Daftmill is one of Scotland’s newest and smallest malt whisky distilleries, based in Fife, a region along the east coast north of Edinburgh. What’s with the name? The local geography of the area gives the optical illusion that the stream is running uphill, and so it became known to locals as a backward-running burn (stream), the “Daft” Burn. Lo and behold, the mill that it powered became known as “Daft Mill”.
Though the Cuthbert family have grown malting barley for six generations at Daftmill Farm, brothers Francis and Ian applied for planning permission in 2003, and the distillery was granted its license on St Andrews Day 2005. They use the barley from the farm and water from Daftmill’s own natural spring to produce their malt whiskies. Their first whisky was produced on 16th December 2005, making Daftmill the newest distillery to open in Scotland at that time - although the buildings on the farm date back to 1655! Aside from the stills, which were made in Rothes, all the work on the new distillery was carried out by people within a five mile radius of the farm, as well as all of the materials sourced. Daftmill Farm is still a working farm alongside functioning as a distillery, so the brothers only work the still house in the summer and winter, of course limiting production.
The team allowed the whiskies produced at Daftmill ample time to mature before releasing them to the public. Though they legally had whiskies in casks by the start of 2009, the first bottlings weren’t released until 2018!