#72 Festivals!

Chatting the chat and dramming the dram

 

TL; DR: After a long pause we are back with some report of our recent whisky festivals between the end of 2025 and 2026: Dornoch, Funky Booze, Fife and Independent Spirits. All different from one another, but all great occasions to taste a few good drams with good people around! 

Well, that was a long break, wasn’t it? Our last post was over a month ago, but we hope that you had great drams to keep you company in our absence! This was the longest pause we took from the blog since we started blabbering about whisky and distillery tours back in August 2021. But it was for a good reason, as March was a very busy month for both of us, especially on the whisky side. We attended two whisky festivals, which we’ll talk about in this post, we visited two distilleries, and we did a very special thing that we’ll write about in a few weeks here on the blog: definitely a reason to stay tuned!

So, to get cracking with today’s topic: whisky festivals! As we wrote in other posts, we weren’t right into this from the beginning of our whisky journey. For people like us, who started really appreciating whisky during trips off to quiet and isolated places, the idea of getting into a noisy room full of jolly people was not so alluring. It didn’t take us long to change our minds: these events can be full of energy and enthusiasm, and on top of the great drams you have a chance to try, the banter with friends and acquaintances is the real deal! We still haven’t approached any of the big ones, like the Glasgow Whisky Festival or the Whisky Show in London, but we might go soon. The largest one we’ve been so far is probably the nearby Whisky Fringe (what a venue)!

A festival we finally made it to last year was the Dornoch Whisky Festival, back in October 2025. It got to the tenth edition and, at least since we learned about it in 2022, it has been held every year towards the end of October. In previous years it was a bit too close to the Dramathon, so never an option for us, but last year we decided to ditch running, and go to this festival instead. The festival is held in a marquee in the gardens of the Dornoch Castle Hotel.

  • Such a great dinner! (And no, we didn’t take pictures of the food.)

While the Grand Tasting is the main event (two sessions, both on the Saturday), the whole weekend is full of tastings and other events, at various locations in Dornoch. We arrived on the Friday evening, after a nice but overpriced tour at Glenglassaugh, and the first event we attended was the Ardnamurchan dinner at the Castle Hotel: 4 courses accompanied by drams, selected by Ardnamurchan/Adelphi’s Carl. The dinner was exquisite, and the choice of drams impeccable, including two soon-to-be-released expressions (the 10-year-old and the Heritage Barley). We stayed in the Dornoch Campsite that is barely 10 minutes from the main festival venue on foot. Thus, after a big breakfast, the next morning we went to the Castle Hotel for the Grand Tasting. The marquee was a bit open, but it wasn’t unbearably cold, and definitely not too crowded, which gave us time for better chit-chats with the exhibitors. Most of them were small independent companies, although we were surprised to find Clynelish too. The lovely ladies at their stand told us they try to go to as many local events as possible, which is remarkable considering the size of the company they work for. The 18-year-old Special Release was one of the best drams of the day, just a shame the too salty price tag (£180). Other stunners were an 11y Mannochmore from Lady of the Glen (single bourbon cask), and the White Peak (soon to be released) Wireworks Chevalier Barley. After the session, we took a break and went to Cocoa Mountain for a delicious chocolate. In the evening we attended a busy whisky bingo, which was a lot of fun!

  • Such a delicious dram.

A much younger festival is the Funky Booze, at its second edition only. It is organised by our friend Francesco (Spirit of the Glen), and we volunteered at both editions, in 2024 and this year (2026). It is held in the Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh’s Old Town, and the big difference to other festivals is a funk music band playing. It is a great addition to the atmosphere, and very welcomed by the punters (except a few “grumpies” who didn’t read the description and then complained because the music was “too loud” …pish!). It’s organised in two sessions with some masterclasses, and while smaller, a lot of great producers (not just whisky) and independent bottlers attend the festival. Nice and buzzing! Location and concept are great, this festival has great potential to attract a different than usual whisky crowd.

  • Oysters, music…
  • …and drams!

Then it came the unmissable Fife Whisky Festival, held in Cupar and wonderfully organised by Justine (Kask Whisky) and Karen, usually in early March (but this year was on the 28th of February). It was our 5th edition in a row, you can tell we like it! This year we skipped the opening dinner on the Friday evening at Lindores Distillery and took the train to Cupar on the Saturday morning. As usual, it was great to see so many distilleries and indies from all over Scotland and beyond.

  • Fifth time as volunteers at the Fife Whisky Festival…veterans!

