#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 16^th 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 20^th of March 2020: a notable date, as it was the day before the first COVID-19 lockdown. Before starting, they went through the original purchase records to figure the original style of Crabbie’s whisky, finding out that it was a Highland style of whisky – they decided to reproduce it.

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

Ok, maybe these silos give it away…

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

All stainless steel here.

A man and the newly added washbacks.

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

Classic picture.

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

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

An interesting selection.

An interesting selection (continued).

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

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

Bonnington Distillery Bespoke Visit

Price: free (October 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

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

Target: anyone

Value for money: well…it was free

Highlights: the location and the compact production

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

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

#66.3 Something new, something old

Glenkinchie, or the sunny corner of Scotland

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

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

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

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

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

Ok, we didn’t get lost in the woods.

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

Yes, that’s the right place.

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

This model used to work, incredible!

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

Chatting away in the fermentation room.

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

Not a selfie, for once.

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

Glenkinchie straight from the cask, yay!

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

A cosy tasting room.

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

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

Thank you, John!

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

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

Glenkinchie Flavour & Cask Experience

Price: £65.00 pp (September 2025)

Duration: 2hr

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

Target: whisky fans and geeks

Value for money: good

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

Recommended: yes, but ask for John!

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

#66.2 Something new, something old

Back to Glenturret, after the Lalique revamp

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

(missed Part 1?)

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

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

A cat with a glorious past.

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

There used to be a cafe here.

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

Doesn’t look as active as Towser.

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

This mashtun wasn’t there back in 2020.

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

A bigger still than we remembered.

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

Two good drams for the driver…

…and a dram (not the bottle!) to take home.

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

We might see you again, Glenturret.

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

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

Glenturret Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2025)

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: anyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the traditional production process

Recommended: yes, it’s a good basic tour

Link: https://theglenturret.com/