How Burns Night Marked Wolfburn Distillery’s Return

The first Burns Night supper was held in January 1802 at what is now known as the Greenock Burns Club. Since then, people across Scotland and around the world have gathered each year on 25 January to celebrate the life and poetry of Scotland’s national bard, Robert “Rabbie” Burns. 

Burns, who died in 1796 at just 37 years old, left behind a cultural legacy that continues to define Scottish identity. His connection to whisky is well known—particularly given his later work as an exciseman. Fate, coincidence, or perhaps a quiet irony, but Burns Night would later become a significant date in Wolfburn’s own modern history.

Burns Night 2013: Wolfburn Returns to Spirit

After a long and, at times, unforgiving winter of work, Wolfburn Distillery ran spirit once again on 25 January 2013—Burns Night.

At the time, the distillery was far from complete. There was a door on the warehouse, but no walls. The main distillery building was a sea of mud, with temperatures hovering around freezing. The first attempt at a mash ended badly when uncalibrated weigh scales caused the mash to pour straight out of the mash tun door.

Progress was slow, fuelled by determination, late-night fish and chips, and the odd beer. Piece by piece, Wolfburn was pulled back into life.

The First Spirit: When Theory Meets Reality

The copper smiths (“clankies”) and electricians (“sparkies”) were either keeping warm or racing to finish jobs when the first foreshots finally began to trickle through the still with the key members of the Wolfburn team present to witness the moment.

After the spirit still had done its work – and with rain splashing through an open wall onto the condensers, those in the know gathered to sample the new make spirit. Building a distillery requires science: chemistry, physics and biology. It demands engineering of every discipline. Yet, until spirit is produced, nothing is certain.

Delivered calmly, with just the hint of a smile, Stuart Duff of Forsyths offered the verdict:

“Aye, that’s good. I like that.”

Wolfburn was back.

From Mud to Maturity: Over a Decade of Wolfburn Whisky

More than a decade on, Wolfburn has changed beyond recognition. The mud is long gone. The walls are finished, the steelwork painted, and Wolfburn single malt Scotch whisky is now exported around the world.

With eight, ten and twelve-year-old whiskies in the range, the distillery has firmly established itself while remaining true to its origins.

As another Burns Night approaches, so too does another Wolfburn anniversary.

Choosing the Anniversary Single Cask

This month, among many other tasks, the distillery manager has been disappearing into the warehouses to select the fourth edition of Wolfburn’s Anniversary Single Cask bottling.

The brief is deceptively simple: choose one cask that best showcases Wolfburn.

The problem, he says, is choosing just one.

Only available to buy from Monday 19th January.