#70.2 A weekend in Campbeltown

Ending the whisky year with a bang (Part II)

 

TL; DR: After Glen Scotia and Kilkerran, we had two more whisky tastings lined up for the weekend. An unmissable Cadenhead’s Warehouse tasting, always interesting for its variety, and an excellent Watt Whisky tasting at the shop with Mark. Campbeltwon, we’ll be back. 

(missed Part 1?)

The Saturday morning was much quieter, helped by a gloomy weather: we cooked ourselves a big breakfast with eggs, bacon, and some bread. We then went for a (short) stroll, before going straight to the Cadenhead’s shop for our third tasting of the weekend: the Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting. We are almost veterans, having done it four (Teresa) and six (Gianluigi) times. Our host was Craig, and joining the tasting there were the two German guys we’d met the day before, and a group of five people (four guys and a lady) who were a tad too noisy, some clearly in hangover since the day before.

  • The casks lineup at Cadenhead’s!
  • The only decent picture of us at Cadenhead’s. Oh well.

The tasting started with an…English whisky! It was a 2019 Filey Bay from a Madeira cask, surprisingly naturally at a 47%abv. It was followed by a 14y Glen Garioch finished in rum cask (55%), very tropical as you can expect. Next, a 16y Glenallachie from a refill sherry butt, at a whooping abv of 63.5%. It was very pale, so probably a third fill? Fourth dram was a 15y Burnside(™) from a sherry hogshead (65.7%), before moving into the peat realm: a 15y Ledaig (51.8%) and an 11y Caol Ila (58.2%), both from bourbon casks, both delicious. Overall, a very interesting tasting, with a lot of different drams, and Craig did a great job despite the noisy crowd.

  • Ready to dram.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay and enjoy the 7th dram at the tasting room, because they were closing at 12.30 for the J&A Mitchell Christmas party. So, we took our drams “to go”, and went to the flat to cook ourselves the “pisarei e fasö”…We had a good portion, eating the whole half-kilo pack.

  • A big lunch, a taste of home.

After some rest, and a much needed coffee, we went out again for the final tasting of the weekend at the Watt Whisky shop, very kindly scheduled by Mark. We started with a couple of ex-bourbon cask Speysiders, one of Mark’s favourite styles, a 13y Inchgower (58.3%) and a 10y Aultmore (56.9%). Both delicious, and very different from each other: the first funkier and heavier, the latter more delicate. Then it was time for a 9y Campbeltown blended malt (57%), which may or may not be a tea-spooned Glen Scotia (for a deeper review of the dram check out Dramface). After that we got a pair: a 13y Benrinnes finished in an Armagnac cask (58%), paired with the 17y Chateau Laubade Armagnac (54.8%) that was in the cask before the whisky. This confirmed our taste for Armagnac casks in general (this Benrinnes in particular was delicious!), and that Armagnac itself is a spirit worth exploring more.

The tasting came to a close with a young and sherried 6y Staoisha (peated Bunnahabhain, 57%), a dram that always delivers. We could have listened to Mark talking about whisky for hours, but it was time to close the shop and so we left, happy.

  • Festive vibes at Watt Whisky shop.

The evening continued with a pint and a take-away from the Bangladesh Tandoori that we ate at the flat (great food, and abundant portions too). We went out for the evening, first at the Fiddler’s Inn and then at the Burnside: there were many Christmas parties around, so in both bars the atmosphere was fun and joyful. We had some nice chat with locals, who often looked at our drinks and guessed why we were in town: they must be used to whisky enthusiasts, we felt very welcomed. Campbeltown is such a cosy place!

Finally, Sunday came, time to leave and go back to reality. It was one of those miserable rainy days that you’d want to spend inside, maybe in front of a chimney with a book and a dram. Unfortunately, we had to drive a few hours, but in the end we got home safely (albeit without one of the wheel trim covers, a loss possibly caused by one of the many puddles we found on the road).

  • An excellent lineup, thanks Mark!

It was another great and very interesting whisky adventure, we had so many flavoursome drams! The Glen Scotia tasting went beyond our expectations, and potentially they might still have the same casks available at the time of writing (January 2026): since they only sell 20cl bottles, the turnover might be slow. It was also the case for the Kilkerran tasting, as some of the casks were the same as in April, despite the Campbeltown Malt Festival in between. Nonetheless, as even the new casks were very similar to the previous ones, so we might wait a bit before doing this tasting again. As expected, the two independent bottlers range was various and interesting. At Cadenhead’s, only one cask was still there since April, the Glenallachie, but while the abv hadn’t changed much, it was definitely more mellow the second time around. Because it was only the two of us, Mark could tailor the tasting around that, avoiding expressions we’d tried at a tasting at the Belfry (Edinburgh) back in March 2025. This latter was definitely a winner, something we’d repeat next time we’re in town. About our next time in Campbeltown, we might have big news for this year, but no spoilers just now.

Stay tuned to know about our next adventures, this time around about the other side of Scotland. Until then, slàinte mhath!

Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Price: £45.00 pp (December 2025)

Duration: 1hr (more like 1hr 30min)

Tasting: 6 drams from the cask, plus a dram at the Cadenhead’s Tasting Room, and a complimentary glass (high-stem copita)

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.cadenhead.scot/

Watt Whisky Tasting

Price: £25.00 pp (December 2025)

Duration: 1hr (more like 1hr 30min)

Tasting: 6 drams

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: great

Highlights: Mark’s banter

Recommended: yes

Link: https://wattwhisky.com/

#70.1 A weekend in Campbeltown

Ending the whisky year with a bang (Part I)

 

TL; DR: Just before Christmas, we planned a relaxing long weekend in Campbeltown, where we did a few tastings. First off: Glen Scotia and Kilkerran, followed by a great walk on the hills behind the toon! It might become a fixed appointment… 

Happy new year! To all our readers, we hope your 2026 started in the best way possible. Ours did. As we write, we are back to work after a very relaxing 3-week break from the blog. That was needed, as the months preceding Christmas were particularly challenging, with work deadlines, etc. In that busy period, we only managed to fit a few quick escapes, nothing more than a weekend. This was until mid-December, when we set a few days aside for a proper long weekend away, and where better to go if not the Wee Toon itself, Campbeltown?

While Gianluigi visited the town last April with his pal Roberto, Teresa hadn’t been there since early July 2024…And even then, we only spent half a day there, leaving right after a cheeky Cadenhead’s tasting and lunch. So, a trip back was definitely due, at this point! We prepared Mr Vantastic a day or two in advance, and on the Thursday morning we left early, aiming to get there after lunch after the 4-and-a-half hours drive. This was to give us enough time to park the van and check in at our accommodation: being December, we didn’t want to take chances to stay in the van only to find terrible weather, so we got ourselves a small flat for the weekend. And besides, the two nearest campsites are about 4.5 miles from the town, one in Machrihanish and one in Peninver, too far to walk the distance after a tasting (or two). Along the way, we only had a break in Inveraray to get the usual morning roll at the George Hotel (this time not as good as usual), and to meet our pal Ivan: because of the wind, his seafood shack was closed, but we found him helping out a local stalker to process some venison. There we bought mince, fillets and square sausages that we ate back in Leith a few days later: everything was delicious! Back on the road, we arrived just past 2pm, in time to settle in the rented flat and go to our first tasting of the weekend. The flat was in a great location, right in between Cadenhead’s shop and Springbank, what could we ask more? Other than being a tad damp, it was perfect for our needs.

  • Ready to start the long weekend.

Our first tasting was at Glen Scotia distillery, and was the Warehouse Selection Tasting (but not in the warehouse, which at first we found odd). As we checked in, Greg told us we were the only ones attending, and the table was almost ready for us: the good thing of not doing the tasting in the warehouse is that we had one glass per dram, so we could take our time. After a cheeky browse of the shop, the tasting started. Greg took out the bottles one by one, so we couldn’t even guess “with our eyes” what was going to come. It was a great exploration of what Glen Scotia can do: from a purely ex-bourbon cask (10y, tropical bomb!) to a young Oloroso cask finished dram (6y), and another finish but in a refill PX cask (9y). We then moved on to a Port cask matured whisky (11y) and finished (you might guess) with a peated Glen Scotia, again matured only in an ex-bourbon cask (and again 11y): while the first dram was from a Heaven Hill barrel, this one was from a Jim Beam’s one. Overall, it was an excellent tasting, the drams were one better than the other, but the ex-bourbon cask duo won it for us. You can only buy one 20cl bottle per person, and we got one of these two (both £33, not cheap).

  • Our weekend started strong, great tasting!

Greg was a great host, very knowledgeable and nice: as we told him that we had visited the distillery all the way back in 2018, he briefly walked us in the distillery to show us the new mash tun. And we also met Archie, the distiller who had given us a super geeky tour in 2018.

