Why work for someone else when you can work for yourself?
That’s the question Stravaig Spirits co-founders Ryan McCafferty and Ola Lopatowska asked themselves, before they took the decision to launch their own independent Scotch whisky bottler in 2022.
The founders both had extensive expertise working in whisky by this point, including having worked together at the venerable Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and were confident they had the skills and knowledge needed to strike out on their own. And the ethos behind Stravaig’s flagship Tri Carragh bottlings is very much inspired by the society, according to Ryan.
“I totally bought into that ethos, where you don’t care what distillery has produced the whisky, you don’t care what age the whisky is, you don’t care what cask type that whisky has been matured in,” he told SLTN. “Has the whisky got a lot of flavour, complexity and depth to it? When we get casks, they have those qualities. That’s what we bottle.”
The brand name Tri Carragh is Gaelic for ‘three pillars’, referencing the three ingredients of Scotch whisky: barley, water and yeast. In keeping with the theme, each release also consists of three different bottlings; each is from a single cask and bottled at cask strength.
The most recent releases are a 16 year old Lochindaal from Bruichladdich, a 16 year old Craigellachie and a 10 year old Glenlossie.
In addition to the top-shelf Tri Carragh range, the company also bottles the Glenlaird range of Highland single malts. There is currently a 10 year old unpeated single malt and a 12 year old lightly peated single malt in the range, both from separate, unnamed distilleries and both bottled at 48% ABV.
Between both brands, the company is well positioned to appeal to a broad range of on-trade venues.
“Tri Carragh is our high-end product,” explained Ryan, adding that the bottlings are well suited to high-end restaurants and whisky bars.
“Glenlaird is higher volume, lower price point. And moving forward we’ll probably be introducing blends and blended malts within our portfolio, very much with the same idea, where it has a lot of flavour and complexity, but at a lower price point.”
