Month: July 2025

#61 Ben Cumhaill distillery (and a peek into Bladnoch)

A rainy day in the south of Scotland

 

TL; DR: On a weekend in mid-June, we drove to Dumfries and Galloway to check out a couple of distilleries. First, we visited the good folks at Ben Cumhaill, a new distillery (almost) ready to go! Then, we visited Bladnoch for their Wave II release event. Everything good, except for the weather obviously.

This year (2025) has been a busy one so far for us, on both the work and family fronts. We had to call off our usual winter weekend away (2022 Dumfries and Galloway, 2023 Ardnamurchan and Tobermory, 2024 Skye and Raasay), and we didn’t manage to go on a distillery trip together until the Spirit of Speyside (although Gianluigi went back to Campbeltown and Arran with his pal Roberto). Also, we only did another campervan trip with Gianluigi’s parents, around the Scotland/England border. Hence, when Justine (from Kask Whisky) asked us if we wanted to join her for a day away with the campervan, we were very happy! The occasion was provided in mid-June by the event Bladnoch distillery organised for the release of their Wave II expression in the Master Distiller’s collection. The event is a sort of open day, with food vendors, music etc. Because it was on the way, we (meaning Justine) got in touch with Ben Cumhaill distillery (pronounced Ben “Cool”) owners, for a cheeky visit before reaching Wigtown.

On the Saturday morning, we left a very quiet Leith early, ready for the two-hour drive. We would meet Justine near Ben Cumhaill, on a lay-by nearby (which is also a secluded enough to maybe sleep one night in the campervan, noted for future occasions). As we (meaning Gianluigi) missed the right exit on the A74/M6, we stretched our trip by about 15 minutes. However, in the detour we found a lovely wee cafè near Dalswinton: the coffee was good, and the cake was amazing! While we were there the rain intensified, and by the time we were arrived at destination it was “pishing doon”! Which is the reason why Justine was, very unusually, a bit late. As soon as she got there we drove to the distillery: we were welcomed very warmly by Jess and Jeff, the distillery founders and owners. The site is on the A76, in the stretch between Thornhill and Dumfries, immersed in a rural landscape but yet very visible, as the name of the distillery is painted on the main building roof.

  • Hard to miss it.

They have a sizeable courtyard, between the road and two main buildings: the distillery, which used to be a post office first and a restaurant later, and the house. Right after the gate, to the right, there are two other smaller buildings, a cabin currently storing construction material and a prefab that was supposed to be an office, but it’s currently Jess’ art studio and lounge: she paints and sculpts.

  • Office…no, more of an art studio.

We sat there all together, and had Border cookies (Gianluigi’s favourite and the official Mr Vantastic biscuits) while Jeff went to get coffee for everyone. They started to tell us the story of their project: a few years ago, during the pandemic, they decided to start a distillery after experimenting with a wee still. They sold their house and property in the Cairngorms (a way too expensive area for a distillery) and found this lovely place down in Dumfries, where property prices are more affordable. After acquiring the old building (part of it might date back to the 1700s), they started to renovate the site themselves. They kept a nice record of all the main milestones, including the renovation, on their blog/website.

  • The spirit still…

They had to change plan more than once in our understanding, mainly when they were asked by the Scotch Whisky Association to add another still, as in Scotland it is not allowed to distill using one still only. Therefore, other than the beautiful 1,000litre still (with a cooling jacket) they bought from MacMillan, in East Lothian, they added a Hoga still from a Portuguese company, being the fastest solution. This one will be used as wash still.

  • …and the wash still added to comply with the SWA rules.

They have also a 1ton mashtun, and a wooden washback. To get the steam for the stills they will initially use LPG. But which type of whisky are they aiming for? An interesting thing is that Jess being Irish and Jeff being Scottish, they are aiming for a mix of the two styles. On their website they also talk about triple distillation, which would be very interesting. Overall, they are after a spirit-forward whisky, of course something produced in small quantities, but with lot of care for all the production steps: similar to other distilleries such as Daftmill (but without the farm and the cows).

