Introducing our latest member, InchDairnie

InchDairnie is leading a new era in Scotch whisky, dedicated to discovering the flavours of the future. Through precision distilling and a deep commitment to Fife provenance, it blends nature, science and technology to push the boundaries of flavour. The distillery uses bespoke equipment to extract more flavour and explore unusual grains, yeasts and distillation styles. It embraces seasonal variation – outdoor fermentation and switching between spring and winter barley – to create nine distinct spirits annually, each offering unique flavour experiences.

Learn a little more about our latest addition to the Walpole membership in our interview with InchDairnie's Head of Marketing and Taste Revolution, Jens Tholstrup

Walpole: Tell us about the history of your brand…

Jens Tholstrup: As our founder, Ian Palmer, says, “The philosophy here is flavour, flavour, and even more flavour.” We are a group of adventurous, grounded, skilled and forward-thinking whisky makers. InchDairnie is a Fife distillery that builds this flavour quest on malt whisky tradition while actively exploring and pushing the limits of Scotch whisky. From grain to bottle, we take an innovative approach to flavour and engineer our whiskies with a strong purpose – to excite palates. Basing our knowledge on the traditions without letting us be constrained by them allowed the distillery to install equipment uncommon in Scotch whisky industry; equipment that is important for efficiency and flavour. 

InchDairnie Distillery is located between KinGlassie and Glenrothes in Fife, just north of Edinburgh (across the Firth of Forth). We began distilling in December 2015 and waited to release the first bottle until 2023. Unusually this was a Scottish rye whisky, RyeLaw. We have recently launched the heavily peated KinGlassie Fife Single Malt, and have more brands to follow under the InchDairnie Distillery umbrella soon.

What is your brand best known for?

Flavour innovation. In the progressive flavour-explorer's mind, we are establishing ourselves as being innovative, flavour focused and having discoverable whiskies for a variety of situations. We are possibly also known for being a distillery you can't visit unless you are invited – so in that sense it is a bit of a unicorn.

What has been a significant achievement in your company’s timeline?

There have been several firsts from running our first stills in December 2015 to winning our first awards (Best Bottle Design 2024 at the World Whiskies Awards and Best Scotch Whisky Distillery of The Year at the 2024 Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition). However, our sustainability journey has also been significant. The distillery was born with the unique hammer mill, and literally built around a mash filter that extracts more flavour from the grain. Unusually, we double condense the distillation for more copper contact, which not only enables esters and fruitiness in the spirit to shine through, but also preserves energy and water. This means we use 30% less energy than industry average. We await industry average water data for comparison, but are proud to have always met the Scotch Whisky Association’s 2025 water target range (12.5 – 25l/lpa) since we started in 2015. Currently, our by-products go to an anaerobic digester plant to be converted into natural gas which we in turn can use through the grid in our hydrogen ready boiler.

Why do you love the brand?

Because of our Taste Revolution. It is incredibly exciting to be part of creating a Taste Revolution for the palates of our consumers, while at the same time working with this mantra at the distillery and be part of something that shows a different direction for an industry. Flavour is key to everything we do, and we do things quite differently. Due to our unique equipment we can utilise a variety of grains and even with the traditional barley we can extract more flavour. While we make single malt Scotch, we actively seek experimentation with dedicated experimentation weeks during the year, meaning we have distilled wheat, oats, unmalted barley, rye, spring and winter barley in addition to old heritage barleys, sour mash and more. The bottle states "Engineered in Fife", appropriate for the place where agriculture blended with industrialisation and is the cradle of modern distilling. Our vision is to excite the palates of whisky drinkers. 

Why does your brand represent the very best in British luxury? 

We do not talk about ourselves as being 'luxury' as that is a right we must earn in the minds of our consumer. Of course, we are at a different price point to many whiskies, but this is well founded in the provenance of Fife, the unique equipment and the exclusivity. We do not use the word craft, but rather build our quest for the broadest flavours on industry traditions, though with engineering precision, embracing of seasonality and experimentation at our core. 

What attracted you to becoming a Walpole member?

We felt it would be a great fit. I imagine we are all, in one way or other, looking at consumers that are knowledgeable, perhaps even hedonists, but certainly are explorers. We realise we can not tick the box on tradition, but with a unique blend of engineering, precision and nature we mark our own position within the whisky industry. 

If you could collaborate with another Walpole member, which one would you choose?

Being the most recent member, it's challenging to pinpoint exact members before we learn more about their thinking. A good fit would be those that work creating unique experiences and are not afraid to explore, innovate and focus on the customers discovery opportunities. Admittedly, we are new on the scene but have worked with the likes of LeBlanq (The Legendary JoyRiding experience co-founded by chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, creator of the two-starred restaurant Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London), as well as Glaswegian Michelin-starred restaurant Cail Bruich, and Raffles London to name but a few – and, of course, leading bars in the UK and abroad.

Tell us about an exciting development or new launch for your brand in the coming months? 

As I answer this, we are in the middle of the launch of our first single malt, KinGlassie (above) – a heavily-peated Fife Single Malt. We are delighted it has received tremendous praise from whisky writers, bartenders and flavour explorers as we already look towards the next line extensions – and, indeed, the launch of two new brands in 2027 and another in 2029. In addition to this we have other industry 'firsts' in the pipeline for distillation in the coming years as our flavour quest continues.

> Visit InchDairnie's member profile