We were volunteering, but we had time for drams, mostly towards the end. The Tri Carragh Lochindaal 16 (from Bruichladdich distillery) was a great treat, and the first Aberargie release was also very interesting! This year the Sunday events were organised by the producers, so the choice was plentiful: tours at Inchdairnie and Aberargie, blending session at Kingsbarn, and warehouse tasting with Fib’s Whisky or Lady of the Glen. We did the latter, as last year we liked it a lot, and again it didn’t disappoint: the Aultmore finished in a rum cask and the Finglassie (peated Inchdairnie) in a refill Madeira cask were exceptional!

  • Firey but good.

The last one we attended was only a couple of weeks ago, again a new one at its second edition: the Independent Spirits Festival. Being held just round the corner from us, at the magnificent Leith Theatre, it’s a no-brainer for us. It is mainly organised by David Stirk, with Roy from the Aquavitae Youtube channel also heavily involved: because of this, a lot of our barfly pals attended, so it felt like a great party! Last year it was preceded by the screening of a 4-episode documentary about independent bottlers, filmed by Greg Swartz and the crew behind The Water of Life documentary. This year was the same, but the theme was from Field to Flavour, focusing on the farm distilleries that grow their own barley (or some of it), like Bruichladdich and Kilchoman on Islay, Arbikie in the East Highlands, Daftmill in Fife and Spirit of Yorkshire (guess where…). It was followed by a Q&A banter-y session with Francis from Daftmill and Joe from Spirit of Yorkshire (that we’d met there as well).

  • A favourite of the day.

After a pause that gave us enough time for a quick stop at Pala and Peter’s Food Hub to fill our stomachs, it was time to go back to the festival. Again, mostly small producers and independent bottlers, some of which we’d never heard of yet (despite our efforts to keep up to date with things!). We had a great time, but the best part was to hang out with our friends and acquaintances, both in front and behind the stands, so much so that we finally didn’t even make it to the Signatory nor the Gordon & MacPhail stands…hopefully next time.

  • Because in the end, this is what this is all about. 🙂

Two well established whisky festivals, Dornoch and Fife, and two newbies with a great potential. Overall, we think we probably hit our sweet spot with these four – not overwhelmingly big or crowded so that you can still chat to exhibitors without too much stress, and with relatively more focus on independent producers and bottlers, which gives the opportunity to taste unique, weird (in both good and bad ways), or hard to find drams. Basically, whisky enthusiasts’ heavens. Four festivals every year (plus sometimes the Whisky Fringe) feels like enough, but at some point we might branch out and explore other events – there are so many, we’re spoiled for choice! Where to go next?

Stay tuned for some distillery adventures! Until then, slàinte!

PS: from this post onward we’ll share them on Substack too! Our profile is very new, check it out at https://substack.com/@drammingaround

Whisky Festivals

https://dornochwhiskyfestival.com/

https://www.instagram.com/funkyboozespiritfest/

https://www.fifewhiskyfestival.com/

https://www.independentspirits.co.uk/

#71.4 The North-eastern Highlands

One last stop on the Deveron: Macduff

 

TL; DR: The final stop of this story takes place along a small river called Deveron: at the Macduff distillery! Tucked into a small glen, this “modern” Bacardi/Dewar’s workhorse was open to the public over a weekend for charity. Another great tour, definitely worth the trip there! 

(missed Part 3/Part 2/Part 1?)

In the morning, we woke up rested. We could hear the sound of the sea in the distance: waves and seagulls, although it was sometimes hidden by the cars and trucks driving on the A90. It wasn’t too cold, so after dressing up and putting away the rock-and-roll bed, we made coffee and had breakfast in the van. Then, we quickly left the parking spot. Because we had some time (our tour wasn’t until noon), instead of heading straight towards our destination, we drove to Newburgh, just up north. We parked and after a short walk we arrived at the Seal Beach: opposite a small river, there was a colony of grey seals laying on the beach. A couple of researchers from the Aberdeen University told us they were counting them, using a drone to fly over and taking pictures.

  • Man and seals.

A very enjoyable stroll, but it was soon time to go back to Mr Vantastic and get to our destination, the Macduff distillery. We had enough time to stop for a (very early) lunch in the village called Macduff itself, which is on the coast, divided from Banff by the river Deveron. The village looks a bit run down (maybe the overcast weather didn’t help), but we found a very nice diner, the Seafront Cafè, where we had a warm and hearty soup. 

From there to the distillery it was only a few-minute drive: instead of turning right on the Banff bridge, we kept on the main road for a bit, and then turned right into a small road that led us straight to the distillery, at the end of a downhill. While production is in a (almost square) building on the left, a big warehouse is on the right. This is owned and used by Brown Forman, as we were told when at Glenglassaugh. We checked in and found the same team we’d met at Royal Brackla, nice! This time we went on tour with Luke and David, the distillery supervisor, while the others took their lunch break. The crowd was mostly local people, which was actually great to see!

