THE director of historic Fife conglomerate Wemyss Development Company has underlined its confidence in the global prospects for Scotch whisky, as he highlighted progress at the ­family's £3 million Kingsbarns distillery project.

William Wemyss shrugged off the recent slowdown in Scotch exports by pointing to the burgeoning middle class in emerging economies, who view brown spirits as a source of status.

And Mr Wemyss, whose family entered the whisky trade when it launched its Wemyss Malts blending and bottling business ten years ago, said he is also encouraged by drinkers switching from blended to more expensive premium products in more mature markets.

Backing his view with International Wine & Spirit Research statistics, which suggest that global malt volumes grew by 20 per cent last year while volumes fell by 0.8 per cent across the Scotch sector as a whole, Mr Wemyss said: "I am very positive about the future of Scotch for two reasons.

"One is that in a lot of these emerging markets, brown spirits are seen as an aspirational drink for these sort of burgeoning middle classes and young people - and Scotch fits right into that as a category.

"And secondly, what we are looking at is top-end single malt, and the premium segment of the spirits market will continue to grow.

"More than 90 per cent of whisky is blended. When you look at the overall industry figures, the blended is really where the industry is at, and that skews those numbers heavily.

"But if you split out malts and single malts I suspect you would see that growing very strongly indeed."

Mr Wemyss was speaking shortly after the stills were put in place at the distillery, which is being developed in the listed, 19th-century former East Newhall farmstead.

He said the Wemyss family, which has interests in property, wine, tea and renewable energy, had been inspired to acquire a distillery of its own after watching bottlers such as Gordon & MacPhail and Ian Macleod Distillers make similar moves.

But until it became aware of the Kingsbarns project, which was developed initially by golf caddy Douglas Clement, it had not considered building its own.

While previously the family had been deterred from developing its own facility because of the timescale and cost involved, Mr Wemyss said Kingsbarns offered "specific attributes". He said: "When Doug approached us in July-August 2012 we got quite excited about the project."

The company acquired 100 per cent of the equity in the company from Mr Clement and the initial seed investors, with the project supported by a £670,000 grant from the Scottish government.

Although he no longer holds a stake in the distillery, Mr ­Clement remains involved as the visitor-centre manager. It is due to open either this year or early next year - in good time for the return of the Open to St Andrews in July. The centre will offer a cafe, exhibition, tours and a putting green - a nod to the area's golfing heritage. Mr Wemyss said golfers will be a key target market for the distillery. Currently, golfers have to travel to distilleries such as Tullibardine in Perthshire and Glenkinchie in East Lothian to "taste Scotland's other great export".

Mr Wemyss said: "We see being able to link into golf tourism as a huge part of certainly the immediate opportunity for us. Hopefully it will be great for the Fife economy, not just creating jobs but bringing more tourists into the area to spend more money locally in hotels and restaurants, things like that."

The visitor centre will be key to making the project work commercially in the short-term, providing a revenue stream while it waits for the minimum three years for its first Scotch to be brought legally to market. Other new distilleries have sought to fill the void by producing other spirits, notably gin. There are no immediate plans to follow suit at Kingsbarns, though Mr Wemyss refused to rule out producing its own Darnley's View, a London dry gin, at the site at some stage.

Mr Wemyss said: "For any normal, sane investor, building a distillery is completely mad. When you talk to private-equity people, they do not understand the timescale. But the fact we are a family business that takes a pretty long-term view on things helps - we do not necessarily need a return tomorrow morning.

"The way we are going to make it work is tourists - and particularly golf tourists - coming to the area and coming to our shop, coming for a tour and learning how whisky is made. That will give us the necessary cash flow to allow the stock to mature."

The stills at Kingsbarns are due to be commissioned in December, when the first eponymous single malt from the distillery will begin to flow. Mr Wemyss said the Kingsbarns Single Malt will be classified as a lowland malt because of its location, and will be "light fruity style" and matured in bourbon casks. Limited releases could see Kingsbarns experiment with sherry maturation and "smoky, peaty" whiskies.

Exports will be targeted on the 25 markets where Wemyss' existing brands are sold, with Mr Wemyss envisaging that it will perform well in more of whisky's "very mature" markets such as France, Germany and Taiwan in the long run.

Peter Holroyd, formerly of Strathaven Ales, has been recruited as distillery manager, and is being mentored by industry veteran Ian Palmer.

Mr Wemyss expects to employ ten full-time staff at the distillery but said the number will vary seasonally.

The busiest spell is expected to be the peak tourism season between April and October.