At the Sugar House distillery in Dumbarton, there’s a stag’s head on the wall. That’s not unusual for Scotland, you might say, and you’d be right – except that this one is used as a hatstand – a metaphorical two fingers to the traditional image of the distilling industry, and the distillery is not set in the rolling acres of the Highlands, but a somewhat scruffy industrial unit on the outskirts of town.
Sugar House is one of three distilleries that produced huge online spirits retailer The Whisky Exchange’s spirits of the year. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the winners are all Scottish. “We didn’t actually realise the Scottish connection until a few days after we had all the winners,” the site’s co-founder Sukhinder Singh says incredulously.
