#44.5 Spirited in Speyside

Aucht… Actrh…. Aucr… Auchroisk!

TL; DR: Our final day at the Spirit of Speyside started with the Whisky Fair in Dufftown, a mini-whisky festival in the festival. Then we visited Auchroisk with its huge production, filling and cask warehousing facilities. A great visit ending with the usual stingy whisky tasting.

(missed Part 4/Part 3/Part 2/Part 1?)

We woke up under a grey sky, but the temperature wasn’t too cold. We had a quick breakfast under the trees, before going to take advantage of the toilet in a nearby Tesco Extra (well, that’s the downside of wild camping in villages or towns).

Soon enough, we were driving towards Dufftown, together with Justine (although in separate campervans, our Mr Vantastic and her Post Dram Prat). Once there, we had a second breakfast (or early lunch) in a fairly new cafè, almost in front of the clock tower, called the Cozy Coo: delicious food! Our first event of the day was the Whisky Fair, organised by local people (including our friend Sue from Glenallachie) in the Mortlach Community Hall, basically a whisky festival in the festival, which runs on the Saturday and the Sunday.

The ticket included some food and a hot drink (very nice touch), but the money would be donated to the local Whisky Museum. Most of the stands belong to small independent companies, among which Dramfool, Murray McDavid, Lady of the Glen, Moffat distillery (we finally tried their newmake spirit: definitely different from most, way less fruity and way more crème-caramel-like notes), Cabrach distillery (soon to be opened). An exception was Angus Dundee distillers, pouring both Glencadam and Tomintoul – Gianluigi could finally try the Tomintoul 14y we’d bought two days before. We also got a sample of Glencadam 18y to take home, such a delicious dram! Overall, we really enjoyed this event and the relaxed atmosphere, we’ll definitely book again if we go back to the Spirit of Speyside next year.

Wee distilleries at the Whisky Fair…Moffat!

Around 1.30pm (late) we left the fair, and we drove to our next destination: Auchroisk distillery. Google made us go through some backroads but didn’t realise there were some detours due to roadworks, so what was late became very late, and we parked exactly when the tour was supposed to start. Fortunately, a member of staff was waiting for us (and other latecomers), and walked us where the tour was about to start. The tour was given by Debbie, the site manager, and Stephen, an operator, and as a first thing they gave us a vest and a hard-hat: safety first!

The Auchroisk distillery is relatively recent, they started building it in 1972 and the first mash was done in 1974, so ‘just’ 50 years ago! It looks more modern than most distilleries indeed, and the vanilla-coloured building almost gives it a mediterranean/hispanic twist (we realise this might a bit of a stretch…). The name, which means red stream, was taken from the nearby farm, which was bought to get access to the well. The name was (and is) so hard to pronounce that the whisky got called the Singleton, before Diageo decided to reassign this brand to the Dufftown, Glendullan and Glen Ord distilleries. Obscure to many, we knew the distillery from early days thanks to tastings at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, but we didn’t know it is actually a big one (almost 6 million litre of pure alcohol per annum capacity!).

Their weekly barley intake is around 312-330 tons, split in 10 loads, currently mostly Diablo and Lauriet varieties (and another one we couldn’t quite get). Unlike many distilleries, the grist split (grit/husk/flour) they get from the big red mill (not sure if a Porteus, but they didn’t mention it so…) is not the usual 70/20/10, as they aim for a higher share of flour to get more starches. They mash 12.5 tons of grist, initially with 47,000 litres of water at 63.5°C for about 45 minutes. Then, 25,000 litres of wort is pumped out, and the water temperature is increased to absorb more sugars until 78°C for 2.5-3 hours. They have 8 stainless steel washbacks, where the wort is moved while cooled down to 17.5°C through a heat exchanger. Fermentation only lasts 46 hours (probably one of the shortest we heard so far!). The washbacks are quite big, 52,200 litres, and they use 250l of yeast per mash. The wash is then distilled first in one of the four 13,000-litre wash stills, and then in a 7,000-litre spirit still (all heated with steam coils, steam obtained from a biodiesel boiler). The spirit cut from the second distillation is from 75.5% to 65%.