  • The new mashtun!

Back from the tasting, we briefly stopped at the Springbank distillery shop: we needed to buy two cage bottles to complete the lineup of our next Edinburgh Whisky Group online tasting (6 bottles, all from the cage!). Cage bottles can be considered an equivalent of the “bottle-your-own” or “distillery cask” at other distilleries (without the crazy pricing of some), but they come up more randomly and you can only buy one per week (per person, so two in our case). For some reason (and the reason is “auctions”), the Springbank bottles tend to disappear quite quickly from the cage, while Hazelburn, Longrow (both produced at Springbank!) and Kilkerran (from Glengyle distillery) tend to stick around a bit more. Usually we don’t care, we like them all, but in this case we wanted to get a Springbank for the tasting. We weren’t lucky that day, but we got the other bottle at least. We stopped at the Washback bar for a cheeky dram before it closed (at 6pm), and we found Aly, always great to chat with. Next, we got something to eat (a very bad take-away on Longrow…the street) and went back to the flat for an early night. We woke up well rested, and after a big breakfast, we went to the Springbank shop again to get the second cage bottle: we got the last one available after queueing just before the shop opened: crazy! However, we were happy with the outcome, and now we cannot wait to share these drams with our pals!

After accomplishing this mission, we took advantage of the sunny morning to go on a hike. We went up to the hill behind the town, first to the Crosshill reserve, and then to a panoramic view, before getting lost in the woodland, but somehow managing to get back in time for lunch at the flat. We also prepared a sauce for the next day meal: pisarei e fasö, typical from Gianluigi’s hometown, which he brought back after a recent trip to Italy. We properly did it by preparing the sauce a day in advance to let it simmer.

  • Davaar island over there.
  • Almost at the top of the hill, before we got a bit lost in the woods.

We then went back to attend the Kilkerran Warehouse tasting, this time in the warehouse. It was the two of us and two younger German guys, other than the host Joyce, whom Gianluigi knew from his tasting with Roberto in April. We started with a 2006 vintage triple distilled followed by a 2005 (respectively from refill ex-bourbon barrel and hogshead) and a 2010 from a 1st fill barrel. The second half of the tasting consisted of two 2013 vintage drams, one from a Port pipe and one from a sherry hogshead, and a heavily peated expression, 2015 again from a 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel.

  • Beauties in the warehouse.

The type of lineup was exactly the same as the one in April (even if some of the casks changed in the meantime), which was a tad boring. Nonetheless, the drams were all very tasty, and it is always great to explore one of our favourite distilleries in such depth. The winner for us was the triple distilled, a tropical bomb! Just a shame they increased the price from £60 to £80 for a half-bottle (35cl), which is a bit pricey. After the tasting, we went back to the Washback bar for an extra dram, and then back to the flat. We got ready for our dinner at the Ardshiel Hotel: not only a great whisky bar, they do amazing food as well. We got ourselves a two courses festive menu (plus a cheeky dessert for Gianluigi) and then called it a night.

Stay tuned for the second part of our whisky trip in Campbeltown, coming next week. Until then, slàinte!

Glen Scotia Warehouse Selection Tasting

Price: £40.00 pp + £2 fee (December 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 5 Glen Scotia cask samples drams, 2015 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel Jim Beam (10y, 58.7%), 2019 Oloroso sherry finish (6y, 56.5%), 2016 refill PX sherry (9y, 59.9%), 2014 Ruby port finish (11y, 57.1%), 2014 Heavily peated 1st fill ex-bourbon Heaven Hill (11y, 57.6%)

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the drams and the cosy shop/tasting room

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.glenscotia.com/

Kilkerran Warehouse Tasting

Price: £40.00 pp (December 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 6 Kilkerran drams from the cask, 2006 triple distilled refill ex-bou brl (56.3), 2005 refill ex-bou hhd (54.4%), 2010 1st fill ex-bou brl (57.5%), 2013 Port pipe (55.8%), 2013 refill sherry hhd (58.5%), 2015 heavily peated 1st fill ex-bou brl (58.1%)

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: great

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes, but do it once

Link: https://kilkerran.scot/

#69 Farewell to 2025

Another whisky year under our belt

 

TL; DR: What another great whisky year! It started quietly but it ended on a treble! Our highlights were the north of Scotland trip (especially Wolfburn, 8 Doors, and North Point), the Independent Spirit, Fife and Dornoch Whisky festivals, a Brora tasting, and the final long weekend in the Wee Toon!

Here we are, ready for our last blog post of the year for you to enjoy before the New Year’s bells. With our Christmas celebrations almost over, and some fantastic meals behind us, it’s time to reflect a bit on this year, while listening to a very soothing early 2000s acoustic live from Pearl Jam. We hope you are cozy as we are, and that you could spend the holidays with your loved ones, and possibly a few good drams!

This year started slow for us, we didn’t visit any distillery between our 2024 trip to Australia and April 2025: just over 4 months without setting foot in a distillery! That was because of a combination of work and family commitments, we couldn’t even do our usual late-winter trip (Borderlands in 2022, Ardnamurchan & Mull in 2023, Skye and Raasay in 2024). However, we had lot of material from last year to ramble about on the blog, like our trip to Yorkshire and the one to Australia, both excellent adventures where we had great tastes of non-Scotch malt whiskies. In March, though, we managed to attend the Fife Whisky Festival in Cupar and the Independent Spirits Festival in Leith: these are two excellent festivals that should be on the radar of all whisky enthusiasts! A bit different from each other, the latter smaller and focused on independent bottlers, obviously, but very fun as well. Our plan is to attend them both again in 2026, we already secured tickets.

  • Volunteering at the Fife Whisky Festival.

In early April Roberto, one of Gianluigi’s best pals, came for a long weekend. The two went on a bromance trip in Campbeltown, followed by a hike on Arran. For Gianluigi, revisiting Springbank since 2021 was really a great and refreshing experience, with Findlay as a fantastic tour guide!

  • Dramming around with an old friend.

The first visit the two of us did together was not in a distillery, but in a winery: during one of our many trips to Italy we visited the Montalcino area, so we could indulge in visit to a historic winery: Fattoria dei Barbi. We thought the wine was excellent, even if an important disclaimer is that we know next to squat about wine.

  • Not our usual ‘landscape’. Still delicious.

It then came the time for the Spirit of Speyside, the week-long festival celebrating the many distilleries and producers of the region. As usual, we hit all the distilleries we hadn’t visited yet (Teresa also hit something else, but you’ll have to ask her, ahah), most of them closed to public (Inchgower, Glendullan, the first opening of the Cabrach). We also did two great tastings events, the Casks of Glen Moray and the Murray McDavid Drams under the stars. Overall, we always enjoy these events, and their variety. Our only complaint is the price for some distillery tours compared to the number/size of drams served. While the £100 tours at Diageo’s distilleries are bad enough, we just refused to pay £200 to visit two Chivas Brothers distilleries, one of which you can visit for around £25 in normal times. Thumbs down.

  • Drams under the stars…A pity it was so cold!

During the summer our highlight was a short trip to the northern Highlands we did with Edoardo, Gianluigi’s brother. We visited Pulteney, Wolfburn, 8 Doors and North Point: except the first one (which was fine but not outstanding), the other three visits were just incredible! Wolfburn drams were above our expectations, and we are looking forward to the single malts from the other two! Also, the landscape in this part of Scotland is just phenomenal!

  • A beautiful spot in the north of Scotland.
  • Spirit is maturing in a bunker at North Point distillery.

In July we also visited the Glasgow distillery for the first time, which just turned 10 and is one of the most exciting new producers in the game!

September was a bit of a disappointment, as we couldn’t make it to the Outer Hebrides for the Hebridean Whisky Festival. That was nobody’s fault, but with 3-4 consecutive days of high winds, it was just impossible for us to travel there. Despite the poor weather we still managed to sail to Tiree, home to a veeeeery tiny distillery.

  • Interesting equipment at Tiree distillery.

We made up for the missing trip by visiting another new small distillery in the Tain area, Toulvaddie, and by revisiting some old acquaintances, Glenturret and Glenkinchie, which both went through a remake since we’d visited the first time. The Glenkinchie tour was particularly great, also thanks to our pal and whisky geek John who works there as a tour guide!

  • When the guide is a whisky friend, priceless.

The last part of the year was very busy. First, we finally got inside our local distillery: Bonnington, a real workhorse in the heart of Leith! Then, we spent some time in the eastern Highlands: the team at Bacardi/Dewar’s decided to open two of their distilleries for charity, Royal Brackla and Macduff (and who are we to say “no” to visit a distillery for charity?), and we also managed to get into the recently reopened Glenglassaugh and Glencadam (dedicated posts to come next year).

  • Bonnington, neighbour distillery.

