It was meant to be a pioneering business that brought a Highland community together.
Instead, the Glen Wyvis Distillery project has turned into an acrimonious series of claims, counter claims and legal spats.
One side describes the fall-out as “a neighbours’ dispute on steroids” and the other likenes it to the Post Office scandal.
Glen Wyvis Distillery: How did we get here?
John McKenzie set up the Glen Wyvis Distillery in 2015 as Scotland’s first community-owned whisky distillery.
Known as the Flying Farmer, the helicopter pilot chauffeured Nicola Sturgeon across Scotland during the 2017 election.
He granted a 175-year lease to the distillery on part of his farm at £1 a year, becoming its landlord.
He lives in an adjacent farmhouse and shares an access road with the business.
Mr McKenzie resigned from the distillery in 2019. Since then, he has made a series of complaints against the enterprise he set up.
These include the building exceeding the size of planning consent, being too close to his house, and visitors coming to the site.
He also made complaints to police, Highland Council and environmental health officers.
But in a recent court ruling, a sheriff ruled that Mr McKenzie must stop harassing staff.
What happened in court?
In the case at Inverness Sheriff Court, distillery staff accused Mr McKenzie of being rude and aggressive on several occasions.
In evidence, they used words including “ranting”, “insulting”, “hostile” and “intimidating” to describe his behaviour.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald granted an interdict preventing Mr McKenzie from interfering with the access road, entering the distillery out with the terms of the lease, and stopping him from harassing employees.
She rejected Mr McKenzie’s counter move to stop visitors to the distillery and to give a waste product called draff to anyone else but him.
Sheriff Macdonald said Mr McKenzie “either did not understand or did not want to understand” that the land he leased was no longer his to do with as he pleases.
The sheriff said the row between the founder and the distillery since he quit as managing director reveals a “sour relationship”.
She said Mr McKenzie had breached the terms of the lease and interfered with access to a shared road.
The sheriff added Mr McKenzie’s “repeated complaints” were “mostly unfounded”.
“Mr McKenzie has been difficult with, and rude, belligerent and threatening to, the officers and staff of the distillery.
“He has been abusive and threatening to the staff, for no good reason.”
Sheriff MacDonald said it is clear everything (the distillery) has done to try to appease Mr McKenzie over the years has failed.
“Mainly because Mr McKenzie appears to have had no interest in resolving his manufactured disputes with them.”
‘It consumes so much negative energy’
Distillery chairman David McIntyre said the sheriff’s ruling is a “powerful judgement”.
He said: “There are a number of challenges with our landlord which is incredibly disappointing.
“The really disappointing thing is that we have had to spend an awful lot of money on legal fees which otherwise could have gone to good causes.
“It just consumes so much negative energy.”
Mr McIntyre said the ongoing tension presents a “constant shadow” over the business and makes it difficult to attract staff, volunteers and investment.
He added: “This is basically a neighbours’ dispute on steroids.
“The irony is that he is the designer of all of this. He was the project manager for everything he now complains about.
“It’s like a toy he doesn’t like any more and he wants to destroy it.”
Mr McIntyre fears investment in a new share issue could be affected by the “negative associations” around the distillery.
“It would be awful if was not able to survive and prosper, a real tragedy.”
John McKenzie: ‘I’ve been compared to Alan Bates’
Mr McKenzie says the court judgement is “just one tiny, unpleasant part” of the story.
He said: “We continue to try to expose the truth around Glen Wyvis Distillery.”
Mr McKenzie complains that there are no distillery staff or directors from Dingwall, and says there are several issues he is concerned about.
“We are here to defend Dingwall against these people who came in and hijacked the distillery from myself and the local area.
“They have irreparably damaged the business that myself and the local community started and it is hugely disappointing.
“It is comparable to the Post Office cover-ups. I’ve been compared to Alan Bates because I won’t let this go.
“I see it as my job as the founder to stand up to what we created- an environmentally-sound distillery, community-owned and community-run by Dingwall.”
Conversation