This part is quite similar to many other Diageo distillery. However, on top of such big production site, they also have a filling station facility that served many distilleries located in the North of Scotland (not only Diageo ones). This facility and cask storage (we didn’t quite get the number though) is really huge: a team of 42 people fills about 3,000 cask per day, at a filling strength between 63% and 68% depending on the product destination.

Part of production we don’t see very often.

Debbie opened the doors of a warehouse, and we couldn’t help but notice the number of casks from ghost distilleries that we lost throughout the years: Pittyvaich, Glen Mhor, Lochside, Glenesk, Millburn, Linlithgow, Imperial, Banff, Dallas Dhu, Rosebank, Convalmore, as well as their second ever cask and a 1984 (Gianluigi’s birth year) Cragganmore! We really do hope those malts won’t end up in the Johnnie Walker Blue Ghost shenanigans…but probably we won’t be able to try them anyway.

After this, we were walked to the main offices for the tasting. They offered 3x10ml drams, quite stingy in the face of the 80 quid tour price (unlike last year, this time there was no welcome cocktail). Anyway, we started with the Flora and Fauna Auchroisk 10y: a very delicious single malt, one of the best from that range in our opinion, and solid despite the 43% (mostly from refill ex-bourbon casks). The second dram was a cask sample, 14y from an ex-bourbon cask (51.9%), produced in a period when they were aiming for a “grassy” spirit. Finally, a 20y from the Diageo Special Release 2010 (58.1%), from European oak casks. The middle one was the winner for us, but they were all delicious.

Again, as last year, Diageo distilleries surprised us for the incredible facilities they have, and for the knowledge and enthusiasm of their staff. And their willingness to show around whisky nerds like us, and the tasty spirit they produce. Such a shame the company doesn’t seem to care much – should we consider ourselves lucky to be able to visit a normally closed distillery for £80? We’ll leave this one with you.

After this, we slowly drove (well, Teresa did…) home, while Gianluigi depleted his stock of gummy candies. Another Spirit of Speyside under our belt, such a great festival! Different to last year, this time we also attended some non-distillery related events, which really improved our enjoyment of the festival overall – we still did a lot of things, but it didn’t feel rushed as last year. We’ll see whether we’re able to come up with an even better plan for next year.

Until next time, slainte!

Auchroisk Tour and Tasting

Price: £80.00 pp (Spirit of Speyside 2024)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 3x10ml drams, Auchroisk 10 (43%, Flora and Fauna), cask sample 14y (ex-bourbon cask, 51.9%), 20y from the Diageo Special Release 2010 (European oak casks, 58.1%)

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: just OK

Highlights: the filling facility and the warehouse

Recommended: yes if you’re a whisky nerd

Link: https://tickets.spiritofspeyside.com/sales/events/2024-festival/auchroisk-distillery-tour

#44.4 Spirited in Speyside

A day at Tormore, a night at Glen Moray

TL; DR: After admiring it so many times from the outside, we finally visited the Pearl of Speyside, Tormore – thanks to the new ownership, Elixir Disillers, who opened it to the public for the festival. What an incredible site! Cherry on the top of a great day, a fun Star Wars themed tasting at Glen Moray.

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

Despite our lay-by being slightly on a slope, we slept well and woke up well rested. We really liked the campsite, very quiet and very clean too! We had a quick breakfast, and we started getting ready to go asap.

We were going to visit one of the most beautiful distilleries in the area, and one that is unmissable when you drive on the A95, past Grantown-on-Spey and before Ballindalloch, as you enter the heart of Speyside: Tormore! The distillery was owned for a few years by Pernod Ricard/Chivas Brothers, but it was eventually (and thankfully) sold to Elixir Distillers in 2022 (which in the meanwhile is also building the Portintruan distillery on the Kildalton coast, on Islay). Of course, they decided to open it up to the public for the festival, to give whisky nerds a chance to visit the site.

