Bere barley is a heritage variety of barley that never quite reached peak popularity with farmers or distillers, owing to its low yield. It never made the ‘recommended growing list’ for farmers, and so sowing the seed fell out of fashion. The ancient landrace would have been all but lost if it were not for the resurrection mission forged by the Barony Mill with the helping hand of the Orkney College (UHI Agronomy Institute).
This 2011 vintage of whisky, distilled from the six-row grain grown on Orkney in the summer of 2010, is a testament to the longevity of the Bere partnership that started back in 2005. Certainly no ordinary bottle of single malt, it’s uniqueness has layers; in its unorthodox method of barley supply, its academic interest owing to genetic diversity and perhaps most importantly to us, its intensely unctuous, barley-sugar-sweet flavour.