Introduction

This evening, I am reporting on visit earlier today to Raer Distillery in Jackton near Glasgow.

Information on Raer Distillery

A chance sighting of a billboard advertisement prompted my wife and myself to visit this new distillery. Location is near Eaglesham, about ten miles directly south of central Glasgow in the west of Scotland.

Raer has been in production for about three years producing whisky spirit and gin. However a single malt whisky is not yet available although various blended offerings can be purchased on site.

Distillery exterior with grain silos

Tours of the distillery are planned but not available yet. However, very helpful staff provided the following overview:

Stills: There are three stills in total, two Coffey and one Hagyo.

Maturation: Both ex-sherry and ex-Bourbon casks are used.

Bottling: Some of this activity is undertaken on site.

Barley: A local farming enterprise is the sponsor of the distillery and as such own grown barley is available.

Single Malt: It is unlikely that such will be available until matured for at least five years.

Visitor Accommodation: Around twenty ‘cottages’ will be available to provide visitors with overnight accommodation, if required.

Distillery Name: The word ‘raer’ is old Scots being cognate with standard English word ‘rare’.

Whisky Category: Lowland.

Overall, this is an impressive start-up. In fact, the largest such site category I have encountered in many years of distillery tours.

Ex-bourbon casks from the U.S.A (Kentucky?) used for whisky maturation.

Image of local landscape: View north from Eaglesham to Campsie Fells (hills) with Glasgow in middle ground.

More information

The publication Visitors’ Guide to Scotland includes a section on Scotland’s whisky distilleries. ISBN of the book is 978-1-9161332-0-4. Also available via Kindle.