THE BIG PROFILE: PAUL MILLER, EDEN MILL
22 INSIDER March 2020 http://www.insider.co.uk
genuinely made there locally. We
were able to prove those things out in
the first year, 18 months.”
Miller, who owns 20 per cent of the
business with two partners owning
the remainder, saw an opportunity
in spirits, which would provide “a
greater return than a three-pack
of beer for a tenner.” But spirits he
says involved a whole new layer of
investment and another conversation
with the university which, he says
hadn’t developed their plans much
further two years down the line.
In January 2014 he visited the
Dewar’s distillery in Aberfeldy which
had 33,000 annual visitors. “I couldn’t
help but think jeez oh, we’re really
missing a trick here. By the time I got
back to Fife I had decided that come
hell or high water that by the time of
the referendum in September that
year we would have a distillery that
was up and running.
He says: “The university said you’re
definitely not going to be staying here
long, so it’s your risk; you may have a
couple of years on that site but you’re
going to have to leave at some point.
“We took that risk and ploughed
well over £1m into creating a small
cap distillery and started making our
first whisky and started making gin.”
The business didn’t in fact get its
distilling licence until 14 November
2014, two months after the
referendum vote.
“Two months before, Nick
Robinson of the BBC was down
interviewing Alex Salmond on the
site of the still house just before
the referendum but we weren’t at that
point making any spirit,”
Miller laughs.
While Miller knew they would
have to move, he says the distillery
worked well with them making gin
and experimenting with different
wood types, barley types and barrels
to give a distinctive edge to the
whiskies they produced.
“It allowed us to develop genuinely
authentic points of difference in the
whiskies we were making and people
were willing to engage with that.
“You first single malt will always
sell well to the collectors so our first
single malt in 2018 sold for a world
record £7,100 for the bottle. It’s fine
to sell to collectors – they’ll snap up
anything but it doesn’t really give you
a true sense of what you are actually
making – the drinkers aren’t getting
to drink it.”
Miller and his colleagues produced
a Hip Flask series, a continuallychanging quarter bottle of whisky
aimed to give the drinker the chance
to explore different flavour profiles
just using different malt types and
different wood finishes. With only
1,500 or 1,800 of each batch made –
depending on which casks they came
from – they had the advantage of
rarity value. Miller says: “People were
really engaging with that because it
give them that chance to put their
head under the bonnet and see how
it works.
“We had a lot of fun making
whiskies but ultimately whisky wasn’t
going to drive the economic engine
of the business because it takes a long
time for whiskies to mature. We also
started making gin and gin was really
beginning to take off at that time.”
Miller says his colleagues had
the idea of using hops as one of
the botanicals from which to make
gin. “Of course I thought that was
bonkers. They said ‘there’s only one
hop gin in the world’ and I said
‘there’s probably a reason for that. I
said they could make their hop ginbut they had to use some ceramic
bottles we had in the warehouse.
“That was the start of us producing
our gin in the ceramic bottles. In a
way it was always an accidental way
that we found the value of gin gifting.
Back then it was significant, now it’s
really significant.”
He said that at Christmas 2019
more than 50,000 people opened
up an Eden Mill gift whether as a
present for family or friends or as a
work Secret Santa.
So he says Eden Mill coming
in ceramic bottles “was no great
marketing genius, this was an
accident really that we went down
the ceramic route with these. But it’s
a really nice accident, because people
really like them and they’re perfect
for gifting. And they’re collectible.”
While that may have been an
accident Paul Miller’s idea that a
distillery in St Andrews could be a
significant visitor attraction in the
town has really come good.
“One of the things we are most
proud of is that the number one thing
to do on TripAdvisor in St Andrews
and for most of the time around Fife
for over three years was come on a
gin tour of our distillery.”
He says that that has allowed the
business to employ a lot of talented
young people as storytellers “I love
it that if you come to visit Eden Mill,
depending who it is that takes youIt was no great marketing genius,
this was an accident that we
went down the ceramic route.
But it’s a really nice accident