  • Possibly not the most charming site…
  • …but still, very excited to be here!

Compared the other distilleries we visited in this area, Macduff is almost the new kid in town: construction works started in 1958, and production started in 1960. Founded by a consortium of four businessmen from Glasgow, it was sold for the first time in 1964 and changed hands a few times, until landing in the Martini group, and then with Bacardi. At the time the distillery was state of the art. They never had a malting floor, but they used to have a cooperage on site. The spot was chosen because of its water source, the Gelley burn flowing into the Deveron just up the road. This water is used for cooling, while the water for the mash comes from a spring (we think) a few miles afield.

The malted barley, fully unpeated, comes from Baird and Simpsons, 28 ton per delivery (with 5-6 deliveries per week). At the moment they use Laureate, which allows them to produce 416 litres of spirit per ton of malt. In the past they used some peated malt as well, and last year they also tested chocolate and crystal malt for very limited batches. The malt is milled with a Buhler mill installed in 2007, a brand we saw several times around, especially in new distilleries. The grist has the usual husk/grit/flour ratio of 20/70/10, and is stored in a new grist bin, installed as part of a recent £3m renovation. For each of the 17 mashes they do weekly in the full leuter mashtun, they use 9 tonnes of malt, to which they add water at 63°C. The second and third waters, the latter used for the following mash, are added at 75°C and 85°C, respectively. The full mash is then transferred to one of the nine steel washbacks, where liquid distiller’s yeast is added after 7,000 litres are filled in. Fermentation lasts between 56 and 120 hours, depending on the day of the week it starts.

  • New milling equipment.
  • Checking fermentation.

When we arrived in the still room, we couldn’t help but notice the peculiar shape of the stills, and the horizontal condensers: everything was set up this way to save space. The wash still charge is 28,000 litres, while the spirit still one is 16,200, with a third coming from the foreshots and feints from the previous distillation. In the second distillation they discard about 300-litre of foreshots, and collect the spirit between 74% and 65%; in total the distillation lasts 10-12 hours. This year they produced about 2.8 million litres of pure alcohol, slightly less than previous years. A third of the produced spirit, which is shipped to Glasgow in tankers, is destined to the blended scotch whisky William Lawson (we never saw it here in Scotland, but it can easily be found in Italian supermarkets), a third to Dewar’s, and a third is sold to other companies. Only a minimal part (0.5%) is bottled under either of their two current brands: Deveron or Glen Deveron. They took the name from the nearby river because they couldn’t use “Macduff”, too similar to a brand belonging to W. Grants. While the Deveron is for the UK market (you might see around a 10y and a 12y version), the “Glen” is used for the travel retail, although in our understanding this might change. 

  • A beautiful still room…
  • …with the unexpected detail, look at that horizontal condenser!

It finally came the time for the tasting! The 10y was skipped so the lineup started with the Deveron 12y: an inoffensive dram, bottled at 40%, from both ex-bourbon and sherry casks. It was followed by three Glen Deveron: 16y, 20y and 25y, again all bottled at 40%, and again from both ex-bourbon and sherry casks, except for the 25y which was exclusively from 1st fill and refill oloroso casks. They all went down very smoothly, probably because of the abv, but we struggled to grasp the character of the distillery. We know how good Macduff can be – one the best sherried whiskies we had (from the Electric Coo range) was a 12y Macduff from an Oloroso butt, truly great stuff! To their credit all the expressions were greatly priced for the day, in particular the 16y (£65) and the 20y (£90).

  • The tasting lineup.

That was all, for the trip (we slowly drove back to Edinburgh) and for our series of distillery visits in the eastern Highlands. It was a nice wee string of tours in the space of a few weeks: it was great to see the new visitor centre at Glencadam, but the team at Bacardi/Dewar’s really knocked it out of the park! Both visits at Royal Brackla and Macduff were excellent, interesting and nerdy (as we like it), but accessible for casual drinkers as well, and a great value. It’s crazy to think that we paid less for the last three distillery tours (Brackla, Glencadam, and Macduff) than for Glenglassaugh alone. Someone at Brown Forman might want to rethink their strategy.

Stay tuned for our next story in a couple of weeks! Until then, slàinte!

Macduff Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (December 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: The Deveron 12y (40%), Glen Deveron 16y (40%), Glen Deveron 20y (40%), Glen Deveron 25y (40%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: great!

Highlights: the workhorse production plant

Recommended: absolutely, keep an eye on their socials

Link: https://www.thedeveron.com/

#71.3 The North-eastern Highlands

Lost in Brechin: Glencadam distillery

 

TL; DR: Another weekend, another trip to the northeast, destination: Brechin, home to Glencadam distillery! They just opened a new visitor centre after a substantial upgrade, and it is very cozy and charming: well done! We enjoyed the basic but informative tour, and a warm and hearty soup afterwards. 