This year we ditched the Dramathon to attend the Dornoch Whisky Festival instead (they usually happen in two following weekends, too close to each other to attend both). This was a lot of fun, we’re definitely adding it to our (short) list of whisky festivals that we enjoy. An event was a memorable dinner where each course was paired with an Ardnamurchan dram, with Carl from the sales team introducing them. The lineup included their soon-to-be-released (now it is) 10-year-old, different from the previous version but more true to the distillery character.

  • Such a good dinner, such great drams.

Tasting-wise, the main highlight was a pricey but fantastic tasting at the Belfry: Brora and Clynelish, hosted by the great Jolly Toper Mark and Patrick Brossard, who wrote a book about Brora. It was our first time trying the old distillery malt, so it was very special as you can imagine.

  • A unique tasting experience for sure.

Another great event was the Aquavitae Blind Challenge in Glasgow, which we finally attended again after missing it in 2023 (flu) and 2024 (away): organised by Roy, it was a great opportunity to meet and chat with fellow barflies. The following week we attended the Kilchoman celebration for their 20years, at the Edinburgh Academy. We thought it would have been a tasting but was more akin to a small Kilchoman-only festival, with present and past bottlings to try – a nice surprise. Also, the Edinburgh Whisky Group was very well represented: a cracking time!

  • This year we didn’t do bad 🙂

Our whisky year finished off with a long weekend in Campbeltown: we didn’t tour any of the distilleries, but we had a few very interesting tastings (and again, next year there will be more about that).

  • Things you see in Campbeltown.

Obviously, we can’t ignore the elephant in the room: the state of the whisky industry, with respect to both production and hospitality. The great uncertainties around the economy on both sides of the Atlantic ocean make it hard to predict how the industry will be in 5, 10 or 15 years. We’re already seeing a big impact in the short term, with many distilleries pausing or reducing production. For example, as we are writing, we heard about Jim Beam pausing production at their Kentucky distillery (Mitch McConnell will be happy about that), which felt weird because it was our first full distillery tour back in 2016. On the other hand, some of the production expansion plans, in particular announced by some big players, now seem to be ludicrous and anachronistic: while we love whisky, it is still a “drug”, and you can only push it to some extent. We are also left wondering about the destiny of most of the new distilleries – often relatively small projects, we hope they’ll manage.

We heard the term “adjustment”, which makes a lot of sense at this stage. We hope one of the positive implications is that the dodgy investment schemes will gradually leave the market, avoiding the overinflation of casks and bottles prices. This “adjustment” might also make some producers rethink their plan to destroy historical distilleries to make space for theme parks (yes, we are talking about a distillery on Skye), and maybe rethink their tour prices. And finally, prices cooling down a bit (we already saw this being the case, especially with independent bottlers) might make them more realistic, allowing us to stash a few cracking malts for the year to come!

We hope you have some gems stashed as well, and that you’re sharing them with your loved ones to celebrate great moments in the year to come! Have a great 2026 and, as always, slàinte mhòr!

  • Slàinte!

#68 Ardgowan distillery

A whisky cathedral in the west

 

TL; DR: Early in November we went on a day trip to the west of Glasgow, to Inverkip. Our destination was the newly built Ardgowan distillery, finally producing after a long phase of set up. A stunning, modern building that really deserves a visit. 

A part of Scotland that we haven’t explored much is that stretch to the west of Glasgow to the west, Inverclyde. Bar the one time we went to Gourock, near Greenock, to take the ferry to Dunoon on our first trip to Campbeltown, we never really visited the area. That was about to change in early November, as we embarked on a day trip to go visit one of the newest kids on the block: Ardgowan distillery! The company was founded in 2017, with the objective to bring back distilling in the area. There used to be an Ardgowan distillery in Greenock, founded in 1896, but the site was flattened by the Nazis bombings in 1941.

  • Proud of bringing back whisky production in the area.

The trip was quiet and uneventful, we only stopped for a light seafood bite in a lovely wee restaurant on the coast just before Fairlie, the Catch at Fins. As usual, we arrived at the distillery a few minutes early, so we used the time to take a few pictures of the building: a stunning copper-coloured building with a sloping roof (made for the 97% of recycled aluminium), with a nordic feeling, almost like a modern art museum somewhere in Scandinavia. We’ll find out later that it was indeed inspired by the Scandinavian longhouses!

  • A stunning building, you wouldn’t say it’s a distillery.

Next to it, other smaller buildings, where the visitor centre is currently located. They used to be part of a farm with horse stables, and nowadays they host gin producer Blackwoods, other than the distillery offices. Plans are to restore and turn them into a cafe, an improved visitor centre and tasting room, as well as some accommodations. Some of the buildings are used for cask storage as well.

  • The old stables.

At the distillery we were welcomed by Richie and Wendy, the tour guides: Richie would be the one showing us around. While waiting for the tour to start, we looked at the bottles on display: their full Clydebuilt range, mostly sherried single malts (rigorously undisclosed, named after professions like coppersmith, riveter, sailmaker, etc.), some grain whisky and a few blends as well. They also have the whisky that has been to the South Pole (here an old article about it). Soon after the other four people attending the tour arrived, two local couples (that we think we already saw somewhere…at a festival maybe?), and the tour started. Richie told us the story of the company and the site, including the long delays that followed the initial approval in 2017. Production finally started this year (2025), with the first cask filled on the 17th of June.

  • Yes, it’s meant to be open.

After crossing the old stables, we got inside the new building, in the “full” bit (part of the building is open, almost looking like they have to complete it, but it is done on purpose). Richie explained us that the water they use comes from a spring water well on site, while the malt is bought up in Inverness. They mash 5 tons of grist at the time with 10,000 litres of water, first at 64°C. The second water, another 25,000 litres, is added at 80°C and the final sparging at 90°C, with the resulting water saved for the next mash. Unlike many distilleries, draff is sent to a biofuel plant rather than sold or given to cattle farmers. Mashing takes about 5.5 hours, and then the wort is moved to one of the six stainless steel washbacks, where distiller’s yeast is added to kickstart fermentation. In our understanding a mash is 20,000 litre, but we’re not very sure about the figures, so take it with a pinch of salt.

  • Shiny new equipment.

Fermentation lasts 3 days (72 hours), and then the wash is distilled in “Lady Octavia”, the 15,000-litre wash still named after a prominent figure of the Clan Stewart. The 9,000-litre spirit still is named after Sara, the founder’s daughter, and from there they take a spirit cut from 68 to 65%abv (a tiny one!). The stills are covered with a golden sheet to increase copper contact, in our understanding.

  • The best part of this whisky cathedral.

Currently the distillery capacity is about one million of litres of alcohol per year, but it is evident from the layout that there is much space for expansion. Currently the stills are heated by vapour obtained with gas, but the distillery is working together with Herriot Watt researchers to look into hydrogen, to make production even more sustainable. Casks are filled on site, at the usual strength of 63.5%, mainly in sherry seasoned casks, from Bodega Miguel Martin. There is an extension planned for the building itself, which might also include a dram bar and a panoramic balcony overlooking production.

  • Interesting view of the still.

As we approached the end of the production tour, it started “pishing doon”, so we had to wait a bit before walking to the visitor centre for the tasting. The tasting consisted of three small measures (10ml) of three of their Clydebuilt. The first was the “standard” 12-year-old, a sherried dram from and undisclosed distillery: a nice sherried dram, that we were tempted to buy (if only we weren’t trying to work through our stash at home…), with the same dram at cask strength also available. The second dram was the “Offical” Open Day dram (yes, OFFICAL!) for the open day that happened earlier in the year, on the 20th of June, a vatting of Oloroso and Pedro Ximenex (PX) sherry casks. Finally, the Distillery Exclusive, a PX single cask, only available at the site. While the measures were a bit stingy, Richie offered a taste of other drams available at the shop, and Gianluigi got a nice single grain in its teen (Teresa was on driving duty). A pity we couldn’t taste the newmake spirit (it always puzzles us that some new distilleries won’t serve it…but hey ho).

  • A very sherried lineup.

Overall the tour was interesting, it’s always nice to see how things are being set up at new distilleries. However, the building is what really made this visit memorable. As always for new distilleries, we’re looking forward to trying their single malt in a few years’ time: we’ll be back!

See you in a couple of weeks for our 2025 wrap-up! Until then, happy holidays, Merry Christmas and, of course, slàinte!

Ardgowan Distillery Tour

Price: £19.50 pp (November 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 x 10ml drams, Clydebuilt (undisclosed) single malt 12y (46%, Oloroso + PX), “Offical” Open Day 2025 (59.5%, Oloroso + PX casks), Distillery exclusive single cask (54.8%, PX HHD)

Distillery Exclusive: Clydebuilt single malt cask (54.8%, PX HHD, £85)

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the modern building

Recommended: if you’re in the area, the building deserves a visit

Link: https://www.ardgowandistillery.com/

#67 Bonnington distillery

A distillery next door

 

TL; DR: Back in October, and thanks to our pal Graham, we visited a distillery that is less than one km from our door: not the one you are probably thinking, rather Bonnington distillery. The manager Gregor welcomed and showed us around the premise. A very interesting project, and a surprisingly maritime single malt. 

