Tony Reeman-Clark
Tony Reeman-Clark’s public story was tied to an idea that, in the early 2010s, still sounded faintly unreasonable in Scotch whisky. He wanted to build a legally licensed microdistillery, run it with an experimenter’s discipline rather than a marketing slogan, and prove that genuinely small-batch whisky could earn attention.
These ideas became the start of Strathearn Distillery, which Reeman-Clark founded in 2013 on a farm near Methven, Perthshire. His tiny stills, short-run releases, and an unusually open willingness to try new things, were ideas that larger distilleries rarely attempted. Streathearn was built within a 160-year-old stone farm steading on the site of an early distillery founded by William White in 1798. It had been disused for many decades, until Reeman-Clark, David Lang, and David Wight revived it. Strathearn was fitted with a stainless steel mash tun, two stainless steel washbacks and two stills. The stills that the trio chose were of an alembic type and made in Portugal by the company Hoga, having been originally designed for the sherry industry.
The output of Strathearn was finally realized in January 2013, when the distillery began production. It was quickly described, sometimes half in admiration, half in disbelief, as “probably Scotland’s smallest distillery.” That phrase could have been marketing, but in Strathearn’s case it was also a technical truth. Wash and spirit stills charged at about 800 litres and 450 litres, respectively, numbers that sit dramatically below the norms of most established Scotch sites. Strathearn also boasted what is likely the longest fermentation time of any distillery at 96 hours.
In 2016, Strathearn made a move that signaled exactly how Reeman-Clark wanted to introduce his whisky: not with a quiet bottle-shop release, but with a story that forced the market to pay attention. Strathearn launched “The First Whisky Club,” explicitly contrasting itself with larger distilleries whose clubs required waiting 5 years or more for matured stock. Reeman-Clark’s pitch was simple: Strathearn’s first Scotch would be ready sooner, and the club would provide members with access to single casks and experiences built around participation. That same year, Strathearn’s first single malt Scotch whisky milestone arrived in a form that felt like a dare: a three-years-and-one-day whisky released via auction, with the first 100 bottles (50cl) sold through Whisky Auctioneer. Bottle 001 became the headline, selling for £4,150, and Reeman-Clark said he would hand-deliver it to the winning bidder in Italy. The hand-delivery detail turned what could have been a niche auction result into a founder’s gratitude: personal, slightly theatrical, and perfectly aligned with the idea that tiny distilleries live or die by trust and direct connection. As a result of the gesture, Strathearn had soon become a recognizable name in Scotland’s young microdistilling conversation. It then had a public profile, it ran hands-on experiences, and it had already proved it could produce whisky that collectors would fight over.
Reeman-Clark, who was born in June 1955, was no stranger to public relations. He is married to Amanda Reeman-Clark (“Mandy”), who operated in a senior administrative role in Strathearn’s early structure and who has supported his many ventures, though none of them had ever been quite as grand as Strathearn. Nevertheless, even with the nearly unimaginable success of Starthearn, Reeman-Clark surprised the entire distilling world when, on 16 July 2019, he resigned as director of the distillery that he had founded. He publicly stated no reason for the departure. About six weeks later, Douglas Laing & Co. acquired Strathearn outright. It was that company’s first-owned distillery. The sale was a turning point in two directions at once. It closed Reeman-Clark’s chapter as founder-operator, but it also validated his core achievement: he had built something small enough to feel intimate, but real enough; licensed, productive, and culturally legible, that an established Scotch house wanted it as a long-term asset. Reeman-Clark, however, did not leave distilling behind. He was announced as Director and Distiller at The Orkney Distillery four weeks later, as that facility sought to bring whisky and rum into its portfolio and had sought out Reeman-Clark to help them accomplish the deed.
An ending for Tony Reeman-Clark’s story, then, is not the sale of Strathearn, but the pattern that runs through what he accomplished at Strathearn; that is, he pulled whisky back toward the scale where a single person’s judgment can still be felt in the day’s output. At Strathearn, that meant tiny charges, early releases that took real reputational risk, and a willingness to let a three-years-and-one-day whisky face the world with nowhere to hide. It also meant inviting people into the process; so many, by his own later account, that the distillery was “swamped with interest.” When Douglas Laing bought Strathearn, it also did not rewrite that origin; it effectively confirmed that the origin was worth buying. And when Reeman-Clark moved on, he did not trade smallness for comfort. He took the same instincts to build carefully, run tight, teach what you know, and keep the spirit honest into a new place, where the work of establishing whisky production “anew” was, once again, being done in public and at human scale.
Sources:
The Scotsman, “Strathearn Distillery launches The First Whisky Club”, 29 February 2016, foodanddrink.scotsman.com
Visit Orkney, “Class is in for Orkney’s first whisky school” / “New Era for The Orkney Distillery”, orkney.com
The Orkney Distillery official website, “Our Team”, orkneydistilling.com
Companies House (UK Government), “People for Single Malt Distiller Limited (SC618683)”, find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
Companies House (UK Government), “Anthony Reeman-Clark-personal appointments”, find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
Whiskypedia, “Strathearn Distillery Limited”, scotchwhisky.com
Whisky Magazine, “Douglas Laing Acquires Strathearn Distillery,” Christopher Coates, 24 Oct 2019, whiskymag.com
Whisky Advocate, “The First Single Malt From Strathearn Distillery Under…Douglas Laing”, whiskyadvocate.com
The Orkney Distillery, “Our Team”, orkneydistilling.com
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