  • The mashing & fermenting equipment is ready!

As the rain calmed down, we walked to the distillery building: part of it, the one dedicated to the future visitor centre (with a window on production) is still very much a work-in-progress, but the production equipment is there. They aim to start distilling around the end of summer, so by the time of writing they should be almost there: exciting times! After that, we went back to the lounge for another wee chat, together with their lovely dogs, before finally saying goodbye. We look forward to going back and seeing the distillery in action!

  • Always happy when in a distillery.

After Ben Cumhaill, we drove straight to Wigtown, where we parked our vans and walked to Bladnoch distillery, 20-25 minutes away. Unfortunately, we missed the only tasting with Nick Savage, their master distiller, who presented the Wave II expression. While that was the only tasting of the day, the bar in the garden was still open, as well as two food carts. In general, the event seemed a bit subdued, probably because of the heavy rain that kept falling. We paid a visit to their visitor centre and shop, where a very kind tour guide made us try a few drams. As we remembered from our first trip here, it is generally very good whisky, priced a tad too high in our opinion. Standouts were the 13y old, matured in ex-bourbon casks, and the 8y old, fully matured in American oak red wine casks: this reaffirmed what we thought during our Australian trip, that American oak red wine casks might work better than French oak, at least for young-ish single malts.

  • Some of the drams tried at the distillery shop.

In the evening, we had a wee meal in the campervan, not before a pint at the pub next to Bladnoch distillery. In the meanwhile, it started raining again, so we spent the evening chatting while sipping samples in the van. The next day was also very wet, so all the hiking plans went in the bin, and we slowly drove back to Leith.

Stay tuned for the next day-trip action, it will be a juicy one! Until then, slainte!

Ben Cumhaill distillery
Link: https://bencumhaill.co.uk/

Bladnoch distillery
Link: https://www.bladnoch.com/

#60.5 Another Spirit of Speyside

About to be re-awakened:
Dallas Dhu

 

TL; DR: On our final day at the Spirit of Speyside, we visited a gem about to be re-awakened: Dallas Dhu! Closed in 1983, it became a museum, but thanks to Murray McDavid, it will restart production in the coming years. A few days before we also attended the Drams under the Star event, organised by the same folks, another must-do of the festival. 

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

And finally, it was Sunday, the final day at the Spirit of Speyside 2025 festival. We took the morning very slow: a shower at the campsite, a small breakfast and some tidy-up of the campervan. The weather was slightly better than the night before, but still not great, so we didn’t risk a hike. Instead, after a quick stop at Glenallachie, we slowly drove to the location of our final event, the village of Forres. At noon, we got into the White Hart Restaurant, just off High St – Gianluigi had discovered the place on a work trip in the area. While the lower floor looks like a pretty standard pub, the upper floor is a restaurant serving fantastic Latvian dishes and beers: a hidden treasure!

At 1pm, we were at Dallas Dhu distillery, on the outskirt of the village. While we drove Mr Vantastic into the large adjacent parking lot, we admired how beautiful the distillery is, and how you couldn’t mistake it for anything else. We will learn later that Charles Doig himself was involved in the building drawing. We were warmly welcomed by Dean from Murray McDavid, the independent bottler which recently took over the distillery.

  • Dallas Dhu distillery under a finally blue sky.

A little detour here: we’d already met Dean on the Friday evening, after the David Stirk tasting in Dufftown, at the Drams Under the Stars tasting. It was obviously organised by Murray McDavid, and it was quite convenient for us, as for an extra fiver we could reserve a spot for either a tent or a campervan (£50.00pp w/o camping, £55pp with camping, plus the usual SoS fees).

  • Not a bad spot for the night!