Our first contact with the distillery we’re talking about in this blog post was in April 2024, during the Biscuit Factory Beverage Festival (one of the many ‘drinks’ events in vibrant Leith), when other than the main festival, we attended a Bonnington & Crabbie tasting, in collaboration with Justine from Kask Whisky. There, we met their responsible for marketing, whom we shared contacts with, hoping for an informal tour of the Bonnington distillery. While we lost contact, our whisky pal Graham Fraser managed to keep in touch, got the details of the distillery manager, Gregor, and arranged a visit for early October this year. Persevere.

  • We run close to these casks almost every week!

Bonnington can be considered our “local” distillery, it’s really not even one km for our place, and it’s next to the Water of Leith Walk, so we often run just next to it. A few times we even smelled either the mash or the wash, which is nice but not a great incentive for a run, eheh! The distillery belongs to the Halewood Artisanal Spirits, together with a sister distillery in England (Bankhall), and our auld acquaintance Aber Falls, in north Wales. The company also owns the popular Whitley Neill gin, and Crabbie, famous for their green alcoholic ginger beer. John Crabbie is a whisky brand with strong ties to Leith, as the man who carried this name, including the now lost Yardheads distillery. For more of the history though, we’d suggest checking out Justine content, in particular her whisky history blogs on Substack. The group also included a smaller and experimental distillery located not too far away, in Granton, called Chain Pier. It was active only for a little while, from 2018 until January 2020, and so far only a handful of bottlings have been released, including by a few independent bottlers. Back to Bonnington distillery, the current site was chosen because it was the largest available in the EH6 postcode area, generally associated with Leith. The site has some history, as it was built as far back as the early 16th century, including the Bonnington Manor House, while the area was also involved in the 1560 Siege of Leith. This delayed the operations by about 6 months, for the inevitable archaeological assessments. To note, there used to be an unrelated short-lived previous Bonnington distillery not too far away, near the Biscuit Factory.

  • You wouldn’t say we’re outside a distillery.

The land was bought in 2017 and construction works started the following year. The distillery was completed in 2019, their first mash in December. They didn’t fill their first cask until the 20th of March 2020: a notable date, as it was the day before the first COVID-19 lockdown. Before starting, they went through the original purchase records to figure the original style of Crabbie’s whisky, finding out that it was a Highland style of whisky – they decided to reproduce it.

Back to the tour, Gregor started describing production in the courtyard, partly occupied by a few tanks, for draff (sent to anaerobic digestion) and pot ale, and two 30-ton malt silos. They employ 6 operators (out of 11 staff) and run 24/5 with four mashes a day, and each mash uses about 2 tons of malt. The output is about of 750,000 litres of pure alcohol per year, if they were to run 24/7 they could reach about 1.1 million lpa, but that’s not in the plans right now.

  • Ok, maybe these silos give it away…

The production water is sourced from a 120-meter-deep borehole, while the malt is sourced from either Beard or Crisp, with 3 deliveries every fortnight. When we visited, they’d just finished their peated run, which lasts a month and uses 190 tons of malt peated to 50 ppm. The mill is a modern AR2000, coloured bright red, which produces a grist with approximately the “usual” husk/grit/flour split (20%/70%/10%). They mash in a 2.5-ton semi-lauter mashtun with 3 waters at increasing temperature starting at around 63°C, obtaining a partially cloudy worth. They are equipped with 15 washbacks, 9 of which are in the next part of the building, past the stills, and they were added recently to increase capacity. They use MG+ yeast and, depending on the time of the week, fermentation can last either 150 or 80 hours. Gregor told us that the spirit obtained with the two fermentations is matured separately, and while the long distillation produces more stewed fruit notes, the short one enhances the biscuity notes: very interesting.

  • All stainless steel here.
  • A man and the newly added washbacks.

They have two gas boilers to get the steam for distillation, the wash still is 10,500 litres, while the spirit still “only” 7,500. Distillation is fast, to match the same time as mashing and, thus, facilitating the pipeline. The wash is preheated to about 60°C by a heat exchanger used to very cleverly cool down the pot ale in about 25 minutes, saving one hour of distillation time and gas consumption. The wash still produces about 20%abv low wines, which are then mixed with the head and tail of the previous run, which are obtained discarding the liquid above 75% and 62/61.5% abv of the second distillation. From each run, they obtain 1,100-1,200l of newmake spirit, at about 72% abv, which translates into about 130-140 casks per week. These are stored in their warehouses in Kirkaldy, as there isn’t much capacity on site. Casks are stored mainly palletised, as they have limited dunnage space, and are sourced from the Speyside Cooperage, unless they want something more special. Interestingly, they also have a spare gin still, but it hasn’t been used since March 2021, probably to avoid competition with their other gin brands.

  • Classic picture.
  • A less classic one. Always nice to see the stills from beneath.

After that, we went to a meeting room underneath the offices, where Gregor gave us a few sips of their products. We tried the John Crabbie and Johnny Cree (both non-age statement, NAS, 40%), which are fully matured in virgin oak and ex-bourbon casks, respectively. The former is not bad at all, just a bit watery due to the low abv. Currently the non-age statement expressions of both brands (the second named after John Crabbie’s business partner) are produced at the distillery, while in the future the aim is also to produced the aged Crabbie (12y and 15y, currently sourced whisky). Then we tried a few Bonnington single malts, a range which is reserved for small batches or single casks: the peated Muscat cask (NAS, 51%) was very tasty, while the unpeated Muscat was good too (NAS, 47%). The other available we didn’t try was the PX casks (NAS, 47%). In general, their whisky has a striking maritime character, which makes sense as we’re not that far away from the Forth, but it is something not usually associated with Lowlands malts.

  • An interesting selection.
  • An interesting selection (continued).

After these drams it was time to go back home, so we first greeted Gregor, and once outside the distillery, our pal Graham. It was not our first time visiting a distillery with him, but the first in such an intimate tour: it was good that for once we weren’t the only ones asking for nerdy details, which Gregor patiently explained us with competence and knowledge. He said that, when he has time and if asked nicely, he likes showing people around. But he also said that random showups are a strong ‘nope’: it is still a production plant (something some whisky people don’t quite get…). As we walked home, we passed by the massive bonded warehouses built by the Pattison brothers just before their demise, and subsequently acquired by DCL. We are very happy that the whisky industry is returning to Leith, such a pivotal place for the history of our favourite drink.

Stay tuned for our next trip! Until then, slàinte!

Bonnington Distillery Bespoke Visit

Price: free (October 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: a few sips from currently bottled single malts (see description above)

Target: anyone

Value for money: well…it was free

Highlights: the location and the compact production

Recommended: yes, but do get in touch with them first!

Link: https://crabbiewhisky.com/bonnington-distillery/

#66.3 Something new, something old

Glenkinchie, or the sunny corner of Scotland

 

TL; DR: Back home, we thought we could fit another whisky experience before officially ending our holidays. The choice was easy, and on paper relatively close: Glenkinchie, a distillery we’d meant to (re)visit for a while after it became one of Diageo’s Four Corners of Scotland. Very interesting to taste whiskies generally not on our radar, but what made the experience even more special was to have a whisky friend as our guide!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

As we wrote in the last few posts, our holiday on the Outer Hebrides got literally blown away by high winds, which prevented the ferries to safely sail to destination. As a backup, we visited a new distillery, Toulvaddie, and revisited another one after a revamp, Glenturret, before driving back home, where we arrived, a bit sad, on a Saturday late afternoon.

Because we were officially still on holidays, Sunday was open to some extra whisky activity. We didn’t let this go, and we decided to revisit a distillery we’d first visited a long time ago and that meanwhile had undergone some substantial changes: Glenkinchie distillery. When we visited the first time, renovations were under way, as the distillery was due to become one of the Johnny Walker’s Four Corners of Scotland, together with Clynelish (Highlands), Cardhu (Speyside) and Caol Ila (Islay). In the meantime, we didn’t get much acquainted with this whisky: the basic 12y is ok but not the most flavoursome, other expressions released by Diageo at higher abv are usually very expensive (like the 27y 2023 Special Release or the 16y Four Corners of Scotland). It is also hard to find it from independent bottlers, with the exception of a recent release from Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, a tasty sherry bomb!

