatively standard operation, with a capacity of around 750,000-litres of spirit per year, washbacks are stainless steel with fermentation times ranging from 80-144 hours, with the longer brewing happening over the weekends where no mashing or distilling takes place. There are two pot stills of a decent size, both have slightly descending lyne arms and modern shell & tube condensers, and the spirit still has a boil ball / onion for a little extra reflux. Rather than the typical "light and fruity" spirit profile that I'm pretty sure we're all getting tired of, the idea here is rich and fruity, with more spirit weight and more texture. This is achieved through a wider spirit cut than most modern distilleries, particularly those making unpeated spirit, with Aberargie collecting from 74% ABV down to 60.5%. Generally speaking a wider spirit cut will capture more heavy compounds and more funky character, giving a heavier texture and more complex spirit character that can stand up to more cask influence. For reference these spirit cut points are closer to Springbank which is collected from 76% to 60% ABV, as opposed to the more industry standard 72%-65%, while something like 74%-69% would be considered a narrow cut. When it comes to maturation Aberargie uses modern racked warehousing, with the majority of casks being first-fill ex-bourbon barrels and Oloroso sherry butts, along with some PX sherry and some second-fill casks. Let's get in to the inaugural release!
Aberargie Inaugural Release, NAS, 48.2%. Lowlands, Scotland.
Distilled from 52% Golden Promise and 48% Laureate barley grown on site, but malted elsewhere. Matured in 50/50 ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.
Colour: Copper.
Nose: Fresh, malty, autumnal. Red apples, lemon peel, sweet barley malt, sweet iced flaky pastries. Apple danish pastry with vanilla icing & cinnamon sugar. Touches of freshly varnished wood, nutty fresh wood, and white pepper. Malt biscuits, dried berries, and hint of cream cheese with more time.
Texture: Medium weight. Oily, fruity, malty, warming/comforting. No heat at all.
Taste: Fruity, sweet, malty. Stone fruit here with apricot & nectarine, red apple skins, touches of dried berries & lemon peel. Biscuity malt, sweet iced flaky pastries, and hint of cream cheese icing.
Finish: Medium length. Stone fruit again with apricot & nectarine, white pepper, and biscuity malt. Cinnamon sugar, freshly varnished wood, and vanilla syrup. Red apples and nutty oak around the edges.
Score: 3 out of 5. Close to a 3.5 though.
Notes: A very autumnal style of whisky this, almost a winter warmer but in a lighter style than I'd normally associate with that. There's definitely some sherry cask influence but it's been managed well, and isn't cask dominated by any means with plenty of malty goodness on show. This Aberargie does tick a lot of boxes, and for a first release at a relatively young age it's particularly impressive - you'd be hard pressed to pick the age in fact, it could easily pass for a whisky aged in the early-mid teens. Punches above its weight, I'd say, and it certainly seems more mature & rounded than some other first releases from distilleries not too far away. Get it while there's still a slight chill in the air down here!
Cheers!