Our original plan was to get a bigger breakfast near Grantown-on-Spey indeed, but we ran out of time, so we just stopped in Aberlour, at our usual Gather’n Café, a safe choice (although this time they were a bit slower than usual, so we had to run to get to our event on time).

As we approached the distillery, staff members showed us where to park (they are not equipped for tourists, yet). As we checked in, the distillery manager Polly Logan welcomed us with a small Elixir Distillers branded water bottle and a couple of stubs for drams or other drinks, and pointed us to the building where the tasting would take place. The event was called Perfecting the Pearl Masterclass (referring to the distillery as the Pearl of Speyside) and included a tasting and the Tormore Open Day (which was £25 alone), so the possibility to join one of the many production tours and visit the water source.

The tasting was held in the filling store, where they’d set up a pop-up bar and many tables. There, we found some of our fellow drammers: Robert, John from the Edinburgh Whisky Group, Richard from Whisky Concerto, and later on the barfly Graham Fraser…and of course Justine, who was already with us. Back to the tasting, we had four drams, all Tormore: first two, a 1994 and a 1999, both ex-bourbon casks. Then, two younger drams finished in ex-sherry casks, but with a twist – the sherry casks used for the first dram were from a Spanish cooperage that builds casks with a different style compared to many others. This was slightly reflected on the drams, with the second bringing classic sherry flavours, while the other one was more subtle, and the sherry influence was not that overt. It would have been more interesting if we remembered the names of the cooperages, but hey ho. Overall, a very interesting tasting, drawing a bright picture for the future of Tormore whisky.

After the tasting, instead of getting some food at the truck that was there for the open day (like the charity pop-up stands set up in a storage warehouse), we queued to join a distillery tour: Mark, a warehouseman, took us a few minutes later. The distillery was completed in 1960, but started distilling in 1959, when there was still no roof…apparently there was a race to start distilling among nearby distilleries. Their Porteus mill however is dated 1965, and Mark said they didn’t know what was there before or where the mill came from. Each lorry of barley (unpeated) will fill slightly more than one of their silos, before being crushed and put into their 10.4 tonnes full Leuter mashtun. They add 40,000 litres of water at 65°C, followed by the usual other two runs of water at increasing temperatures.

The mash is then moved to one of the 11 washbacks, which are spread around the site. Fermentation is a combination of short (52 hours) and long (100 hours), and is triggered by cream yeast. Finally, distillation is done with one of the four couples of wash and spirit stills, in the majestic (almost cathedral-like) still room. Here we got an interesting info: for 3 years (with potentially an extension to 5) they are only producing for themselves 3 months a year, which is when they are able to experiment more with fermentation and cut points. The rest of the year they produce spirit for Chivas Brothers, and as a result, they filled their first own cask in September 2023 only.

Once the tour was finished, we had some fried food, and then took a walk first to the cooper demonstration and then to the source of water: a very nice small lake, that we could reach with a 5-minute walk along the burn on the side of the distillery. Later on, for an extra tenner, we could attend another event where people who used to work at the distillery told some funny stories from the past decades…very romantic, but it also reminded us how important the current environmental and health-and-safety rules are. They gave us two drams, the same Tormore’s available to buy on the day, a small vatting of 8yr bottled for the Whisky Trail (50%, ex-bourbon cask, vintage 2015), and a 25yr (ex-bourbon cask, 47.1%, vintage 1997) under the Single Malts of Scotland brand. Both tasty, and showcasing how good is Tormore, especially in ex-bourbon casks.

