A DISTILLERY manager quitting the business is celebrating retirement with a single malt created in his honour.

Willie Cochrane started work at Jura Whisky after arriving on the Hebridean island in 1977. He planned to stay for just one year, but instead spent 39 at the plant.

Now he is to toast his retirement on a Europe-wide tour with a limited edition single malt.

Named One For The Road, only 5,000 bottles of the 22-year-old whisky have been produced. Manufacturers predict the 47 per cent proof spirit will go down well with collectors – despite a £120 price tag.

Cochrane said: “One of the perks of my job is meeting people who have travelled to the island from far and wide to share their appreciation for whisky with me and the team at the distillery. Now that I have the opportunity, I can think of no better way to repay the favour than releasing one final expression – one for the road – to share with them.”

The historic distillery, which dates back to the early 1800s, fell into disuse before being reopened in the 1960s in an effort to save the 200-strong population.

Cochrane, originally from Glasgow, had little knowledge of whisky when he joined the team, but has since worked his way up and welcomed thousands of visitors to the facility.

This includes TV presenter Rory McGrath, who went to the island to film travel series 3 Men in a Boat and still sends Cochrane a Christmas card every year.

Cochrane initially went to the island to sell a car and was offered a job due to his mechanical skills, starting as a stillman before becoming manager 11 years ago.

He will now turn traveller as he visits Brussels, Lyon, Hamburg, Paris, Cologne and Stockholm to meet whisky lovers and hold tasting sessions of the new malt with “honourary Duirachs”, or Jura residents.

The tour begins next month, ending in October, and Graham Logan, who succeeds Cochrane at the distillery, said: “Nobody embodies Jura’s spirit quite like Willie, so it’s a fitting tribute to a man who has contributed so much to our small, but passionate island. I’ll be raising a glass alongside the rest of the community as we wave Willie off on his next adventure.”

The news comes days after David Frost, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), met UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox for talks on increasing exports as Brexit looms.

Scotch whisky is currently the UK’s biggest net goods export, with £3.8 billion sold overseas last year.

Almost one third of the total – £1.2bn – was sent to the European Union and the SWA says planning for trade as a non-member of the EU is now of “great importance”.

Frost said an “ambitious set of new free trade deals with export markets” is now needed, adding: “The industry is taking a very close interest in the arrangements for trade after Brexit. We have a wealth of knowledge and experience of international trade policy and legal issues built up over many years.”

Scotch whisky accounts for almost 20 per cent of all UK overseas food and drink shipments and the industry generates around £5bn for the economy every year.

It also supports an estimated 40,000 jobs, with £1.7bn invested in the supply chain annually, almost all of which is in the UK.

Meanwhile, it is also a major tourism draw, with 1.6m visits made to distilleries in 2015, an increase of more than 20 per cent in the last five years. Visitors also spent an estimated £50m during trips to production facilities, with most foreign travellers coming from America, Germany and France.