The new whisky distillery beside Ocean Terminal has passed another milestone as the stills have just been installed in the building.
The visitor attraction will open in summer 2023, and owners Port of Leith Distillery predict that they will welcome around 25,000 visitors in the first year.
The two hand crafted copper stills ((a 7,000 litre wash still and a 5,000 litre spirit still) from The Speyside Copper Works in Elgin is the latest milestone for the £12 million nine-storey distillery, which will offer tours and tastings, as well as a top floor mezzanine bar with panoramic views of Leith and wider Edinburgh.
With 50 new long term jobs being created this is a big new project for Edinburgh with the capacity of producing one million bottles of whisky a year. The distillery will use an energy-saving gravitational distilling system.
Ian Stirling, Co-Founder of Port of Leith Distillery, said: “For much of the 19th and 20th century, Leith was the unofficial capital of Scotch Whisky – making it the perfect place to build a new industrial landmark like the Port of Leith Distillery; an honest and modern piece of architecture that reflects our new and innovative approach to production.
“Installing our stills brings us one step closer to our summer distillery opening and welcoming tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world to come and experience a UK first.”
This is the latest project from Ian Stirling and co-owner Paddy Fletcher who set up Lind & Lime Gin Distillery in May last year. The brand had begun in a tiny industrial unit in 2018 growing to larger premises just beside the Water of Leith.
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