As the event ended, we started moving towards our next destination: Elgin, and the Glen Moray distillery. Together with Justine, we parked our vans in a quiet parking lot, near the rugby pitch, and walked our way to the distillery. As it was May the Fourth, the tasting’s theme was obviously Star Wars: it was fun to see Emma and Iain from Glen Moray in, respectively, a resistance commander and stormtrooper costumes. They also hired a cosplayer company (we guess…?) so we were welcomed by wookiees (some of them a bit scary), other imperial scouts and Bo Katan herself! Of course we brought our little Grogu with us, we had to. They offered cookies and sweets with the tasting, although to quote Iain, it looked more like a kids party rather than a whisky tasting.

The welcome dram was the new-ish release from Glen Moray for the wide market, Phoenix Rising (40%, new charred oak), which despite of the 40%abv is a nice sipper, potentially a good introduction to the distillery. Then Iain handed over to Hans Offringa (from the Whisky Couple), who presented a new independent bottler called Saltire, based in Falkland (in Fife, not in South America), whose first release is in fact a Glen Moray (17y, 48.8%, 2^nd fill ex bourbon hogshead). Hans explained that they will focus on malts from 14 years of age on.

First part of the tasting, a very interesting start.

The third dram was from the current distillery bottlings, a vintage 2008 (15y) ex-Manzanilla sherry cask, bottled at 54.1%abv. At that point, we took a break and went to the warehouse to take some pictures with the cosplayers…Grogu enjoyed that part.

Back to the visitor centre and bar, we were talked through a presentation by someone who actually ‘lived’ the Star Wars movies: Frazer Diamond. He was a kid at that time, who played one of the Jawas (those popular, small, hooded people who collect spaceships and droids scraps). This was because his father, Peter Diamond, was the stunt coordinator on set, and helped organise most of the fighting scenes in the original trilogy, and also played many of the demised stormtroopers in various scenes.

After his (a bit long but very interesting) slideshow, we had another three drams: first, one from the Warehouse 1 range, a collection of small batches of interesting and different expressions compared to the standard Glen Moray range. This was an 8yr fully matured in ex-Rioja red wine casks, bottled at a whooping 59.8%. It was followed by another dram presented by Hans, an 11yr Scotch Malt Whisky Society from a 1^st fill ex-bourbon barrel, bottled at 58.9% (bottling number 35.389). Finally, we tried a peated one, another ex-Rioja matured dram, again from the Warehouse 1 range, this time an 11y and bottled at 58.8%.

Another great day at the Spirit of Speyside, with a fun Star Wars twist. Stay tuned to know about our final day at the festival…until then, slainte!

Perfecting the Pearl Masterclass

Price: £65.00 pp (Spirit of Speyside 2024, including the open day)

Duration: 1hr for the tasting, plus the rest of the day for the open day

Tasting: 1994 ex-bourbon cask, 1999 ex-bourbon cask, two ex-sherry finished drams

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the still room

Recommended: yes

Link: https://elixirdistillers.com/distilleries/

#44.3 Spirited in Speyside

From Ben Rinnes to Tomintoul

TL; DR: Another sunny day in Speyside, so we finally did what we’d wanted to do for a long time: climb Ben Rinnes! In the afternoon we visited Tomintoul, attending a Spirit of Speyside tour and (quite generous) tasting. We were not very familiar with this malt, which turned out to be a very solid and sweet Speysider!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

We woke up well rested, under the trees and with birds chirping all around us. We had breakfast in our van: coffee, yogurt, fruits, and we indulged in a couple of cookies as well. Again, it was a magnificent sunny day, so we could go ahead with our plan: go for a walk before starting our whisky activities.

We’d decided to climb Ben Rinnes, the hill in the middle of Speyside, whose slopes provide water to many distilleries around it. It was not a long walk, less than 8km, but it was quite steep, a 550-metre ascent in total from the parking lot to the top of the hill. We started early, around 8.30am, when not many others were hiking (we only met about 4-5 people while going up). The climb started quite uphill right away, and the ascent was interrupted by a couple of short plateaus, before the last climb of more than 300 metres.

