SCOTTISH rum in scottish oak

A unique story, centuries in the making

The Carruthers of Dormont Estate have been stewarding the lands of Annandale in southwest Scotland for almost 500 years. Many generations into the family’s tenure oak trees of the species Quercus Robur began growing on the banks of the river Annan, just a mile away from where we now scratch distil our authentic Scottish rum on the estate.

Oak has been used by Dormont for centuries. At the end of March 2018, while the distillery was just starting to be built, owner Dr. Kit Carruthers commissioned local forester John Williamson to hand fell a copse of these mature riverside trees, six in total. They were divided into smaller pieces, some weighing over two tonnes, and transported back to where the distillery was being built at Dormont Home Farm.

In June and July of 2018, they were quartersawn into boards at the farm by Langholm based furniture maker Daniel Lacey, and left to air dry for four years next to the distillery, before finally being coopered at Jensen’s Cooperage in Yorkshire into nine beautiful 200 litre barrels in 2022. Eight of these have a medium toasting on the inside, while the remaining barrel has a medium char.

August and September of 2022 were spent distilling experimental rums and filling all nine barrels, making each cask unique and distinct. We check our casks annually to see how they’re maturing. Depending on how they are tasting, some we will leave to mature exclusively in virgin wood for as long as possible, while others we are looking to re-cask soon.

Dr. Kit Carruthers, founder, owner and distiller at Ninefold, was hands-on in the entire process from felling to milling to coopering.

Our Inaugural 3 year aged release

For this inaugural release, we selected barrel DO32, as it has a great balance between the familiar sweetness of our American oak aged rums, and drier and more spice-y Scottish oak. Barrel DO32 has a medium toast and was filled on the 29th of September 2022 with two experimental batches of rum that used ‘backset’, a process of re-using leftover liquid in the still to start a new fermentation process. These experimental fermentations, combined with our double copper pot distillation, has resulted in a deeper and more complex rum than the standard rum marque we were making at the time.

Aged continuously on site in our warehouse for three years, our inaugural Scottish oak aged Scottish rum has a dry palate with sweet but earthy dark chocolate, hints of coffee, mushroom, toasted wood, and spicy salinity. A truly unique offering, with only 240 bottles available at a slightly-below-cask-strength of 59.1%.

The artists and makers

To mark the inaugural release, we wanted to celebrate the oak that has held our rum for three years. We commissioned Gerry Neely to hand make us ten presentation boxes for the first ten bottles of our release, with the boxes being made from the same oak that was used to cooper the barrels. A light toasting inside each box represents the inside of the toasted cask. He also made the discs that will go with each of the remaining 230 bottles, again using the same oak as the casks, so that everyone who owns a bottle of our first release will have their own piece of Scottish oak.

Gerry is a self-taught woodworker from Perth & Kinross. He has a particular interest in Japanese carpentry techniques and the use of traditional hand tools. Valuing the quiet, meditative nature of working with wood Gerry has a deep respect for both the materials and tools he uses and works to create elegant, functional, and enduring pieces, such as the presentation boxes for us.

The boxes and the discs have been expertly laser engraved by Rob Brydon-Brown, a local maker and ex-military, who has been a regular fixture at farmers’ markets in Dumfries and Galloway.

All of the illustrations that adorn the wooden boxes and discs, and our first ever cardboard gift box that comes with the first release, were commissioned from Judith Wild. Elements from her master illustration include Watson the distillery cat guarding our barrels, and oak leaves and swallows setting the scene of our woodland distillery. Her full illustration is printed on the back of a frameable certificate in the wooden boxes, and a spectacular linocut print that comes with the first ten bottles (also available separately).

Judith is a Renfrewshire-based artist, originally training in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee. She carries a lifelong interest in the natural world, and the folk tales and superstitions that people associate with nature, particularly in Scotland. Inspired by the flora and fauna of Dormont Estate, she used a traditional glass calligraphy pen and bottled ink to create her beautiful commissioned illustrations.