The Netherfield:
An Odyssey of Taste
by Aurélien Foucault, photos provided by the Estate
The Netherfield Estate, Strathaven, Scotland.
From collection to distillation, building the dream one drop at a time.
Right outside the market town of Strathaven, behind an iron gate branching off Glassford Road, a long alley lined with trees takes you into the lovely greenery of the Scottish Lowlands. There lies the Netherfield Estate, a historical property consisting of a Georgian House, stables, a lake, and plenty of green fields where flocks of sheep pasture nonchalantly.
That is in this very Scottish setting that I find Roman and Radmila, busy preparing for a visit planned later in the day.
Roman Sayapin, a native of Khabarovsk in Siberia – the far east of Russia – welcomes me with a smile before signalling me to quickly join him inside the bonded warehouse. These ancient stables now host their treasure room: barrels of all ages, tanks filled to the brim, and a small bottling station. There, Roman, armed with a Valinch (also known as a Whisky Thief), pours a dram straight from a barrel and hands it to me, his eyes lit with mischief. “Perfect timing! I have just opened this cask. Let me know what you think…”
It is for moments like this that the adventure of Netherfield started: the anticipation, the meticulous nurturing of carefully selected barrels, and the joy of finally sharing them with the world.
Roman and his wife Radmila are what you could call true citizens of the world. Of Siberian Tatars origins, they spent much of their lives between China and Europe, and while they were originally planning to settle down in London, they took a trip around Scotland and got so infatuated with the land, its lively weather and its people that they turned their plan around.
A lover of fine things, Roman remembers the first time he had whisky as a young man in Beijing – it was a simple Johnny Walker Black, but deeply he knew he had found his drink of choice. He then started his ascent of the never-ending path to whisky discovery and began his collection. Soon realising that bottles were just “too small” to properly share with friends, a logical alternative came as an epiphany: why buy bottles when you could buy barrels? Having successfully ventured into business in China, he now had the means to go on a quest to expand his collection.
That is during one of his trips to the UK that Roman met with Donald MacLellan, a whisky lover strong with over 20 years of experience in the industry. Donald originally acted as their broker for cask purchases, but they quickly bonded over their aligned vision of the whisky experience and the desire to find a suitable place to store their collection. It is this pursuit of the perfect home for their cask collection that led Roman and Radmila to happen upon the Netherfield Estate. Its timeless charm, the luscious greenery of the large estate, its stables well suited to welcome their collection, and the proximity to a windy and enchanting lake meant it could never just be a bonded warehouse – it was to become their home.
However, this was no easy task. Moving into a 1776 mansion implies plenty of renovation and unexpected surprises, especially in the midst of Scottish winters. When I ask how they were welcomed as outsiders, Radmila Istomina, who oversees strategy and communications while shaping the Estate’s culture of hospitality, is quick to praise the neighbours and whisky community around them: “Our neighbours in Strathaven have treated us with so much respect and support from day one, there’s a real thread of hospitality everywhere in Scotland. Even industry professionals are always eager to help us with advice and connections.”
This support proved invaluable in their endeavour and installation into the Netherfield House.
From the very start, priority was given to turning the stables into a bonded warehouse to host their treasured casks. The damp, quiet, and dark environment provided the gold standard for cask dunnage, minimising the angel’s share and offering a more controlled, slower maturation process than racked warehouses.
The work they do in the warehouse goes much beyond storing their precious spirits: this is where Roman carefully curates their maturing whisky library, which has now grown to about 200 individual casks. Some of them came through brokers, while others came directly from the distilleries – many of them with the help of Donald, who is now a partner of Netherfield, where he holds the romantic title of ‘Bounty Hunter’, scouting Scotland from moors to lochs to find the most promising casks.
Tasting them regularly to assess their slow evolution, Roman takes them to what he sees as their full potential – sometimes bottling them right away when they feel just right or guiding them further for added complexity, for example, with a second maturation in Sherry casks from Spain.
Although they cannot wait to have their own copper-pot stills and start distilling themselves, Roman and Radmila really enjoy this adventure as independent bottlers.
This allows them to offer a panel from the five whisky regions (Highland, Lowland, Speyside, Islay, and Campbeltown) and to fully explore what they like to call the ‘Art of Presence,’ thus adding their own touch to their production. The bonded warehouse is also aimed at educating visitors on whisky, the aging process and of course offering tastings from the Netherfield collection, something that’s always been part of the project’s DNA.
In a conversation over a generous lunch, Radmila explains that they are also about to launch a vodka brand. She explained that the idea came about while they were chatting with Scottish friends, curious about Russian Vodka and the realisation that while good whiskies shine by their complexity and multi-layered taste – best vodkas shine by their smoothness and absence of taste – perfect to be downed with a family meal. The idea of producing both spirits amused the couple as this somehow evoked the Yin & Yang concept, thus nodding to both their time in China and their Russian heritage. Their brand new vodka, set to be launched at ProWein 2026 in Düsseldorf, is made in collaboration with a high-quality UK grain spirit producer, using a double filtration system – adding a frost filtration to the traditional charcoal filtration to ensure a flawless, silky-smooth texture and a near-neutral palate, making it a truly remarkable Russian Vodka with Scottish standards. They named it ‘Black Lake’, inspired by a winter morning when the estate’s lake appeared entirely black against the surrounding snow.
As the day draws to an end and the visitors, now cheerfully warmed by the tasting, are leaving the estate, Roman quickly tidies the warehouse and invites me to sit down. During the visit, I could see how happy he was to chat and share his passion with the guests but can now see the toll these long days take. That doesn’t stop him from fetching a bottle from a cupboard and pouring us a generous dram. His eyes light up again the minute he starts explaining the story behind this limited release, bottled the previous year in honour of the 25 years Jubilee of Strathaven Balloon Festival.
This is a splendid, richly coloured 14-year-old blended malt, double cask matured, with 5 years spent in American Oak Barrels before spending 9 more years in first-fill Pedro Ximénez Puncheons. It is just superb and refreshing in its approach, taking me from dark chocolate to baked apples and blackcurrants.
By sitting right there, I realise all the work they’ve managed to achieve in such a short time. Yet this is only the beginning, as the next chapter is already taking shape. With their plan of building their own distillery right here on the estate, they will finally bring their vision full circle, from collection to distillation. Roman and Radmila are not chasing trends, they know their project is worth the wait and can not be rushed – and judging by the quality of their first output, their patience and hard work shall soon be rewarded.