Once on top, though, we got rewarded, as the view is quite amazing. As were going up, on our left, we spotted a distillery very close to the top – we guessed Benrinnes but we were wrong, it was Allt a’Bhainne. Others could be seen (well, mostly the vapours) once on the top. Our plans to have a snack at the top were ruined by the strong wind, so we quickly started descending back to the parking lot. We bumped into a lot of people, probably because of the time, although the sky was clouded when we got to the van. On the Walk Highlands website the hike (back and forth) was estimated around 3-4 hours, but it took us only 2, so we had some spare time!

Back in the van, we started looking for a place for coffee and a bite, possibly in the direction of our next destination, Tomintoul. We were unlucky at first: some cafes were still closed until summer, some were opening later in the day. We were saved by Bike Glenlivet, a cafè inside an outdoor centre, less than 10 minutes past the distillery. There we could enjoy a sandwich and, past midday, a warm soup.

We arrived at Tomintoul distillery a few minutes early, just the time to park, take some photos and check in. The distillery is tucked at the bottom of a woody hill, along the road, with another hill in front of it: we were told later that during the heather flowering season it becomes all purple, which is why purple is one of the flag colours.

About to explore the distillery producing a ‘gentle dram’.

The visitor centre actually consists in a room with the shop and a big table for tastings. Fun fact: in the room there is also a giant bottle (over 100 litres!) of Tomintoul 14: the Guinness World Record holder for biggest whisky bottle, in our understanding. The distillery is usually open to public, but their regular tours are on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, making it a bit hard to schedule a visit. This was one of the reasons to visit them during the Spirit of Speyside, the other being that we were not very familiar with their whisky, so an enhanced event could have made us know them better…and it did, indeed!

Teresa losing the ‘who’s the tallest’ contest again.

The tour was hosted by Rob, the distillery manager, and Iain, the master blender who gave us a dram of their 16yr (40%abv), one of their flagship expressions. We always appreciate the tours where they give you a dram at the beginning, well done! The distillery was founded in 1964, so it is “young” compared to their peers, and they produce unpeated (marketed as Tomintoul), lightly peated (peated Tomintoul) and heavily peated (Old Ballantruan) single malt. The latter takes name from the spring where they source water. The peated run lasts about 6 weeks per year, much less compared to the 40 weeks of the unpeated one. They use Crisp malt, which is stored in 8 malt bins before processing through a dresser and the classic Porteus mill. The grist is then moved 12.2 tons at a time to the mashtun, with 48,000 litres of water at 65°C, followed by the usual two other waters at increasing temperature, to maximise the sugar intake.

Once the wort (clear after the first water, cloudier after the second) is cooled down to 20°C, it is moved to one of the 6 washbacks, where they add solid distillers’ yeast. Fermentation lasts about 60 hours, then the wash is distilled in one of the two wash stills, and then again in one of the spirit stills. Cut points are usually from 72% to 61.8%, and it takes more or less two hours. Originally the distillery had only two stills, the second pair was added in 1974. Rob showed us one of the byproducts of the first distillation, a syrup with almost 0% alcohol, which is sold to farmers.

Still in the still room (pun sort of intended), Iain joined us again, this time to give us a dram of the 25yr (43%), a very sweet and delicious one! We then visited one of the warehouses, a racked one (the most common from the distilleries built in that era). They can store up to 150,000 casks on site, while the rest is shipped to the main site in the Lowlands. There, Iain demonstrated us the use of a (leaky!) copper dog, although the whisky inside it came from a bottle, not straight from a cask: a single cask from a Bordeaux wine barrique, vintage 2008 (14yr), bottled at 60.7%.

A 25yr dram after visiting the still room. Nice surprise!