Glenkinchie is one of the closest distilleries to Edinburgh, but it’s not the easiest to reach: located in Peastonbank, near Pencaitland, it’s about 15 miles from the city centre. On the website, in the tours’ description, they advertise an external company offering return trips from St Andrews Square (only certain days of the week) for £35 per person, which for a couple (or any group bigger than one really) is borderline extortionate: probably it comes cheaper to just get a taxi. During the week there is a bus that brings you there, the East Coast Bus service 123 from Haddington (here the timetable, while here you can check the route, just remember to select “long loop”). On a Sunday, however, the closest bus stop is in Pencaitland, via service 113. However, we realised that there was a path from Pencaitland to the distillery, off the roads and mainly in the woods, and the weather forecasts were looking decent…

  • Ok, we didn’t get lost in the woods.

So there we were: on a sunny Sunday morning, waiting for the 113 bus in a very quiet Regent Rd (near Calton Hill). In Pencaitland, after just over one hour ride, we got off at the stop near the park, to wait for the new cafe and convenience store The Granny Shop to open: there we got coffee and delicious morning rolls. The walk to the distillery (about 2 miles) took slightly less than 40 minutes, and past the village we easily found the path in the woods. At the end of it, a gravel path set up by the distillery, ending directly in the backyard, near the warehouses. As we approached the distillery, we also saw a sign from the Winton pub (also in Pencaitland), saying they’d pick you up for free, if you then went there (for a meal, we guess?).

  • Yes, that’s the right place.

Finally, we were there at opening time, 10am: we were welcomed by our friend John, who recently started working there as a senior tour guide. He’s part of the Edinburgh Whisky Group, and we’ve been together to tastings and one recent day trip to Glasgow distillery. After a quick catch-up and some pleasantries, it was time to start the tour! We first delved into the history of the distillery, highlighted by panels on the wall with parallel timelines for Glenkinchie and Johnnie Walker. Founded as Milton in 1825, Glenkinchie was registered in 1837 only. Unfortunately a big change saw it turned into a sawmill in 1853 by a local farmer (!!!), only to be reconverted into a distillery in the 1890s. Nowadays its capacity is around 2.5 million litres per year, 90% of which going into Johnnie Walker. Being in East Lothian, the sunniest part of Scotland, Diageo considers it the “garden distillery”, so they aim for a floral character: this is remarked by a well curated garden in front of the new visitor centre. The maltings used to run on coal but were decommissioned in 1968. The building now hosts, among the other things, a not-so-miniature model of a distillery: originally built for the 1920 London Exhibition, it’s very accurate in showing all the steps of whisky production. Apparently it used to work, even after it was reassembled at Glenkinchie, but because of various reasons (including HMRC), it was decommissioned.

  • This model used to work, incredible!

Moving on to the real production, six malt bins feed the Porteus mill (acquired second-hand in the 1960s) almost twice a day when in operation (we visited towards the end of the silent season, which was extended this year to allow some extra repairs). Each batch takes one ton of barley in the full lauter mashtun, and 44,000 litres of water: 33,000 litres for the first run at 64°C; 11,000 litres for the second run at 74°C; finally the third and last run of 33,000 litres at 84°C is used as first water for the next batch, after going through a heat exchanger. Before the silent season the total mashes per week were 13, to leave some space for cleaning, but they are planning on a five-day production going forward. To note, the production water is taken from the Kinchie burn, and sent back there after a passage through cooling ponds, part of a regenerative project.

  • Chatting away in the fermentation room.

Fermentation is carried out in one of the 6 wooden washbacks (Douglas fir), for about 72 hours to obtain about 8% wash, using distiller’s yeast. Each batch of wash is used to feed two distillation cycles. The wash still (the biggest on the mainland) is charged with about 20,000 litres, to obtain low wines at 23%. The second distillation’s cuts are 75% and 65%, and are done manually, with the leftover foreshots and feints redistilled with the next batch. Both stills work with steam obtained by burning gas, and they have wormtub condensers: it is almost counterintuitive how such floral spirit is obtained with such big stills and wormtubs, usually associated with more robust whisky characters. The other leftovers of the process, pot ale and draff, are sold to local farmers. Finally, the newmake spirit is filled into tankers and sent to Leven (where Cameronbridge is) for cask filling, although they still have about 3-4,000 casks on site in a few warehouses (one is accessible by doing another experience, The Spirit of Warehouse No. 4).

  • Not a selfie, for once.

After this very nerdy tour, we were ready for the tasting. First, our tour included a cask sample of choice between four available: two Glenkinchie expressions (2008 American oak first fill ex-bourbon barrel, 58.4%, and 2015 ex-red wine cask, 59.8%), a 2008 Caol Ila (58.7%) and a 2007 Cameronbridge (63.1%), both ex-bourbon barrels. This happened in a narrow corridor with a few other casks as well: it is what remains of their previous warehouse located in what now is the shop and visitor centre. We chose the two Glenkinchie-s, the 2008 in particular was truly an exceptional dram: oily, floral, buttery, with hints of riped fruit and tropical notes – yes, please!

  • Glenkinchie straight from the cask, yay!

Next, we had a full-flight vertical tasting of the Glenkinchie range, in a tasting room above the entrance and with a great view of the garden: the classic 12y, the Distillers Edition, the Distillery Exclusive, the bottle-your-own (from an ex red wine cask) and finally the Johnnie Walker 18y. This was supposed to be the last dram, but John suggested to start the tasting with it, since it was the only dram bottled at 40%: a very good advice. The tasting was very interesting, and provided some different takes on the Glenkinchie: the ones we liked the most were the Distillers Edition (Amontillado sherry casks really elevate this dram) and the Distillery Exclusive, fresh and fizzy. We confirmed that the standard 12y is a bit bland, while the bottle-your-own was a wine-bomb (we’re not against that like some other whisky fans, but we reckon it is not for all palates…probably growing up in Italy gave us enhanced tannins tolerance).

  • A cosy tasting room.

After the tasting, we grabbed a coffee and a tasty bite at the distillery cafe, and we slowly walked back to Pencaitland to grab a bus back to the city centre. We went to Diggers to finish up the afternoon with a few drams, before going back to Leith to, this time for real, end our “holidays”.

We usually don’t comment too much on the tour guides, because we know that for many it’s just a job, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, having someone knowledgeable and passionate like John really elevated the experience to a different level of detail and appreciation, and his guide through the tasting was great.

  • Thank you, John!

For the current times we think it’s borderline but still a decent value proposition at £65 for a 2hr tour, with 6 drams, of which 2 bottled at cask strength, and the 15ml pours are good for us: we’re not there to get pished! Prices in the shop are the usual for Diageo: good for the standard range (including the Distillers Edition), high for the Distillery Exclusive, and nonsensical the bottle-your-own (and the various special releases). There are other experiences available that are not distillery tours, so we might go back at some point: asking for John, first!

Well, that’s it for now. Until next time, slàinte!

Glenkinchie Flavour & Cask Experience

Price: £65.00 pp (September 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: Glenkinchie 12 (43%), Distillers Edition (43%, NAS, Amontillado finish), Distillery Exclusive (NAS, 48%, Re-charred and American oak apple brandy casks), Bottle-your-own (12y, 48.4%, American oak California red wine cask), Johnnie Walker 18y (40%), one cask sample of choice (see above for the selection)

Target: whisky fans and geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the sample from the cask and the bar overlooking the garden

Recommended: yes, but ask for John!

Link: https://www.malts.com/en-gb/glenkinchie/visit

#66.2 Something new, something old

Back to Glenturret, after the Lalique revamp

 

TL; DR: On our anticipated travel back to Edinburgh, we decided to revisit a distillery we’d only been once in the middle of the pandemic: Glenturret! In the meanwhile, the distillery went through a revamp, with a new core range and a new mashtun. A solid tour ending with two tasty drams!

(missed Part 1?)

The sky in Inverness was uniformly grey that morning, with hints of rain and puffs of cold air. We took the A9 southward, not stopping until Dalwhinnie: nope, not at the distillery, but at The Apiary, a nice cafe serving the most delicious honey cake ever! So good that we endured the rather expensive coffee. Back on the road, we decided for a last-minute stop at a distillery we’d visited over 5 years ago: Glenturret.

Back in August 2020, it was one of the few distilleries open in that weird summer between lockdowns. Gianluigi’s parents took advantage to come visit as well, and we took them to the magnificent Isle of Skye: the village of Crieff was a perfect stop along the way. The tour with masks and social distancing was really something else, but also having to translate everything for Gianluigi’s parents meant we couldn’t grasp all the details (and the tour guide, while she kindly agreed for us to translate, didn’t make much effort to space her sentences a bit). However, Gianluigi’s mother still remembers Towser the cat, the distillery’s mice-catching machine, long gone but remembered with a statue.

  • A cat with a glorious past.