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

The weekend after our trip to Royal Brackla it was time again to hit the road with Mr Vantastic. And again, our destination was the northeast of Scotland. This time we had two distilleries to visit, so we stayed away for the night, hoping not to freeze. We left Leith mid-morning, the weather was not as good as during our trip to Royal Brackla, but not as wet as the one to Glenglassaugh: overcast and some rain here and there. We didn’t stop for lunch, as we’d prepared two sandwiches with the delicious rock salt and rosemary focaccia from Lidl: when it’s fresh, truly good stuff! Our first stop was Glencadam distillery, in Brechin. We arrived in town at around 1.30pm, but we parked away from the distillery, in what was marked as a potential stopover for the night. It is near the river South Esk but it didn’t look that great, so we postponed the decision to after the tour. It took us about 20 minutes to cross the town, walk alongside a football ground and a cemetery, to then arrive at the distillery.

Glencadam has been on our radar for a while, as their single malts became very popular among whisky enthusiasts: other than delicious, many of their expressions (except for a couple available in supermarkets) are naturally presented (non-chill filtered and natural colour), and mostly well priced: if you haven’t tried it yet, get a bottle of the 10-year-old, great stuff! After the pandemic the distillery has been mostly closed to public, with tours only available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, previous direct contact, but for a short period of time. When they closed again (to visitors, the distillery was still in production), it was for an important reason: works started to build a visitor centre, including a cafe and a dram bar. It was also to celebrate their 200th anniversary, so an opening was expected in 2025. Almost at the end, but they finally opened in November! As we arrived, we noticed the all new and tidy exterior, with an old still used as decoration and, given the period, a couple of cask-stave made Christmas trees.

  • Reward after a wee walk in the cold, Glencadam distillery.

In the visitor centre we were welcomed by Michael, the manager, an old acquaintance as he used to work at Kingsbarn distillery, and we met him many times at the Fife Whisky Festival. While waiting for the tour to start, we browsed the shop: other than the known expressions, everything was set up for a couple of bottle-your-own bottlings, but they were not available yet.

Our guide was Brian Townsend, local from Brechin, the whisky historian who wrote Scotch Missed, a book about lost distilleries (here a review by Kate Watt, of Watt Whisky independent bottler). It was us and another two couples on the tour, which started in a room with panels about the history of the distillery and a big map of Brechin on the floor. The distillery was founded in 1825 by George Cooper, who sold it only two years later. Between the mid-1800s and the early 1900s it changed hands a few times, until it was purchased by Hiram Walker in 1954, which in turn was acquired by Allied Domecq in 1987. The distillery was mothballed in 2000, but finally bought by Angus Dundee, the current owner, in 2003. The history and a high-level explanation of how whisky is made was covered (possibly too extensively) in an exhibition with a series of videos that preceded the actual tour of production.

  • We didn’t take pictures in the exhibition area, so you get us instead.

Going into the nerdy production details, they get 30 tons of fully unpeated barley three times a week mainly from Bairds, sometimes from Crisp: in both cases, they aim for Scottish barley. The mill, built in the 1920s, was acquired in 1965 and produces grist with the usual components split (husk/grit/flour 20/70/10). Five tons of grist are added to each mash, first with 20,000 litres of water at 65°C, then another 8,500 litre for the second water, and finally the third water (another 20,000 litres) captures the remaining sugars and is used as first water in the next mash. The draff is collected by local farmers once or twice a day, to feed cattle. Of the six washbacks, only two are made of stainless steel, but they will be replaced next year by Oregon pine ones, like the other four.

  • Oregon pine and stainless steel washbacks.

Another improvement was to get the water wheel to generate some of the electricity, replacing the original one dating back to 1824-25 that worked for over a century. The new one can be observed behind glass. Instead, a feature that is gone forever, is the original Doig ventilator, aka the pagoda, which was destroyed in a fire.

  • Can’t see much of the whater wheel behind the glass.

Back to production, we learned that fermentation lasts 48 hours, a short one, and is triggered by 13kg of distillers’ yeast. They only have one pair of stills, and in the second distillation, they start collecting the spirit after 10 minutes of foreshots (we didn’t get the cut points though). Coming out of the still room, we were in a small yard where the draff truck comes in, and from there we reached one of the six warehouses on site, to the right of the visitor centre. Two of these are dunnage style and date back to the 1800s, while three are from the 1950s and one is a modern racked warehouse.

  • A glimpse of the still room from the outside (no pitcures allowed inside).
  • Charming dunnage warehouse.

