What a day! We got our hands on a bottle of The Hearach batch no. 00004!
This is the exciting inaugural bottling from The Isle of Harris Distillery, the first legal distillery on the Isle of Harris. They have been making award-winning gin for several years, but have now released their first Scotch whisky called The Hearach, meaning “native of Harris.” Naming this whisky in honour of the people of the island makes sense given the community-focused, sustainable, hand-crafted approach of the Isle of Harris Distillery.
We just love these new, independent distilleries that are hand-crafting some great stuff, and after trying the Lochlea not too long ago, it was great to crack open this bottle and have a taste of another new, promising whisky maker.
So, I have got to give huge props to The Isle of Harris Distillery for making so much information available on their website about our exact bottling. For instance, the batch sheet we downloaded for batch 00004 tells us the bottle run (11,545 bottles), the barley (100% Scottish Concerto), peating level (12.9 PPM), the casks (21% Heaven Hill, 64% Buffalo Trace, 11% Oloroso, 4% Fino), the fermentation, water source, and more. That’s really cool as you get more into whisky to see all those details.
But, I suppose the proof is in the pudding. What are our tasting notes? On the nose, we got definite apple and pear sweetness with a touch of light florals. There was a hint of peat like a few embers in a fire place late at night. On the palate we found caramel hard candy and more of that ripe pear and apple sauce with a gentle mouth feel. The peat was really pleasant and complimentary making for a well balanced taste. Really smooth for a young Scotch, aged a minimum of five years — which is two years longer than I could have honestly waited if I owned a new Scotch distillery. The finish is easy and sticks around with the soft peat just long enough. Bottled at 46% it opens up nicely with a drop of water.
Overall, we were really happy with this bottle which came in at about $110 CAD. The value in the whisky itself is there, and this would deserve a spot on anyone’s whisky shelf. It is enhanced by the story of the distillery and curiosity about what future expressions may be released by the community on Harris.