IF you could pick only one adjective to describe Simon Erlanger, it would without doubt be “enthusiastic”.

Given a second one to choose, you would go for “energetic”.

Mr Erlanger, a drinks industry veteran, seemed able to call on huge reserves of enthusiasm and energy during a fairly lengthy and at times challenging, but ultimately successful and fulfilling, fundraising for the new Isle of Harris Distillery.

When the distillery opened in 2015, it marked the culmination of a seven-year campaign. Mr Erlanger emphasises the degree to which Anderson Bakewell, chairman of the Isle of Harris Distillers corporate entity, was a driving force in turning the dream of making Scotch whisky on the island into reality.

As Mr Erlanger enters the Ox and Finch in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street with “the SOS supply” of the Isle of Harris gin for the restaurant, his enthusiasm for this novel spirit is clear.

His excitement about The Hearach single malt whisky which will be sold by Isle of Harris’s first-ever legal Scotch distillery in years and decades to come is also plain.

However, what is crystal clear from chatting to Mr Erlanger is that what enthuses him most of all is the boost which the new Isle of Harris Distillery is giving to an island on which finding employment can be challenging indeed.

Mr Erlanger, who worked previously for United Distillers and Glenmorangie, is very impressed by the community spirit he has found on Harris.

He says: “I have never encountered anything like it, where young people don’t want to go anywhere – they want to stay. They have this real sense of community. I grew up in a small community in the Cotswolds and I just wanted to get out as soon as I could. But Harris isn’t like that.”

Mr Erlanger, who notes high drop-out rates among university students from the outer islands, adds: “If we can create ways of staying, it is good for everybody.

“I see that as very much part of our mission. It is not just about creating jobs. It is about inspiring people with opportunities, so they can maybe stay on the island, rather than leave.”

By the spring of last year, a total of £8.3 million in equity and £3.1m of grant funding had been raised for the Isle of Harris Distillery. The venture has 17 private investors, one based in Switzerland, another in Germany, and one in Taiwan. Scottish Enterprise put up £1.5m of the equity, through its Scottish Investment Bank arm.

Isle of Harris Distillers decided, like some other new arrivals in the sector, to produce a gin from which to generate revenues while it waits patiently for its Scotch whisky to be ready. Mr Erlanger talks with real passion about the decision to include local, hand-harvested sugar kelp alongside eight other botanicals in the gin distillation process.

He has focused on direct online sales of the £35-a-bottle Isle of Harris Gin, deciding not to pitch to the supermarket sector. The gin is also available in a small number of bars and restaurants, such as the Ox and Finch, and, obviously, to the large numbers of visitors to the distillery at Tarbert on Harris. Mr Erlanger notes the distillery has attracted 8,000 visitors in just four months.

He describes the distribution strategy for Isle of Harris Gin as “peculiar”. However, he points out the whole distillery project is about “bringing awareness of the Isle of Harris to the wider world”.

Mr Erlanger adds: “What we are all about is creating connections.”

He notes the team behind the Isle of Harris project has called it “the social distillery”. Mr Erlanger even flags his belief that all of the island’s cattle are now fed “for free” year-round from the spent draff from the distillation process.

As he sips the gin in the Ox and Finch, accompanied by a slice of pink grapefruit and a few drops of sugar kelp aromatic water, Mr Erlanger emphasises how impressed he is about the bar and restaurant scene which is booming in Finnieston. This part of Glasgow has been a key focus for him as he has taken the Isle of Harris Gin story personally to selected outlets, as has Merchant City.

Reflecting on how Isle of Harris Gin came about, he says: “The background of the gin was, when we first started thinking about the business model and obviously the long gestation period till the whisky is ready, you are obviously looking for initiatives to bring in revenue in the short term. Gin is ideal because it takes 48 hours to make, rather than a minimum of three years.

“That was a no-brainer. When we started thinking about it, we couldn’t just make a [standard] gin because this was going to be the first representation of our distillation. It was pretty symbolic and said everything about what we were in a bottle.”

Isle of Harris Distillery has about 16 employees and, Mr Erlanger notes, will be up to 20 by summer.

He says: “That was our target, so we are there already.”

Mr Erlanger adds: “We do things deliberately that will create jobs, even if this makes our lives more expensive.”

He cites as an example the fact that every bottle of gin which goes out to customers who order it online is packed by hand at the distillery.

With gin sales more than double what he forecast, Mr Erlanger declares he is probably going to have to add a fifth member of the distilling team. He had thought only four would be needed, and Mr Erlanger says it would be “brilliant” if the fifth member of the team could be a new school-leaver or young apprentice.

The gin is also distributed in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland by “friends” in those markets, Mr Erlanger notes.

And when will Isle of Harris Distillery’s The Hearach single malt, which takes its name from the Gaelic word for an inhabitant of the island, be available for sale?

Mr Erlanger, highlighting the long-term view of the investors, says: “That is the big unknown. The last thing we are ever going to do is release it before it is ready.”

However, highlighting “really good reviews” for three-year-old Scotch produced by Wolfburn Distillery at Thurso, he adds: “If we do things right, there is no reason why, four years from now, we shouldn’t have something that is good enough to bottle.”