We headed back to the visitor centre for the remainder of the tasting: first, a couple of Madeira matured expressions, a 15yr limited release (46%) and a single hogshead from 1998, bottled in 2022 at 24 years of age (50.2%). The next dram was their Cigar Malt, a quite delicious sherry cask matured expression, lightly peated, and very solid despite the 43% strength (a shame it was a bit pricey). We finished with an Old Ballantruan from the core range: the 15yr (the other two are the non-age statement and the 10yr, all bottled at 50%): a sweet and smoky dram. At that point, a group of Spanish who were on the tour (one of them was a London-based employee of Angus-Dundee, the distillery owners) brought out some Jamon Iberico, which paired perfectly with the last two drams!

We left the distillery very happy (not just because of the drams, Gianluigi was dry!), taking one of their bottle with us: as most of their core range is bottled at 40% or 43% and the limited expressions were a bit pricey, the perfect one for was the 14yr: not only unchill-filtered and bottled at 46%, but also from ex-bourbon casks, which in our opinion is the best type of cask to grasp the distillery character.

We arrived at our destination, the Parkmore Cottage and Camping in Dufftown, where our friend Justine (from Kask Whisky) was waiting for us. We had a beer, dinner and a few drams with her, to conclude the day on a high. And what a great day was that, first the climb to Ben Rinnes, and then Tomintoul. With 7 drams their tour was one of the most generous as well (compared to higher priced tours with less than half of the drams…), giving us a chance to fully appreciate the potential of their very solid and fruity (gentle, as they like saying) whisky.

Stay tuned to know about our day at another Speyside whisky distillery…until then, slainte!

Tomintoul Distillery: Behind the Scenes Tour and Tasting

Price: £70.00 pp (Spirit of Speyside 2024)

Duration: 2hrs (actually, almost 3!)

Tasting: Tomintoul 16yr (40%), Tomintoul 25yr (43%), single cask from a Bordeaux wine barrique (2008, 14yr, 60.7%), Madeira 15yr limited release (46%), Madeira single hogshead (1998, 24 yr, 50.2%), Cigar Malt (43%), 15yr Old Ballantruan (50%)

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the tasting (including drams during the tour)

Recommended: yes

Link: https://tours.tomintoulwhisky.com/

#44.2 Spirited in Speyside

A walk to Craigellachie

TL; DR: After Kininvie and a very nice walk, it was time for Craigellachie distillery, the ‘queen of worm tubs’! We’d been waiting over 4 years to visit it, we finally made it and it didn’t disappoint. A great tour with very knowledgeable staff, for a very reasonable price (other producers, take note!)

(missed Part 1?)

As the tour at Kininvie came to an end, it was time to move to our next destination for the day. It was a gorgeous day, probably one of the best (if not the best) we had in all our visits in Speyside (so much better than the dreaded August ’21, when it was so wet that we couldn’t ignite the self-igniting charcoal to grill). The weather so was nice and warm that we both ended up in short sleeves – perfect for our walk back to Craigellachie along the Old Speyside Railway. We knew the path, it’s where we ran the Dramathon Half Dram (half-marathon) in 2022 (and 2021), and where we’ll hopefully run the Wee Dram (10k) later this year. The walk turned out to be over 6 km, on a peaceful path surrounded by vegetation and buzzing insects…a very refreshing and enjoyable moment, in particular considering the poor spring we had this year (and still having at the time of writing).

For once, we’re not running on this path.

We arrived at Craigellachie distillery only a few minutes early, just the time to take a few photos in front of the distillery. In the past two years Teresa visited a couple of distilleries that Gianluigi hasn’t (Liberties in Dublin and Copper Rivet in England), while Gianluigi only visited one that Teresa hasn’t (Glenora in Canada), so we both celebrated our personal 100^th distillery in separate occasions (Aberargie for Teresa, Kininvie for Gianluigi). Craigellachie though, was our 100^th distillery visit together, yay! Next target: 100^th Scottish distillery, which will hopefully happen in 2025…maybe?

The 100th distillery visit together, big achievement!