It was then time to go back to the visitor centre for the tasting: we had three drams in front of us, the Glencadam 10y (46%, fully ex-bourbon casks), its bigger brother 13y (46%, same casks), and the Reserva Andalucia, a non-age statement expression finished for a year in ex-sherry casks (46%). Recently, this became part of a series of many cask finishes expressions (white Port, tawny Port, Amarone, PX sherry, etc). It was a basic tasting, but enjoyable nonetheless…When we were about to finish, Micheal brought us another dram: a 17y “triple Port” cask, a nice and delicious touch!

  • A solid, wee lineup.

After the tasting, we went upstairs to the cafe for a warm soup, but Gianluigi got tempted by the dram bar (they have most Glencadam and Tomintoul expressions available) and got another dram (a delicious 15y finished in Madeira wine cask, 46%). It was a very pleasant moment, the cafe is a very cozy space to relax with bites and drams. Because in the meanwhile we’d decided to leave Brechin, we didn’t indulged in more drams at the bar (hopefully next time), and we left the premise, not before getting a signed copy of Brian’s book.

  • Christmasy atmosphere at the distillery.

We walked a bit around Brechin, but it was dark already and the visit to the cathedral was not that satisfying. We visited the site where the North Port (or Brechin) distillery used to be, now a CoOp (*sad trumpet*). We left town and arrived at the Cock and Bull pub, north of Aberdeen, a pub that lets campervans stay if a meal is consumed there. Despite arriving early (not even 6pm) they sent us away asking to come back at 8pm. We did, but we had to wait almost another hour to order as they admitted that they thought we wouldn’t come back (in spite of us leaving our names for a table). What a shite way to treat customers, probably we won’t be back.

  • What used to be North Port distillery.

Overall, our visit at Glencadam distillery was very good, we had a nice time. The new visitor centre looks great, and while the experience we chose was very basic, especially the tasting, it was interesting nonetheless (to note, they offer a pricier experience, maybe next time). We’d definitely suggest visiting the distillery to friends, in particular for those early into their whisky journey. The only thing we didn’t like was the pricing of the bottles in the shop: above retail, including some shops on the Royal Mile (obviously we’re not considering the big online retailers), but in general everything beyond the core range was slightly pricy, with no discounts available to those taking the tour. It always puzzles us how some producers seem to punish instead of rewarding the enthusiasts making the effort to travel to the distillery.

Stay tuned for the last tour around the northeast of Scotland, coming next week! Until then, slàinte!

The GlenCadam Distillery Tour

Price: £23.58 pp (£22.50 + fee, December 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 drams, Glencadam 10y (46%), Glencadam 13y (46%), Reserva Andalucia (NAS, 46%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the cafe above the visitor centre

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.glencadamwhisky.com/

#71.2 The North-eastern Highlands

Feeling like royals at Brackla

 

TL; DR: Another tour in the north east, this time at the mighty Royal Brackla. Tucked away near Inverness, it’s usually closed to the public, so when the chance to visit arrived, we couldn’t say no. It paid off, the tour was great, and it finished with a fantastic tasting! 

(missed Part 1?)

About a month after our trip to Glenglassaugh, we were on the road again, and again in the East Highlands! This time, however, our destination was much closer to the A9 and to Inverness: Royal Brackla Distillery. This distillery, owned by the Bacardi/Dewar’s group (together with Aberfeldy, Craigellachie, Macduff and Aultmore) is usually closed to the public: how come we visited it, then? Well, the answer is: charity! The company decided to run two open weekends, one at Royal Brackla, the other at Macduff distillery, and donate the revenues to local charities. And who are we to say “no” to visiting a distillery for charity? Once we learned about this on the Edinburgh Whisky Group chat, we snatched two tickets for each distillery right away.

The first of the two weekends was at Royal Brackla, which opened for two days (Saturday and Sunday), with three tours each day. We picked the last tour on the Saturday, at 2pm, thinking we might spend the night away (spoiler, at the end we didn’t). We left the city in the morning, aiming to get lunch near the distillery. After an uneventful drive on the A9, we went to the Hillhead Cafè in Tornagrain: Gianluigi had stopped there previously after fieldtrips to a nearby farm, so already knew it was a nice one. From there, we drove a few extra minutes, as the distillery is right after Cawdor, on the left, past the burgh where the popular Cawdor Castle is. Visiting the distillery (when they are open) and the castle could actually be a nice combo.

  • Here we are, ready for the tour.

