Saxa Vord Distillery — Islands Single Malt Whisky

Saxa Vord Distillery is a Scotch spirits distillery located near Haroldswick on the island of Unst, Shetland, Scotland — the northernmost inhabited part of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2014 and is currently owned and operated by the Shetland Distillery Company, a family business run by Wilma and Stuart Nickerson together with Frank and Debbie Strang. Saxa Vord is best known as the producer of Shetland Reel gin, and it also matures and independently bottles single malt Scotch whisky on site, making it one of the very few whisky-related operations in the Shetland Islands.

History

The Strang family first explored building a distillery at the former RAF Saxa Vord site in 2007, but it was not until 2013 that Shetland Islands Council approved plans to convert the former RAF supply depot buildings for distilling, supported by a £17,000 grant from Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Stuart Nickerson, who had previously worked for Grant's and for Glenglassaugh distillery, joined the Strangs — who had led the redevelopment of RAF Saxa Vord into the Saxa Vord Resort — to found the Shetland Distillery Company. The first gin was produced in August 2014, launched with a concert by country musician Jim Salestrom, and the distillery holds the distinction of being the UK's most northerly distillery and the first legal distillery ever established in Shetland.

In September 2015 the company released four single malt whiskies sourced from Glenglassaugh, marketed as the first whiskies ever bottled in Shetland. After HMRC approved on-site bonded maturation, Saxa Vord released a blended malt finished in casks on Unst — described as the first Scotch whisky release to be partially matured in Shetland. In 2018 the company announced a £4.5 million fundraising drive to build a full single malt whisky production facility, though as of the early 2020s the funding for that expansion had not been secured, and whisky produced under the Saxa Vord name has continued to be sourced, matured, and finished rather than distilled entirely on site. During the COVID-19 pandemic the distillery repurposed production to make hand sanitiser for NHS Shetland and local key workers.

Quick Facts

• Region: Islands (Shetland)
• Founded: 2014
• Owner: Shetland Distillery Company (Nickerson and Strang families)
• Status: Active

Core Range

Saxa Vord's core output is the Shetland Reel gin range, including the flagship Original Gin (made with eight botanicals, including apple mint grown in a polytunnel on Unst), Ocean Sent, and Filska, alongside cask-aged gin variants and a gin liqueur made with locally grown brambles and rhubarb. On the whisky side, the distillery has released independently sourced single malts from Glenglassaugh bottled under the Saxa Vord/Shetland name, as well as a blended malt finished in casks matured on Unst — the first Scotch whisky matured, even partially, in the Shetland Islands.