Even as the mega-distillers were scaling back production there was a resurgence in what you might call craft distilling in Scotland with over a dozen new openings this century. Many are financed by a gin cash-cow and they vary in style and location. Daftmill is a self-styled Lowland, that Cinderella region. Geographically they could easily say they were from much more fashionable East Highlands but these guys are near Cupar and as the saying goes: they’re all queer in Fife.

Daftmill is a very special property, whatever its classification. It’s a working farm where distillation is but a part of the mixed economy so only takes place when they have time, twice a year between the other activities. The stills here are much smaller than normal in Scotland, as is production of course. And there is no gin.

They are perpetual students of barrels, selecting the ones they buy extremely carefully. Although they started planning and applying for necessary licences back in 2003, it was only in 2005 that they first ran a still in earnest. They don’t want to release a whisky younger than 10 years old. This is arguably one of the very few distilleries in the world that grows all its own barley and having their own water supply really does give this unusual and sought-after distillery a proper sense of terroir. (CW 24/09/20)