It was a cold and sunny day, with some clouds, and being the end of November in the Highlands, at 2pm the sun was already starting to go down. When we arrived at the distillery, it was still caressing the landscape with a beautiful light – a fantastic atmosphere. We parked near a lovely old brick building, which hosts the distillery offices. The staff set up a room in a building just next door, with a big screen and a pop-up shop; as we checked in, they gave us a high visibility vest. We were accompanied on tour by Mike, Matthew, Luke and the distillery manager, who walked us to two recently renovated ponds, holding the water for cooling. At the end of the second one there is a wooden deck made from a former washback. From there, we could see a flock of mallards, permanent residents of the pond.

  • Such a beautiful day.

While on the deck, Mike talked about the history of the distillery: founded in 1812 as Brackla by Captain William Fraser, formerly in the military, but born locally. That’s quite early, compared to the many distilleries founded between 1823-24. Because of the resentment of the illicit distillers in the area, he struggled to sell his whisky locally, so he took advantage of the near Inverness port and of his connections in the army, to send it all over Great Britain, as far as London. The royal warrant, the first one in scotch whisky, was given by king Willian IV, apparently very fond of Brackla. The distillery was shut during both World Wars, and for five years during the Whisky Loch of the 1980s. When Diageo was formed in the late 1990s, they sold Dewar’s to Bacardi, including Royal Brackla and the other four aforementioned distilleries.

  • Porteus mill still going strong.

Back at the distillery, we started on the nerdy production details right away: the malt, fully unpeated, comes from Beards, mostly sourced in the Black Isle, and stored in one of the 14 malt bins. Currently it is a 50/50 blend of Laureate and Sassie, crushed into grist by an old Porteus mill, in the usual husk/grit/flour ratio of 20/70/10. They mill for 2-3 hours, twice a day, to run 11 mashes per 5-day week. They scaled production down from 7 days because of the current climate, but before they used to distil 4.4 million litres per annum. They also reduced personnel from 10 to 8 operators. Each mash uses 13-ton of grist, and the two waters (as usual, the third is used as first water in the next mash) result in about 58,000 litres of wort, which is then split into three washbacks. There are eight washbacks in total, two stainless steel ones outside the building and six wooden ones inside. Apparently the latter provide better yield.

  • A clumsy attempt to get mashtun and washbacks in the same picture.

Fermentation is kickstarted by Lallemand cream yeast and lasts 60 hours minimum, but it can be around 115 hours if it goes over the weekend (considering they are working five days). The still room was probably the best part, with the four stills (two wash and two spirit stills) aligned behind the window, from which we could see the ponds. Again, because of the light, the view from there was spectacular.

  • Magnificent view from the still room.

Back to technicalities, the stills’ steam is generated with either an LPG or a biomass boiler (they have one of each). About the latter, they commented that while it reduces their carbon footprint substantially, it is hard work to make it run. In the second distillation, after about 30 minutes of foreshots, they start collecting the spirit from 76%abv down to 64%, and it takes 5 hours to get about 5,000 litres of spirit. Everything is put into tankers and shipped to Glasgow for maturation, where it is filled into casks at a strength of 64% (a slight departure from the usual 63.5%). The fact that they don’t store any cask on site surprised us, as we’d seen a big warehouse on the road to get to the distillery. That is actually owned by ACEO Spirits (also owning Dallas Dhu distillery) – mystery solved.

  • The view inside is good too.

We then entered a building that used to be a filling station, with a big dominating the space. This is where we had the tasting. To note, their single malt range underwent a revamp in 2020, moving away from fully oloroso sherry matured whisky and all bottled at 40%, with everything now at 46% (or above) and natural (no chill-filtered, no added colouring).

  • A filling station turned into a tasting room.

We started with the current 12y (46%), a mix of ex-bourbon and finished in Oloroso casks, a very solid dram. Then, we tried the 18y (46%, finished in Palo Cortado), which was stunning, and then we tried the 21y (46%), from three types of sherry casks: Oloroso, Pedro Ximenex and Palo Cortado. With the final dram, we went up in abv: 54.1%, a 20y Exceptional Cask bottling, matured in refill sherry casks but finished (again) in Palo Cortado. All great drams, but the 18y won it for both!

  • Strong start of the tasting.
  • …and we couldn’t complain about the end either.

That was the end of our day, as we slowly drove back to Edinburgh. When we first learned about these tours, we were a bit worried about the price, especially considering some recent expensive distillery visits. The fact that it was £20 per person (in line with the other Dewar’s tours at Craigellachie and Aultmore during the Spirit of Speyside) shows how other producers are literally taking the piss! On top of a fantastic tour of a very pretty distillery, with a great team showing us around and answering our nerdy questions, they offered us a fantastic tasting with an array of delicious drams. We were already aware of how good Royal Brackla could be, but it now has a special place in our hearts (and livers).

Stay tuned for another distillery visit in the north east, this time much eastern, coming next week! Until then, slàinte!