A few weeks after our 2020 visit, a new revamped core range was announced by the new owners, Lalique (decanters, perfumes, etc). During the Edrington period, Glenturret was used as the home of The Famous Grouse, before it was sold to Lalique in 2019. Funnily enough, Edrington now has sold the entire Famous Grouse brand as well! When we first visited the core range was a bit outdated, with all expressions at 43% and without age statements. The new one is released about once a year, in a newly designed decanter-style bottle, and it is curated by their whisky maker Bob Delgarno, who worked many years at the Macallan. This year’s expressions are the Triple Wood (45%abv, £62, the only chill-filtered expression), a 7y peated (46%, £62) a 10y peated (46.6%, £67), a 12y sherried (46.2%, £77), a 14y also peated (48%, £150) and finally a 15y (46%, £165). The 12y had some success in our whisky bubble, despite its price betrays a move towards the luxury market, even more clear when checking the price of expressions beyond the 12y age statement (including the extra aged stuff, not mentioned here). Other than revamping the core range, Lalique also transformed the distillery: no more a stand-alone cafe, with hot beverages and snacks now available at the whisky bar.

  • There used to be a cafe here.

There is also a fine dining restaurant with two Michelin stars, and a Lalique boutique behind the visitor’s centre shop. However, production remained very much traditional, as shown to us by our guide Alan: he looked somehow familiar, but we couldn’t really place him exactly. After the introduction (held in what used to be the malting floor), he explained the recent history of the distillery and how it is the oldest in Scotland as it dates back to 1763. Apparently, this came to a surprise as the previous understood founding date was 1775: in any case, things must have changed quite a bit. What didn’t change is the presence of cats: during the tour we spotted a couple of them, apparently not trying very hard to fill Towser’s shoes.

  • Doesn’t look as active as Towser.

The distillery now works 7 days a week, doing 12 mashes (not reaching the total capacity of 500,000 litres of alcohol per year), using mostly unpeated barley. To note, a few months back they announced that they will stop using peated barley (usually about 9-14ppm) from next year. Although we can totally see the reasons (sustainability, mostly), it’s a bit of a shame as we love the peated Glenturret, particularly at a young age (in the recent past the Scotch Malt Whisky Society released a good number of those casks!). In line with their sustainability ethos, they are also trying to source the barley locally, for the moment it’s around 30%. The process starts with crushing the barley in their old Porteus mill, but compared to other distilleries their grist has a lower percentage of flour (7% vs the usual 10%), compensated by more grit (73%). Mashing is one of the novelties as they replaced the open mashtun we saw in 2020 with a shiny new 1.9ton one with a copper lid, and a semilauter system inside. Mashing is carried out with three waters at increasing temperature from 64°C to 85°, and the remaining draff goes to local farmers.

  • This mashtun wasn’t there back in 2020.

Fermentation happens in one of the eight wooden washbacks, using 37 kg of M yeast per batch, and lasts 100-120 hours. As for the distillation, in the second run the cut they take goes from 69%abv to 63%, with the foreshots and the feints redistilled with the next batch of low wines from the first distillation. Each batch produces about 850 litres of spirit, enough to fill 3 to 4 casks (American standard barrel) at a strength of 64%. Another novelty is that they installed a heat-exchanger that works between the mash and the still: the first still is now filled with pre-heated wash at 70°C and not 17°C as in the past: good for the environment and the wallet.

  • A bigger still than we remembered.

We didn’t visit the filling store, nor the warehouse, but after the tour we went back to the visitor centre. Alan took us to a room on the upper floor, next to the restaurant, for the tasting, including the 10y and the 12y. A pleasant surprise, as we thought they’d give us drams of the two cheapest expressions like other distilleries did in the recent past…Very good on them! We briefly stopped at the bar, for coffee and to buy a dram to take home: we chose the 14y, a very tasty example of soft and sweet peat smoke, with some decadent notes from the sherry cask (although, not “150-quid-a-bottle” tasty).

  • Two good drams for the driver…
  • …and a dram (not the bottle!) to take home.

Overall, we were very happy with this visit, the tour was entertaining and interesting, despite being more tailored for people new to whisky: still, probably one of the best “basic tours” we attended recently. In our opinion, Lalique and the team did a great job to give the whisky and the brand the character it deserved, because Glenturret can be delicious. Moreover, the makeover they gave to the distillery was more discrete and tasteful than we anticipated. Just a shame that some of the expressions are priced out of range for most whisky enthusiasts: hey ho.

  • We might see you again, Glenturret.

We left Glenturret, ready to get home 4 days in advance compared to the initial plans: not great. To cheer us up we did one last stop on the way: we found a table at the Lobster Pot, a nice restaurant next door to the Blackness Bay distillery. It was since the distillery visit last year that we wanted to go back, and finally there we were, enjoying some delicious seafood!

One more distillery visit to go before the end of our “back-up” plan. Until then, slàinte!

Glenturret Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: two drams, Glenturret 12y (46.2%) and 10y peated (46.6%)

Target: anyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the traditional production process

Recommended: yes, it’s a good basic tour

Link: https://theglenturret.com/

#66.1 Something new, something old

Toulvaddie distillery: A whisky mystery solved with…pizza!

 

TL; DR: After our trip to the Outer Hebrides was cancelled, we tried our luck driving East, to the Fearn Peninsula. There, we visited another new craft distillery: Toulvaddie. Not our usual tour, but a must-do for the pizza and cocktails lovers! 

If you read our last post, you’ll know our holidays to the Outer Hebrides went down the pooper: we barely managed to visit Tiree distillery, on the Isle of Tiree, but then our next ferries were cancelled because of high wind. Oh well, when we’d booked the trip, we knew this could happen, we’ll just need to wait a few months to regroup and try again. However, in the meanwhile we had to decide what to do with our remaining days off, at least during the weekend.

That Friday we woke up at the campsite in Fort William under a gloomy grey sky: a cold, wet and windy day, not putting us in the best mood for outdoor activities. After breakfast, a shower, and a chat with Justine, Karen and Chris, we decided to split. The two of us and Mr. Vantastic left Fort William eastward, hoping the other coast would bring some luck. While Teresa drove, Gianluigi looked at potential whisky activities to do in the area. There was a new distillery that had been on our radar for a while, but we had not managed to visit: Toulvaddie. One reason for not getting there earlier was that tours are available only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (until a few weeks ago, also on Thursdays). Truth to be told, a few weeks prior we’d tried to plan a visit on our way back from holidays, on a Tuesday. However, the booking system didn’t work, and our queries weren’t replied. After a check on their website, we found out that they do pizza nights on Fridays and Saturdays, so we figured they must have been open (two Sherlocks in action here!). Thus, we decided to drive there and try our luck. Worst case scenario, we’d still get a pizza!

  • It took a while, but we found our way to the distillery.

The distillery is located on the Tarbat peninsula (near Fearn, Easter Ross), to the east side of the A9, roughly between Invergordon and Tain. It is on the site of a former naval airbase (HMS Owl) and while part of the surrounding area has been redeveloped for industrial use mostly, there is still an airfield for small private planes. As a matter of fact, Google Maps sent us straight in the middle of the runaway; the area is quite flat though, and not massively built, so we quickly found our way around the airfield to get to the distillery.

  • Memory of an old airfield.

We arrived there at 2pm, the opening time, while pizza would have been available from 3pm until 8pm (unless sold out). We left the van next to the gate, and we walked in to find a very nice space: on the left, some vegetation and a container (we’ll learn later that’s the temporary warehouse, while waiting to build the permanent one), on the right side a nice garden with a fish pond, chairs and a grill: perfect for summer time! In the meantime, the sun came out (for a while), and it gave a great feel to the whole outdoor area.

  • Such a nice space.

The production is inside the main building, together with the bar in a big open space. As we walked in, we were welcomed by Heather, the distillery owner together with her husband Bobby (who was busy setting up the pizza oven). The production equipment is past the bar area, with the shiny stills almost in the middle of the building. We sat at the bar, and while splitting a tasty Happy Chappy pale ale (from Cromarty Brewing), we started chatting with Heather about their whisky production. Although the distillery was planned way before, they actually started distilling in April 2024, so their spirit is half-way to become a single malt.

  • A nice space inside too.

The distillery is operational from Sunday to Thursday, and production is quite scheduled. They don’t have a mill, but they bring in pre-milled Laureate malted barley from Crisp. Other than saving one stage of production, this allows them to reduce the spark risk, so they can have people inside the building. They usually mash on a Wednesday, in a 0.33 ton mashtun, and then ferment the wort for 5 days in one of the 2,000-litre washbacks. Distillation is usually done on the following Monday (first) and Tuesday (second), in a couple of Hoga stills: the spirit one (the second) is only 500 litres, one of the few that is smaller than the Dornoch distillery’s one! Both stills work with a steam coil, powered by an oil unit, and they are both equipped with a shell and tube condenser. The second distillation cuts are approximately between 70% and 60%. All the casks are filled on site, mostly ex-bourbon barrels, but sherry ones too from time to time. The draff and the pot ale are sold to local farmers. We shared a dram of the newmake spirit (bottled at 63.5%), which was very malty and cereal-y, with the usual green fruits (apple and pear) taking a back sit in this one: nice stuff!

