TL; DR: For our traditional wee February Highlands escape, this year we picked the isle of Skye. The first distillery we visited was Torabhaig – a beautiful location and an interesting tour, definitely a great start to the weekend! 

In the last few years, we started a new small “tradition”: a trip to the Highlands, visiting some distilleries, in February. This not only comes after the dreaded dry (past years) or half-dry and half-moderated (this year) January, but it is also a great time to go because of the low season, unlike the summer months when a mass of tourists is swarming this beautiful region. Everything is quieter and more relaxed, the way we like it, probably not coincidentally the same way we started to truly enjoy whisky. There are downsides too of course, but we’ll come to these later.

In 2022, we did a daytrip to Pitlochry, to which we attached an in-depth tour at Blair Athol distillery. Last year, we went to the West Highlands, to a spot that has a place in our hearts: the Ardnamurchan peninsula. The trip included a short visit to Tobermory too (we’ll let you guess which distillery we visited). This year, the original choice was Islay, but in addition to the fact that there were no campings open or “official” spots to stay with the campervan (speaking of off-season downsides), one of the four distilleries we haven’t visited yet was closed (Caol Ila), so we decided to postpone. The other choice was another banger of a place that has been on our wish list for a long time: Skye! We’ve been there in the summer 2020, but because it was pandemic time, we couldn’t visit any distillery.

As usual, we planned to leave in the late afternoon evening, so to be ready to get to the first distillery in the late morning the day after. However, a couple of weeks before the trip we had a very pleasant surprise: Roy, from the Aqvavitae YouTube channel, asked us if we could be part of that week vPub. It was a 6 Nations themed blind challenge, where we would sip six drams, one from each nation. It goes without saying, we would participate as the Italy representatives. It was a super fun night, we truly enjoyed the blind tasting, and we found some very interesting new drams (the Armorik 10 in particular, a proper dram). To be able to attend the online event, we booked a B&B near Fort William, as many campsites are closed in February (another downsides of off-season) and the couple that were open had mixed reviews on the WiFi quality, something we couldn’t risk. In the morning, we had a huge breakfast, after which we were ready for a nice day of whisky visits!

The first distillery we hit was Torabhaig, after a spectacular drive on the A87. We arrived there 10-15 minutes in advance, so we could take some pictures (not many, as the weather was quite dire at that point). The distillery is in a very nice spot, very isolated, in the south of the island. The building was completed in January 2017, from restoring the ruins of an 1820s farmstead that in turn used stones from the nearby Caisteal Chamuis. The castle also gives the name to a blended malt sold by the independent distiller Mossburn, owner of the distillery.

The guide for the day was Lesley, who turned out to be very precise and on-point, making the basic tour very enjoyable also for whisky enthusiasts like us (the fancier tours were not available at the time, another off-season downside). Their production capacity is of about half-million litres of alcohol per annum, and their barley intake is about 28 tonnes every 10 days. It comes from Crisp on the Moray coast, and is usually 77ppm.  

After milling, mashing takes place in a copper-closed mashtun, with the usual three waters increasing in temperature. They do up to three mashes/day for a total of 17/week, after which the liquid goes into one of the eight 10,000-litre washbacks (although they fill it up to 8,000), where fermentation lasts about 72 hours. They have one pair of stills (probably the size of the B-listed building wouldn’t allow more), 8,000 and 5,000 litres for respectively the wash and the spirit still. They are called Sir Ian and Lady Noble, from the couple who conceived the distillery project in the first place. From the spirit still they take a cut around 70% abv on average, and a peculiarity is that, similarly to distilleries characterised by a waxy spirit, they mix feints and low wines in the same receiving tank. Very interestingly, for two weeks a year, the two distillers are free to experiment, and these batches will make future releases.

After the production tour (where photos were not allowed), we went to the tasting room – no warehouse visit as on site they don’t keep many casks because of limited space. We tried the newmake and the Allt Gleann, their second released single malt (ex-bourbon casks, 46%). Their first bottling, released in 2020, disappeared in a typical “pandemic frenzy”. Since then, they also released a cask strength version of the Allt Gleann (61.1%, mainly ex-bourbon) and, about a month after we visited, the last of the Legacy Series, the sherried Cnoc Na Moine (46%), which we haven’t tried yet.

After the tour, we went back to the shop to try a tiny sip of the Mossburn 12y, and then we had a coffee and a tasty cake at their cafè, before leaving towards our next stop. At the cafè they also sell some of their other whiskies by the dram, in particular the Mossburn range. Overall, we really liked the experience (and great value for money) and this distillery, not just because it’s truly beautiful. The whisky still tastes a bit young in general (well, the few we tried at least), but we can see great things coming from them.

---

Torabhaig Regular Tour

Price: £12.00 pp (February 2024)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: newmake and a dram, Torabhaig Allt Gleann (46%, ex-bourbon casks, peated)

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the building and the scenery

Recommended: yes

Link: https://torabhaig.com/

---