Royal Brackla Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (November 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: Royal Brackla 12y (46%, Oloroso finish), 18y (46%, Palo Cortado finish), 21y (46%, Oloroso, Palo Cortado, PX finish), Exceptional Cask 20y (54.1%, refill Oloroso + 2y Palo Cortado finish)

Target: everyone

Value for money: great!

Highlights: the view from the still room, but the distillery in general

Recommended: absolutely, keep an eye on their socials

Link: https://www.royalbrackla.com/

#71.1 The North-eastern Highlands

Dramming on to the North Sea: Glenglassaugh

 

TL; DR: This year we finally made it to the Dornoch Whisky Festival, where we had a blast! On the road there we did a quite long detour to Glenglassaugh, in the Aberdeenshire, for a distillery tour. The distillery is very interesting and the tour was good, but it was one of the most overpriced experiences we had recently. 

A few months back, towards the end of 2025, we visited a few distilleries in the north-eastern Highlands: east to the A9 (the stub between Perth and Inverness), but not Speyside. In fact, almost like a horseshoe around Speyside. There used to be many more distilleries in this region back in the day – from Alfred Barnard’s book The Distilleries of The United Kingdom: Bennachie, Glenaden, Glenugie, Bon Accord, Devanha, Strathdee, Glenury Royal, Brechin/North Port, Banff and others. Some still stand, and while we already visited a few (Glen Garioch, Glendronach, Royal Lochnagar, Fettercairn & Arbikie), for a reason or another we kept missing some others.

The first of these trips happened in October, a month that for us used to mean Dramathon. While it’s a fun event, after 4 years (in which we ran 3 because the 2023 one was cancelled due to a flood red warning) we definitely needed a change, so we decided to attend the Dornoch Whisky Festival instead, an event we’d wanted to check out for a while. On the way up there, we took a (not so) short detour, to visit Glenglassaugh distillery. In the pandemic aftermath it was closed to the public, except for possibly some events during the Spirit of Speyside (even if technically it’s not considered a Speyside distillery). However, earlier in the year we discovered that tours became available.

The distillery is on the coast between Aberdeen and Inverness, not exactly behind the corner, going there on our way to the Dornoch Whisky Festival (even if it meant an hour of extra driving) saved an extra trip. We split the drive in two by leaving the city on the Thursday night: the perks of Mr Vantastic. We spent the night near Stonehaven, and in the morning, we drove along the coast: the weather was not great, so it wasn’t the smartest of the plans. After a coffee and a roll in Peterhead, we went straight to the distillery.

  • Finally got here…

Coming from Portsoy, Glenglassaugh is tucked between the A98 and the North Sea, just before Sandend Bay: an old windmill stands just past the entrance road, almost to signal it (well, if you know). We turned right into a small downhill road, next to a large warehouse complex, to reach the visitors’ car park. Next to it, a building marked as “visitor centre” but looking disused. We then realised that the actual visitor centre was the next building, an old and beautiful mansion.

  • …for another distillery tour in the rain.

Our guide, Marie, welcomed us inside and made us coffee, a nice touch. Unfortunately, the chimney was not on, but the large room was very cozy nonetheless. After a pleasant chat, Marie delved into the history of the distillery and how it is now part of the Brown Forman portfolio, together with Benriach and Glendronach (not the same link as before for the latter, because we visited it twice!) in Scotland, and also Jack Daniel’s, Woodford Reserve, and other brands. The distillery started production on the 4th of December 1875 by an entrepreneur called James Muir, who had connections with the engineering world and owned a wine shop in Portsoy. The name Glassaugh comes from the nearby burn, which starts about 8 miles uphill from a spring. After Muir death’s, the distillery fell in the hands of their nephews, but it was eventually sold to Highland Distillers in 1892, and later mothballed in 1907. It was reopened once again in 1959, with a substantial revamp, while some of the old original buildings used as warehouses. The aim was to use the malt as a component for the Famous Grouse: however, the spirit was too overpowering, and in between then and 1986, when it closed, a number of changes were made to try to “tame” it.

  • Not a bad spot to listen to the distillery history.

The distillery was reopened by another company in 2008, while in 2012 they launched the whisky Revival. It was then bought by Billy Walker in 2013 and sold, together with Benriach and Glendronach, to Brown Forman in 2017. Recently, production has slowed down, and at the time of our visit Glenglassaugh was running at about 50%, sharing the same production staff with Benriach.

