In preparation for this Sunday’s Burns Night, Perthshire’s family-owned Aberargie Distillery commissioned writer Miriam Gamble to create a new poem anticipating the launch of its inaugural Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
Nine years on from laying down its first casks in 2017, Aberargie is preparing to unveil its first barley-to-bottle single malt Scotch whisky in March 2026.
As Burns Night is a date dedicated to language, craft and cultural heritage, Aberargie wanted to collaborate with Gamble on a poem celebrating patience, provenance and, in particular, barley.
Titled ‘Golden Promise’, after the heritage barley variety grown on the distillery farm, the poem reflects on the quiet virtues of waiting, while exploring how time, repetition, and restraint shape what is most worth having in life.
Aberargie is one of the few distilleries in Scotland to operate a barley-to-bottle philosophy, using Golden Promise grown on the fields in front of the distillery, as well as Laurette barley from the two other family farms.
Although lower-yielding than modern strains, Golden Promise brings flavour benefits, and is said to produce a full-bodied, malty new-make spirit with notable oiliness and depth.
Managing director of Aberargie Distillery, Niel Hendriksz, said: “Burns Night invites reflection on what we choose to value and preserve.
“Working with Miriam felt like a natural way to honour Scotland’s literary heritage while also reflecting the values behind our first single malt.
“Commissioning a poem felt like an honest way to mark this moment, not just as a distillery approaching a first release, but as custodians of land and whisky traditions.
“Patience, care and provenance have defined our journey from the very beginning.”
Gamble, poet and essayist of the University of Edinburgh, said: “It’s been a real pleasure collaborating with Aberargie to produce a poem in celebration of the launch of their first single malt.
“Where prose’s equivalent tipple might be a pint of beer, poetry is language art’s most condensed form; as such, it not only takes time to come to fruition but also aspires, like whisky, to pack a delectable – and ideally unforgettable – little punch.
“Both the maker of whisky and the poet work to distil spirit: one in liquid, the other in language. In making it new, both also work with respect for, and an ear to everything they can learn from, their many antecedents on the long road of tradition.”
The whole poem is published to offer a ‘quiet counterpoint to the anticipation surrounding the Morrison Family’s return to distilling’ after two decades, a reminder that both art and craft are shaped as much by waiting as by making.
Golden Promise
by Miriam Gamble
Good things don’t necessarily
come to those who wait, but being capable
of waiting helps: the right skills, the right
water source, the scoop nestled
in the right barley. And everything worth
having, is it not, is a thing gained
in this way: a satisfying story,
or home-grown veg. The joy of dance
steps mastered, repeated till they’re worked
into thoughtlessness that swills around the room like whisky
swilling round the ice in the centre
of a glass. Friendships which are mellow now,
but still conjure up new notes when,
at length, we sit, uncork the bottle.
And – yes, a ghràidh – love itself.
Steady does it – slow, and sure – as we traverse
this life together: the way a plough horse
turns a field, the way a good dram
travels the mouth. Still learning – always –
but not changing anything we needn’t.
Learning to let alone what is thriving
in the still, bright corners of us, facing south.
Aberargie Single Malt Scotch Whisky Inaugural will be available from specialist whisky retailers from March 2026.
