Wemyss Distillery Ltd.

Wemyss Distillery Ltd. History

Although the Wemyss family has historical links with Scotch whisky dating back to the early 19th century, when John Haig leased land from Captain Wemyss to build Cameronbridge distillery, their first hands-on experience with Scotch came many years later.

Having worked extensively in the wine trade – the family owns two vineyards in Australia and Provence, France – William Wemyss set out to establish roots in the whisky industry and founded independent bottling company Wemyss Malts in 2005.

The company’s range of whiskies grew to include several non-age-statement expressions including Peat Chimney, Spice King and Velvet Fig.

By 2013 the efforts of Douglas Clement to build a malt distillery at Kingsbarns caught Wemyss’ eye. Despite interest from investors around the world, Clement was struggling to raise the funds needed to begin building the distillery. Wemyss stepped in and purchased the project – including its operating company The Kingsbarns Company of Distillers – from Clement. He established Wemyss Distillery Ltd. as a separate company to Wemyss Malts, to continue the build with Clements by his side as founding director.

In 2015 Kingbarns distillery began producing spirit and is expected to release its first single malt in mid-2018.

Clements remained on as a director and visitor centre manager, but left the business at the end of 2016 to ‘pursue other projects’.