Halewood kicks off whisky production at new Edinburgh distillery

Halewood Wines & Spirits has kicked off whisky production for its John Crabbie & Co whisky brand in Edinburgh.

The recently-resurrected brand has begun to produce single malt distillate at a new facility in the city’s Granton district, Halewood announced today (13 December).

Single malt spirit will be distilled at the site, called the ‘Chain Pier’ distillery, until Halewood’s new £7m facility in the Leith area of Edinburgh is completed.

Once the new site opens distillation and maturation will take place there - it will be ready some time next year, Halewood said.

The start of production at the ‘Chain Pier’ facility marked “a significant milestone for the rejuvenated business”, said John Crabbie & Co MD David Brown, adding it planned to “develop a wide range of new spirits” in the lead up to the opening of the Leith distillery.

Since its relaunch, Crabbie has already released a slew of whiskies sourced from other distilleries across Scotland.

This week it unveiled two more: Crabbie 25yo (46.6% abv) and Crabbie 40yo (44.5% abv). The former is matured in sherry casks, with only 900 bottles produced, while there are just 350 limited edition decanters of the latter, which comes from an “exceptional Speyside cask”.