ONE of Scotland’s most prominent Scotch whisky distillers has revealed he is preparing to move into the world of rum.

Whisky veteran Billy Walker, who led a consortium to acquire the GlenAllachie Distillery in 2017, is planning to release a series of rums under its MacNair’s peated blended malt brand this year. The rums will be sourced in Panama, Jamaica, Guyana and Venezuela before being “finished” in casks at Mr Walker’s Speyside distillery.

And Mr Walker, whose family sold the BenRiach Distillery Company for £285 million in 2016, revealed GlenAllachie is also mulling a move into distilling rum itself.

He disclosed the plans as a crop of new rum distilleries are springing up around the country. These include Mattuga Distillers in Livingston, Dark Matter Distillers in Banchory and Wester Spirit Rum in Glasgow.

However, the revelation by Mr Walker, a qualified chemist who has worked for Burn Stewart Distillers, Ballantine’s and Inver House Distillers in a whisky career spanning several decades, looks to be the first move by a big name from the Scottish spirits scene into the nascent sector.

Mr Walker, who acquired GlenAllachie with colleagues Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson, said: “While gin appears to be very sexy at the moment, we think that rum is a category that is under-stated internationally. We understand the qualities that good quality cask that can bring to all spirit maturation, particularly rum.

“We’d quite like to introduce a MacNair’s series, so there will be a Panama rum, a Jamaican rum, a Guyanese rum and maybe a Venezuela rum. It will be a series and it will be relatively small volume, but it will be high-end stuff.

“I think that is where we can operate well – in the boutique markets.”

While GlenAllachie’s first steps into rum will be to add a “quality dimension” to spirit made elsewhere, Mr Walker said the distiller making its own rum is a realistic prospect.

He revealed: “It is not without possibility that we will actually produce a rum at some time in the future in the country, but that is at some point in the future.”

Asked whether the GlenAllachie production set-up could be adapted to distil rum, Mr Walker explained: “You would need to have a separate configuration. The timescales are different. The length of fermentation is significantly different [to Scotch whisky], the style of fermentation and indeed the style of distillation is different.”

Meanwhile, distillers are predicting that sales of gin will continue to perform strongly in 2019.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of Loch Lomond Group, said: “Gin just continues to grow in the UK and around the world, fuelled by the launch of literally hundreds of new craft products every year. We will be launching our own Ben Lomond Premium Scottish Gin in early 2019, and look forward to introducing it to the market during next year.”

Mark Riley, managing director at Edrington-Beam Suntory, echoed that sentiment, declaring that the “gin explosion shows no signs of slowing down – if anything it is accelerating”.

He said the gin was consistently growing by between 40 per cent and 50% annually in the UK on a value and volume basis, and highlighted the impact its introduction of Japanese premium craft gin Roku to its portfolio. Noting that the brand has been “received extremely well”, he said Edrington-Beam Suntory “will sell in excess of 20,000 nine-litre cases in its first year”.

Martin Leonard, managing director Inver House Distillers, said there was “still room for growth and diversification” in the market but warned that “producers need to innovate because it’s a fast moving and crowded category.”

Mr Leonard added: “At the same time, I think it’s important that brands are authentic and genuine about their provenance otherwise consumer confidence in the category will be eroded.

“Our super premium Scottish Gin Caorunn has done exceptionally well in the last few years, and as we go into our tenth anniversary year in 2019, we’ll be looking at some brand developments to fuel further growth.”