The event was just outside Dufftown, about 5 minutes driving, near an abandoned and ruined bothy. They set up a big bonfire in the middle of a clearing and set benches with canopies. At the bothy, a gazebo was placed with a pop-up bar underneath. We arrived when it was still light, and at first it was hard to decide where to sit: we found spots with either the wind blowing in our back, or with the very same wind blowing smoke in our face. However, as drams were poured, we and most people just stood up by the fire and enjoyed the evening. We were pleasantly surprised by the informal, chilled out atmosphere, where everybody could enjoy the drams in their own time, with Dean serving them and chatting to each small group of people (about whisky or not).

  • Picturesque set up for a tasting…
  • …A pity it was just a tad cold.

The first dram was The Bothy, specifically bottled (in 20cl bottles) for the event: a young sherried Speyside single malt (46% abv). The other drams were a 15y Blair Athol (54.2%, finished in Koval ex-bourbon casks), a 14y Glen Garioch (51.6%, ex-PX cask finish), a 10y Caol Ila (53.1%, ex-Amarone and PX Sherry cask finish) and finally the MMcD Spirit of Speyside 2025 release (Dailuaine, 7y, ex-Oloroso cask, 57.8%). Overall, a great, chilled out event that we’d definitely like to repeat.

  • The drams we had under the stars.

Back at Dallas Dhu: the Saturday was their open day, so the staff were understandably a bit tired on the Sunday. Nevertheless, Dean gave us a great and very detailed tour, which lasted longer than the scheduled time. The distillery was founded in 1898 by Alexander Edward and started production in 1899, originally as Dallasmore (later changed to Dallas Dhu to avoid confusion with other brands). It closed during WWI, and again in 1930 for 6 years. In 1939 it was partially destroyed by a fire, and it resumed production only in 1947, until 1983 when it was closed. In-house malting was stopped before then, in 1958, although the current steeping tank was only fitted in the 1950s, around the time also electricity was fitted in. The distillery was finally sold to Historic Environment Scotland in 1986, which turned it into a museum. Because this happened shortly after ceasing production, the distillery is incredibly well preserved, and it looks like it could resume production anytime (which it couldn’t, of course). In recent years, Murray McDavid bought it. This was after an initial attempt to buy Parkmore, which failed because of the non-availability of the nearby warehouses. They are now in the process of finalising the deal with Diageo (which still owns the Dallas Dhu brand), and to get ready to restart production (although works haven’t started yet).

  • The old malting floor.

As we walked through the building, from the malting floor to the mill room (one of the last Bobby mills ever produced, apparently), and then to the copper-lidded mashtun, the washback and still room, we could see how everything is really in a great state.

  • A perfect mashtun.
  • A well maintained washback.

The six 14,000-litre wooden washbacks have been constantly filled and emptied with water to preserve the wood, and in the still rom an ancient fire-engine found also home (probably it will be moved), next to the massive boiler. The distillery has only two stills, but at full regime it can produce about 800,000 litres of alcohol per year, similar size as Glen Scotia, to give you an idea.

  • That’s a big boiler.
  • An old fire engine, never seen before!
  • And all in a charming still room.

The tour finished in the shop, where we had a dram Murray McDavid created for the occasion: a 14y blended scotch named “A New Era”. We were told that among the components there are Port Dundas and Cameronbridge as grain whiskies, and Glenrothes, Glengoyne, Tamdhu and a tad of Bunnahabhain for the malts. It’s a pleasant dram, a bit thin as it is bottled at 40%. After that, we could get sips of other bottlings available for purchase – so good to find places where ‘try before you buy’ is actually possible!   

  • Filling store
  • A celebratory dram.

Overall an excellent afternoon at Dallas Dhu; the enthusiasm of Dean and the rest of the team for this new beginning was contagious. This was definitely a great ending to another great Spirit of Speyside, and we cannot wait for this beauty of a distillery to officially reopen.

And after this, we’ll take a couple of weeks off! Until next post, slainte!

A New Era: The Dallas Dhu Distillery Tour (Spirit of Speyside 2025)

Price: £15.00 pp (+ SoS fees)

Duration: 1hr 10min (45min on paper)

Tasting: 1 dram, A New Era blended scotch whisky (14y, 40%)

Target: whisky and history geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the whole distillery is absolutely stunning

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com