  • Very small Hoga stills.

At that point it was about time to order the pizzas, pepperoni and mushroom+ham, which we happily enjoyed, for Gianluigi while tasting one of their newmake spirit-based cocktails. The idea of using the distillery as a pub and pizzeria to get some cash is a very smart one in our opinion, also because there aren’t many other options in the area. They have plans to build a new permanent pizza oven outside the distillery, so they won’t have to set it up every Friday. Before leaving we signed the guest book, hoping to go back when their single malt will be ready!

  • Happy after pizza and another distillery under our belt.

We took Mr. Vantastic back on the A9, and decided to stay in Inverness for the night. After we found a suitable parking, we visited the Uile Bheist “brewstillery”’s pub, as last time we were there, we hadn’t had time to enjoy it after the production tour. We had a couple of drams there and, completely unplanned, we were rejoined by Karen and Chris: the choice is great and prices are very competitive. To end the night, we decided to pay one final visit at a whisky bar we’d heard a lot about but never been before: the Malt Room! The whisky choice is great there too, but probably because it was a tad too busy, and the general rowdiness of the night (Inverness is rowdy on a Friday night!!), it didn’t feel very cosy. Hopefully next time we’ll visit on a quieter day.

  • Last dram at the Malt Room.

The next morning we woke up and, with no rush, drove south towards Leith. Did we drive straight home? Almost. More on this next week. Until then, slàinte!

Toulvaddie Distillery Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (September 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: a dram of newmake spirit (63.5%)

Target: anyone

Value for money: N/A*
*we didn’t do the tour as advertised on the website so we don’t know. We went in for the pizza on a Friday

Highlights: the garden and the pizza!

Recommended: nice for a pizza/distillery combo

Link: https://www.toulvaddiedistillery.com/home

#65 Tiree distillery

One windy leg of the Hebridean Whisky Festival

 

TL; DR: This September we embarked in an odyssey to attend the Hebridean Whisky Festival. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach most of the distilleries we’d planned to visit due to a storm, but we still managed to visit the island of Tiree and its distillery. A tiny and craft operation, with already two releases under their belt: a single malt and a rye whisky. 

In the last few years, especially since we got Mr. Vantastic, we travelled quite a bit throughout Scotland. However, while we have (roughly) been all over the country, there are mainly two places we haven’t been yet: the Outer Hebrides and Shetland, the latter despite our passion for the namesake crime TV show. This was supposed to change this year though, as together with our friends Justine, Karen and Chris, we decided to go on a campervan holiday to the Outer Hebrides, to attend the Hebridean Whisky Festival. The festival is structured similarly to the Islay and Campbeltown ones, with each distillery having a different open day. The challenge is, obviously, that most distilleries are located on different islands, some of which connected by ferry crossings lasting a few hours. The festival started on the first weekend of September in the inner islands, with Talisker, Torabhaig (both on Skye) and Raasay: as we already visited all three, and not long ago, we skipped this part (follow the links for our great February 2024 trip!). Then, after a break-day wisely set up by the organisation to allow people to travel, it was the Isle of Tiree distillery turn, our first visit.

The Tiree distillery day was on a Tuesday, so we booked a ferry leaving from Oban on the Monday. The weekend before, we decided to avoid whisky stuff for once, but rather climb the tallest mountain in Great Britain: Ben Nevis. We left Leith in the morning, and after a first quick break in Callander to pick up some delicious pies at Mohr Bakery, we arrived at the main visitor car park around 11am. We went up from the easy (but still steep) route: we had an initial doubt whether to go for a more challenging route, but we really didn’t want to be the eejits on the news that injured themselves on a path beyond their capabilities (we are decently fit, but still, we hike about half a dozen times a year, not on mountains). The path was a bit crowded, but the view quite spectacular, except on the top: a thick fog welcomed us.

  • Great view while climbing Ben Nevis…
  • …Not quite the same on top.

We still celebrated the achievement by opening a bottle of Scotch Malt Whisky Society Ben Nevis bought during the pandemic, high abv but delicious nonetheless. The descent was much faster, and afterwards we stayed at the Glen Nevis campsite, just next door. After a nice meal at the Glen Nevis restaurant (with a decent whisky selection too), we slept like rocks!

  • A celebratory dram.

The next day we slowly drove towards Oban, where we’d meet with our friends, just after a fantastic seafood lunch in Port Appin at the Pierhouse Hotel, an auld acquaintance from a few years back.

We met with the others at a car park near the Oyster Inn, 10 minutes away from Oban, as they allowed overnight stays for campervans. Meanwhile, the weather had turned rainy and windy, and rumours were that the next day ferries wouldn’t be able to sail, reinforced by an alert message from CalMac (the ferry’s company). Because of this (and the wind) we struggled to sleep that night, but fortunately, in the morning the ferry sailed: we were much relieved (for now…). It took about four hours to go from Oban to Tiree, and along the sail we spotted Nc’Nean distillery and Tobermory, on a day that turned sunny. As we got off the ferry and drove towards the only campsite, we realised that there isn’t a proper village. The biggest settlement is Scarinish, where the ferry pier is. Also, the island is very flat (the highest hill is 140 meters high, with a radar station (the ‘Golf Ball’) on top of it dominating the landscape. This makes it a paradise for surfers, and we found many of them at the campsite and around the island. After we checked in, we spent the rest of the day exploring the surroundings.

  • Tiree, surfers’ paradise.

The next morning we left the campsite, and after a stop to a very disappointing diner, we drove towards the distillery, in the south-west of the island. We parked the vans in a field nearby that we’d booked for the night via the Tiree Croft Camping Service. It was supposed to be 10 minutes on foot to the distillery, turned out to be about half hour…Fortunately we had plenty of time. The distillery is inside a small, blue warehouse. On the right, in a separate building past a courtyard, there is the visitor centre and bar. It’s very small but very cosy, and since it wasn’t raining (yet), we enjoyed a Tiree gin and tonic on the porch before going back to the distillery for the tour.

  • Waiting for the tour to start.

There, we were served a sample of newmake spirit as a welcome. Ian and Allan, the founders, started the tour talking about the history of distilling in Tiree. The historical records from 1768 report about 50 stills, however they decreased to only three legal stills by 1783, before the final clearance operated by the British government to depopulate the country. Finally, in 1802 distilling was temporarily banned, but between 1814 and 1882 a couple of short-lived distilleries were in operation, too unprofitable to resist. And here comes Tiree Distillery, operational from 2020, aiming to reconnect with the distilling heritage of the island.

  • A tiny distillery.

A very small operation, they bring in pre-milled malted barley (mostly Laureate) and rye from Crisp maltings, which they mash in batches of 100 kg with 400 litres of water into a wooden mashtun which used to be a sherry butt (that was a first for us!). They tried to grow local barley, which was possible but then the challenge was malting, requiring the malting to be shipped off the island and then back. They have four washbacks for the fermentation stage, two made of stainless steel and two of oak, former butts like the mashtun. Fermentation normally lasts 4 to 5 days, but it can go up to 2 weeks for experimental runs. The 6-7%abv wash is then distilled in one of the two wash stills, to get 23-25% low wines, distilled again in the spirit still. The stills are Portuguese Hoga stills with worm-tub condensers. A fourth still is used for the gin (they bring in neutral grain spirit). During the second distillation, the first cut point is 70-74%, made by smell and taste, while the lower one is around 63-64%, with the discarded feints and foreshots redistilled in the following batch. From each distillation they obtain about 60 litres of newmake spirit at 70% – it takes them two runs to fill a quarter cask.

  • Yes, the mashtun is the butt on the front.
  • And yes, the butt on the back is a washback.

The warehouse is in the same building for the moment, with casks mostly sourced from Speyside Cooperage, especially from Heaven Hills distillery in Kentucky. The plan is to have at some point a separate building for maturation. This would solve also the high evaporation they have at the moment, caused by the production heat. We shared a dram of their newest release (£8, £125 for the bottle), the second in total after their first Single Malt release last year (not on sale anymore, but it was sold for £200). This one is a single grain, with 75% rye and 25% barley, aged four years in virgin oak and ex-bourbon casks: one of the best Scottish ryes we tried so far. They also produced a high-corn mash spirit, which is still maturing in the warehouse.

  • Most of the casks filled so far.
  • Second Isle of Tiree distillery release, a rye whisky.

