Alasdair Day 1
The Tweeddale Blend To Be Brought Back Home
Businessman Alasdair Day revived the 100-year-old artisan blend, originally made in Coldstream, using his great-grandfather’s recipe.
He now wants to create a craft distillery with a cafe, visitor centre and a retail outlet in the Caberston farm buildings, to encourage tourism to the Borders.
If his plans go ahead, the venture would create around 12 jobs on the Walkerburn site.
Alasdair said: “We are currently in discussions with potential investors to raise the funding – £5 million – required.
“The proposed distillery in Walkerburn will produce 100,000 litres of pure alcohol a year which will be matured for three years before becoming Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
“As a young kid we took holidays in the Borders as my family owned houses here, so the area is very close to my heart.
“I spent years looking for a suitable site for the distillery. It needed to be somewhere with a good water supply, and the building needed to be suitable for visitors.
“The latter is quite important, as it will not be purely a distillery but also a visitor attraction.”
The news comes shortly after Mossburn Distillers announcement – see page 21 – of plans to build a £40 million distillery at Jedforest Hotel near Jedburgh.
Between 1818 and 1837 the Borders was home to three distilleries, but is currently the only region in Scotland not to have one.
Alasdair is hoping the change that by getting his project up and running by 2018.
The entrepreneur has worked in the food industry for 20 years and set-up his company, Stonedean Limited, with the sole intention of re-creating The Tweeddale.
Mr Day added: “Walkerburn is close to Glentress and Traquair, both hugely popular tourist spots, so it is the right kind of area.
“It is my aim to return my great grandfather’s whisky The Tweeddale home to the Scottish Borders.
The Tweeddale was originally born in Coldstream’s J&A Davidson in 1820, which was taken over by Alasdair’s great-grandfather Richard Day in 1923.
Between 1939 and 1940 the he business was wound down and The Tweeddale was no longer made, with Richard selling off his stock of whisky casks over the years.
But his cellar book was passed down through several generations in the family and in May 2010 the first batch of the whisky was made again for the first time in 70 years.