After this detailed introduction, we went outside to check out the production. We started with the malt bins and the mill room, in a stone building alongside the road that goes downhill towards the Sandend beach. We were supposed to have a short walk to the beach, and have there our first dram, the Glenglassaugh Sandend. This is a higher abv (50.5%) non-age stated whisky, mostly from ex-bourbon casks, but with Manzanilla and Oloroso sherry as well: probably, the best dram of their core range. Unfortunately, it was still “pishing doon”, so we tasted the dram in the mill room instead, admiring the old Porteus mill crashing malted barley into grist (usual shares for husk/grit/flour, 20/70/10). Different to most distilleries, at Glenglassaugh, most of the “new” equipment was made by Porteus, implying that Ronnie Lee, the Welsh engineer who maintains Porteus machines, spends there about 2 weeks every time.

  • The mill room.
  • Dramming in the mill room.

After the dram, we went to the “new” (i.e. 1959) building, clearly a product of the (bad?) taste of that age. The mashtun is 20,000 litres, made of cast iron and with a copper lid, which resisted a robbery attempt during the last mothballing period (not the same luck for some of the copper pipes though). Between the first and second water, they collect 24,000 litres only. The third and last water amount to 17,000 litres, used as first water for the following batch.

  • Not the most impressive building…
  • A Porteus mashtun, nice!

Mashing lasts 7 hours, and they aim for a cloudy wort, which is then moved to one of the 6 washbacks (4 Douglas Fir, 2 stainless steel). There, fermentation lasts about 60 hours, before the wash is distilled twice: first 12,000 litres go through the wash still (so, each mashing and fermentation produce enough wash for two distillations), then 7,000 litres of low wines (at 25%abv) are distilled again in the spirit still. The wash still is externally heated by a steam jacket, while the spirit still has a steam coil inside. The stills were installed in 1974: one of the many attempts to “tame” the spirit. The spirit cut is between 75% and 63%, for an average of about 68.8%, which is filled into casks.

  • A different perspective, still from above.

After that, we visited a dunnage warehouse, one of the three on site, together with three palletised ones. They also own some warehouses a few miles down the road, at Macduff distillery (owned by Bacardi). They use a variety of casks, some going back to the late 1960s, including a new for us: a Missandra cask form a very old winery in Crimea.

  • Where Dr. Rachel Barrie selects casks.

Back at the visitor centre, four drams were waiting for us in a cosy tasting room. The first two drams are part of the latest Glenglassaugh revamp from 2023, together with the Sandend we tried before: a 12 year old (45%), from a selection of ex-bourbon, sherry and red wine casks; and a peated (30-45ppm) non-age stated single malt finished in port casks (49%), the Portsoy (named after the nearby village). Finally, we tried two expressions from a wood-finish range that came out in 2017, right after Brown Forman took over. Both started their life in 1st fill ex-bourbon casks, but one was finished for two years in a PX sherry cask (46%), while the other one, peated, was finished in an American oak virgin cask (46%). The latter one was the one Gianluigi liked the most, unusual as for him virgin oak finishes can be a hit-or-miss. Teresa liked the Portsoy as well, very leathery and decadent, while we both enjoyed the Sandend, crisp and lively.

  • Exploration of recent and less recent releases.

Said that, we were expecting more from this experience. Marie was a perfect host, very competent, knowledgeable, kind, and enthusiastic: she really was great and we learned a lot about the distillery. We don’t mind either having 1 or 2 drams from the core range (which we can find pretty much anywhere in whisky shops and some bars) to set the benchmark, nor 15ml drams, which we think it’s enough to taste. However, for £90, we expected something else from the rest of the tasting: possibly some drams from the cask, or some older expressions. Or at least, a reason that makes you want to go back and say: “well, it was pricey, but it was worth it”. Unfortunately, none of that was on the menu, probably because of corporate greediness or for a push to “premiumisation”. Well, at least there wasn’t one of those grossly overpriced bottle-your-own expressions like at other distilleries (Diageo anyone? CVH?), but we don’t know if this is a positive or a negative at this point. The distillery is in a great location, with an interesting story, and the whisky is tasty, such a shame to misuse its potential like this.

Because this post is long enough, we won’t delve into the fantastic Dornoch Whisky Festival, we’ll save it for another occasion. Stay tuned for our next distillery visit in the North East, coming next week! Until then, slàinte!

Glenglassaugh Distillery Tour

Price: £90.00 pp (October 2025, £95 at the time of writing)

Duration: 2hr 30min

Tasting: 5 Glenglassaugh single malts, the 12y (45%, chill-filtered); Sandend (50.5%, NAS, ex-bourbon casks); Portsoy (49.1%, finished in Port casks); small batch PX cask finish (NAS, 46%); small batch Peated virgin oak cask (NAS, 46%).

Target: whisky fans and distillery baggers like us

Value for money: not great

Highlights: the location

Recommended: only if you’re desperate to visit it, otherwise there are more sensibly priced options nearby

Link: https://www.glenglassaugh.com/

#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/