After leaving the distillery and walking back to the vans, we realised the field where we’d parked was too exposed to the wind, so we called the cooperative managing those fields and we were able to swap for another one slightly less exposed. Still no facilities, which left a sour taste as we had paid £15 for one night. At least this one was at a walking distance to one of the very few bar/restaurants on the island. The very cozy Alan Stevenson House is in Hynish, a settlement that used to serve the Skerryvore lighthouse. We walked there to grab a dram, before retiring in our campervans for dinner and for a final dram, all together inside Gladys, Karen and Chris’ campervan, the biggest of the three. When we left the bar, the Tiree Distillery dinner was about to start: we didn’t have tickets for the event (£65), which we regretted a bit because first, they were serving the first single malt release too, impossible to try elsewhere. Second, we didn’t know yet what would happen in the following days.

  • Hynish and its lighthouse’s signal tower.

The day after came with a bad surprise, as our ferry for Barra was cancelled (sad trombone). Instead, we got another one back to Oban, as the day after there was an early ferry from Mallaig to South Uist. If that went ahead, we would have had still time to attend all the other distillery visits of the holiday. That wasn’t the case: in the evening, when we were already in Mallaig, this ferry was also rerouted from Oban (d’oh!), but in the morning that was cancelled too. The last chance would have meant to travel to Uig, on Skye, but there were no spaces for vehicles and there was no assurance that the ferry would sail. So, after a regroup in Mallaig, we decided to drive back to Fort William and abandon the plan. From the campsite we booked we walked to the Ben Nevis distillery, where Hazel, the lead tour guide and whisky IG friend, gave us a warm welcome and some tasty drams. That was a nice consolation.

  • Feeling better after all these setbacks.

While we’re happy that we visited Tiree distillery and to learn about their crafty setup, we were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t make it to the other islands. The distilleries personnel were very understanding and all of our tastings and tours were refunded, and it was the same for the ferry tickets. Unfortunately, when storms happen there’s nothing anyone can do, we just hope to be able to go back soon (and be a bit luckier with the weather).

Stay tuned to learn more about our “plan B”, in a couple of weeks. Until then, slàinte!

Tiree Distillery Open Day Tour

Price: free* (September 2025)

Duration: 45min

Tasting: 15ml of newmake spirit (63.5%)

Distillery Exclusive: on the day, the Tiree Single Grain Rye Whisky (45%, £125)

Target: anyone

Value for money: of course very good, as it was free

Highlights: the cosy setup

Recommended: if you’re already on the island, definitely

*the regular whisky tour is £20, but according to the website there are no tours scheduled in the next 6 months

Link: https://www.tyreegin.com/

#64 Eden Mill distillery

Born again in Guardbridge

 

TL; DR: Another blog post with a special guest, this time our friend Isotta. She arrived a day before the Whisky Fringe, and before that we visited the rebuilt Eden Mill distillery, just outside St. Andrews. The new building is stunning, and the process has radically changed compared to the original configuration. The tour ended with a dram to go, as the visitor centre was still WIP then. 

It’s always nice to have friends and family over…And when they don’t mind a dram or two, even better! That was the case for Gianluigi’s youngest brother, Edoardo, who came with us on a few trips already, on Islay & Jura, Speyside and recently, in the Northern Highlands. Another great trip was Gianluigi’s weekend in Campbeltown with his pal Roberto, back in April. Although we’re comfortable in our bubble of whisky enthusiasm, visiting a distillery, or more generally discussing about whisky with people who like it but are not nerds is often refreshing and helps gain new perspectives.

Another good friend who enjoys her drams is Isotta: like Edoardo, she’s a teacher, so she can only come over for holidays in summer. This one wasn’t the first time we did something related to whisky with her: a few years ago, we went to a very boozy dinner at the Vaults. Two years ago, we opted for a classic warehouse tasting at Deanston. This year we planned something different: we met in Fife and spent one night in Falkland, a very cute wee village at the bottom of the Lomond Hills. We had a good meal at the Covenanter Hotel, the only pub currently operating in town, ended with a flight of the new and local independent bottler Saltire Rare Malts. In the morning, we woke up early and climbed the West Lomond Hill after a nice walk, although the strong wind on the summit make it less enjoyable. Back to Mr. Vantastic, we drove 35 minutes to reach our destination: the newly built Eden Mill distillery.

  • So beautiful up the hill…
  • …Just a tad windy.

We reached it quickly in time for the tour, despite Google sending us to the wrong entrance. The site is near the mouth of the river Eden, in a village called Guardbridge, to the north of St. Andrews, near Leuchars. Before the modern redevelopment, the whole area was a paper mill, but before that, it’s here that the Haig family produced whisky until around 1860. Today the site is mostly occupied by the University of St. Andrews, including a biomass plant, part of ongoing research into alternative fuels and carbon capture. The old distillery used to be on the same site, in a building which now hosts university offices.

  • The new distillery.

We did the Behind the Scenes tour, the only experience available at the time as the visitor centre was not ready yet (August 2025). It included a tour of the distillery, a whiff of the newmake spirit and a 5cl of their blended malt Guardbridge, which has Eden Mill malt from the old distillery in it (and it looks like it’s mostly from ex-bourbon casks). They now (September 2025) have new experiences, a couple for gin lovers, and various for whisky enthusiasts, ranging from £26 to £150pp. We were welcomed inside a bothy (both a small office and a pop-up shop), by Finlay and Jude: the former was our guide for the day, the latter the driver who took us inside an Eden Mill branded van to the courtyard of the distillery, on the other side of the complex (the same side Google had erroneously sent us before).

  • A cute little bothy, we could stay here the whole afternoon…
  • …But it was time for the tour!

The distillery’s goal with the new set‑up is a fruitier, more floral spirit than before, and that intention is reflected in the production choices. For comparison, they kept the old 900-litre still, which is dwarfed by the new ones. The theoretical capacity could reach up to 1 million litres of alcohol per annum, but Finlay told us this is unlikely. At first, they were running 3 distillations a week to catch up with the casks they sold before, but it is now only one per week. One distillation, however, can fill up to 68 casks at 68.5%, which means that in about a month and a half they can produce the same amount of whisky that was produced in the old distillery between 2014 and 2018 (about 420 casks).

  • The old…

The barley variety is Laureate and is grown in Fife, sourced within a 50-mile radius to keep things local. Mashing is done with three runs of water at increasing temperature, and the draff is sent to local farmers. Fermentation is run in one of the six stainless 15,000-litre washbacks and is longer than before, around 72 hours, using Type M distillers’ yeast supplied by Kerry via a local distributor. The extra time is to let fruity esters develop, to get the fruitier spirit they’re aiming for. The new stills are steam‑heated via a gas-fired boiler, with a 15,000-litre onion‑shaped wash still and an 11,500-litre spirit still with a pronounced boiler bulb to enhance reflux. In the second distillation, the cuts are between 72% and 63.5%abv.

  • …And the new.

Three external water tanks help with cooling and process resilience. Casks are filled on site and then moved off site for insurance reasons. Long-term storage is palletised, with one of the warehouses in Glenrothes. The cask make‑up is mostly ex‑bourbon with sherry casks used more for finishing, roughly a 70/30 split for now. However, the first two casks were Scottish virgin oak. Worth noting that they’re collaborating with the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and they’re releasing a small number of casks for private sale. They also produce gin from neutral grain spirit distilled with botanicals. There are three gins in the range, leaning on locally sourced botanicals in line with the whisky’s local‑first ethos.

  • A few casks on site.

At the end of the tour there was no tasting, because “the bothy” didn’t have the required license to serve alcohol, so we got our sample of Guardbridge Blended malt to go. The other expressions on sale were an ex-Bourbon and a Sherry matured single malts, and a range of limited releases (in fancy boxes), some of which single casks. For a proper tasting, Finlay and Jude suggested us their shops in St Andrews or  Edinburgh, near the Johnny Walker Experience, but we passed on that occasion. We were quite happy anyway: we were impressed with the new distillery, and what they are doing seems very promising. We were not massive fans of their previous releases (at least, the few we tried), but judging from the newmake spirit, the direction of travel is very good.

  • Charming Fife coast at St. Monans.

After the distillery, we kept driving along the Fife coast, on the East Neuk: the weather was decent, so we enjoyed the wee coastal villages, in particular St. Monans, where we stopped for tea and cake. Thankfully we drove back to Leith when the Oasis crowd were already settling at Murrayfield, so we didn’t find much traffic. To close off a good whisky weekend, the day after we went to the Whisky Fringe festival. A first for Isotta, who really enjoyed it. As always, it was a joyful and great whisky experience.

Stay tuned for our attempt to attend the Hebridean Whisky festival, in a couple of weeks! Until then, slàinte!

Eden Mill Behind The Scenes Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (August 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 5cl miniature of Guardbrige Blended Malt (46%)

Target: anyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the new distillery

Recommended: yes, but this tour is not available anymore, follow the link for more alternatives

Link: https://www.edenmill.com/