Kirkcudbright distillery creates Scotland’s own version of ‘Tequila’
The distillery is well known for its gins.
Last updated 16th Apr 2024
The Dark Art Distillery in Kirkcudbright has designed Scotland’s first ever tequila.
This product has been in the making for the last fourteen months and has been named Vespero which is Spanish for Venus and relates with the evening star.
Founder of the distillery, Andrew Clark-Hutchison, says the inspiration for this new invention has connections with his Mexican heritage and the Galloway hills.
Clark-Hutchison and his brother were born in Mexico City and lived there until 1967.
He says: “We wanted something that had a nod to our heritage which is inspiration of the Dark Sky above the Galloway Park but also had a link with Mexican culture. Venus was the third most important celestial body to the mains after the sun and the moon.”
However, they’re unable to call it tequila because it isn’t distilled in Mexico.
“It’s 100% distilled in Scotland, it’s 100% made from blue weber agave light premium tequila. It smells like tequila, it tastes like tequila, but we can’t call it tequila because to call it tequila, it has to be made in Mexico.
The distillery - which has been open since 2021 - used to Kirkcudbright's old Johnston School and was then bought over from the local Trust.
Master Distiller Gerard Macluskey explains what makes this drink so unique: “There’s no other agave spirit, there’s tequila but no agave spirit. It’s not trying to be a tequila, it’s just a Scotland homage to Mexico basically. Fundamentally, it’s got the same flavours within it but it’s down to the distillers to where he makes his cuts in his distillation run”.
The distillery is well known for their gins and uniquely designed labels.
Hutchison-Clark tells Greatest Hits Radio about the design for the new Vespero bottles: “The design on the bottle and the symbol design is actually the five petals of Venus as Venus circulates the sun in an eight year period so that’s one of the inspirations. The other one also is of you cut an agave plant in half and look at it from the top, it has the same similar shape.”