The company
The independent bottling and blending company Wemyss Malts was founded in 2005 and is still run by siblings William and Isabella Wemyss. William spent some time in the wine industry in France and was inspired by French winemakers. Isabella is a master blender herself and is responsible for selecting and blending the whiskies for Wemyss. Most of the rest of the Wemyss clan are also active in the whisky industry, above all the well-known whisky expert and author Charles McLean.
Wemyss means cliff caves in Gaelic. The name is probably due to the rocky coast near Fife. The small Scottish town of Fife has been the family seat of Wemyss for over 800 years. The family has owned Wemyss Castle here for over six centuries and has maintained good contacts with the whisky industry for generations. In 1824, John Haig opened his distillery on the Wemyss family estate. The Haig distillery is still in operation and is now known as Cameronbridge. Barley has been grown on the Wemyss land for many maltings in Scotland for decades.
In 2014, Wemyss Malts opened the Kingsbarns distillery in Fife, which the company built and operates together with whisky enthusiast Douglas Clement.
The range
The concept behind the Wemyss range is unusual compared to that of other bottlers. Instead of advertising the origin of the casks on the label, the Wemyss family focuses on the flavours of the malts. Instead of the distiller's name, everything revolves around the character of the whisky. This gives rise to such illustrious names as 'Cherry Bakewell Tart' or 'Victorian Sweet Shop'. Behind the concept is the Wemyss family's belief that malts should be bought for their flavour, not their provenance.
Thecore range consists of the three blended malts 'The Hive', 'Spice King' and 'Peat Chimney'. Charlie McLean created the malts, the flavour of which is also reflected in the name, from a total of 16 different single malts. The three different versions are also bottled at cask or batch strength for the Batch Strength range. In addition to the standard range, Wemyss regularly produces limited editions of blended malts, which are blended from limited cask stocks. For example, 'Nectar Grove' (forest nectar) with a finish in Madeira wine casks or 'Velvet Fig' (velvet fig) from Oloroso sherry casks were launched on the market.
In the Family Collection, only casks from the family's own warehouse are used, which has grown to a considerable size since the company was founded. For example, there is the smoky 'Flaming Feast' blended from two Highland single malts and the non-smoky 'Blooming Gorse', which also consists of two Highland malts.
Charles MacLean is personally responsible for the cask selection of the Single Cask Range. Each single cask bottling bears a name that illustrates the flavour of the respective whisky, for example 'Coconut Raspberry Snowball', 'Apricot Oatmeal', 'Heather and Leather' or 'Summer Fruits Sundae'.