The distillery is unmissable, as it is right on the road from Craigellachie to Dufftown. They don’t have a visitor centre, something we learned back in 2019 when we visited a sister distillery, Aberfeldy. They are both owned by Dewar’s/Bacardi, together with Royal Brackla, Aultmore, and Macduff (whisky marketed as Deveron/Glen Deveron). The distillery was built in 1891, during the pre-Pattinson crash whisky boom, and expanded in 1964, while malting stopped in 1968.

Back to today, the tour was given by Stephen, the distillery manager, together with Matthew (brand ambassador) and Gary (cask supply specialist, and “grainman”), a fun dynamic trio. In the mill room (hosting a classic Porteus installed in 1964), they told us they mostly use Lauriet barley, never peated, with the usual grist split (10% flour, 70% grit and 20% husk). The mashtun is more recent, as it was replaced in 2001. They work 24/7, and they do 20 mashes per week, each one lasting 6h, aiming for a clear wort. They only close for 3 weeks in the summer to clean-up everything. The washbacks are made of Siberian larch, installed in the 60s, and they use Laland as yeast strain (not to be confused with La-la-land), with fermentation lasting about 60h. They used to have direct fire stills, but they were replaced in the 60s with steam coil ones, as many other distilleries.

Finally in the still room we saw so many times from the outside.

After the stillroom, they showed us one of their most iconic feature: the worm tub condensers! This is an old way of condensing the spirit, as simple as “a worm in a tub”, as they jokingly pointed out. Compared to the more “modern” tube and shells (well, still over 100-year old), the reduced contact between the copper and the spirit should result in a heavier spirit, loved by many. Craigellachie is one of the best examples of this feature, together with Mortlach, but there are many other distilleries we visited that have worm tubs: Speyburn, Oban, Edradour, Cragganmore, Springbank (which uses a mix, except for Longrow, which is 100% worm tub condenser) and even some newer distilleries, notably Ardnahoe on Islay and Ballindalloch in Speyside. It’s a very fascinating topic, and if you want to know more there is a recent Aquavitae vPub focusing on this.

We had to take a picture with worm tubs.

After the production, it was time for the tasting, which was held in a shed, previously a space for in-house cooperage. The line-up was quite comprehensive, considering we only paid 20 quid (!!!) for the whole thing. We started with the distillery flagship, the Craigellachie 13 (46% abv), matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks: having tried it years ago, we’d forgotten how good it is! We then tried a more recent bottling, again 13 years old (46%), but finished in Bas-Armagnac casks, less sherry influence, brighter and super fruity. Then, a treat, the 19yr (again 46%), very well balanced and delicious, matured in ex-bourbon casks, and finished in 1^st fill both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Finally, they also let us try their Spirit of Speyside 2024 exclusive: cask strength (54.9%), vintage 2005 (so 18-19yr), finished for over 3 years in red wine casks. The jump in ABV was there, but also in flavour compared to the other (still very tasty) drams.

As the tasting ended, we went to the office/pop-up shop to pick up a “souvenir”, and we slowly walked back towards the van, not before stopping at the Craigellachie Hotel. Unfortunately, the whisky bar was busy with a tasting, so we just had a half-pint at the bar downstairs, before finally heading to the van where we had dinner and spent the night.

What a day, Kininvie first (making 4/6 of the Dufftown distilleries for us… Glendullan and Dufftown, some day we will come!), and then this great tour at the ‘queen of worm tubs’ distillery! Also, kudos to Dewar’s: not only the team that took us around was super knowledgeable and very nice, they also gave us a very nice tasting for a very reasonable price, unlike some other producers.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Spirit of Speyside trip, still 3 days (and 3 distilleries) to go! Until then, slainte!

Craigellachie Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (Spirit of Speyside 2024)

Duration: 1hr (a bit more actually)

Tasting: 4 drams, Craigellachie 13y (46%), 13y Bas-Armagnac finish (46%), 19y (46%) and Spirit of Speyside 2024 Edition (54.9%)

Target: whisky curious and nerds

Value for money: extremely good!

Highlights: the worm tubs, of course!

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.dewars.com/