IT WAS the era of Charles Darwin’s 'On the Origin of Species' and the Crimean War, and now, 150 years after Perthshire brewer James Eadie launched a whisky company, his great-great-grandson is re-establishing the family business.
Rupert Patrick is bringing the brand back to life with a selection of single cask and small batch bottlings of James Eadie whiskies. The bottlings include malts from Speyside, the Highlands and Islay, with whiskies from Inchgower, Benrinnes, Blair Athol, Caol Ila, Dailuaine and Linkwood.
“I’ve known about my great-great grandfather’s whisky for many years, but until now I’ve never had the chance to realise my ambition to get the brand going again,” said Mr Patrick, who has spent his career in the whisky industry, working for Ian Macleod Distillers, Beam and Diageo.
He is also a Keeper of the Quaich, a prestigious whisky industry society.
From a first limited production of 10,000 bottles, James Eadie will be bottling single malts aged from eight to 15 years old from eight distilleries. Bottles will retail for between £37 and £55.
“Some of the distilleries we’ve chosen casks from are hidden gems - I’m forever learning about the breadth and depth of quality in Scotch whisky and delighted to have the opportunity to take these to market,” said Mr Patrick.
Domestically, the James Eadie whiskies will be available to buy from Royal Mile Whiskies. And the initial focus for exports will be Denmark, Holland, Austria and France, all of which have a strong market for single malt Scotch whisky.
Hans Bresser from Bresser & Timmer, the distributor for James Eadie in the Netherlands, said he was “very enthusiastic” about the arrival of the whiskies.
“In general the prices of Scotch single malt whiskies have soared over the past five years, whilst in many cases the price/quality ratio went the opposite way. After tasting the James Eadie single malts and learning about the concept behind the brand… we feel that the whisky drinker, by choosing a James Eadie single malt, is very well served both in the quality and the price.”
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