#39.1 The Highlander Trip

A craft distillery in the castle backyard

TL; DR: After visiting Campbeltown and Speyside, this time the Edinburgh Whisky Group travelled to the Highlands, main base Dornoch. No better way to kick off the trip with a visit to the local distillery!

During the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, one thing that helped us maintain some sort of mental health was the great whisky community we found online, and in particular the Edinburgh Whisky Group founded by Justine on Facebook. A hard core of us kept in touch even after things eased off, and towards the end of 2021, when travels were allowed again and distilleries slowly reopened, we organised a trip all together, the Campbeltown Jolly! It was a success, so we repeated it about a year later with the Speycation.

For the third year, in 2023, after some thinking and discarding some options like a day trip in Pitlochry (Edradour still closed and too many of us had already visited Blair Athol) and a weekend on Islay (too complicated and probably expensive), the selected destination was the Highlands, with the brilliant name Highlander, who wants to dram forever? (our pal Charlie even made a logo to print on t-shirts). We were going to be based in Dornoch, and the trip combined distillery visits, whisky tastings, and a very fun whisky-themed quiz (Charlie was on top of this too!).

On our way to Dornoch we took the chance to visit two Speyisde distilleries (Ballindalloch and Dunphail, both definitely worth a visit!), but then we met up with the rest of the troops directly in Dornoch. For us one big issue was the lack of an open campsite in Dornoch or in the vicinity (we had to contact Visit Dornoch to ask where we could park our campervan without causing any trouble). Unfortunately, this is the issue when visiting the Highlands in the off season, as we’d already found earlier in the year when we went to Ardnamurchan in February. On the one hand, it’s really great to be able to appreciate incredible places and landscapes in peace and without the (sometimes) swarm of summer tourists, but on the other hand many services including campsites (despite the easier maintenance) are closed, making it challenging, at times.

Things you can do while in Dornoch – the Historylinks museum.

After a fun evening with the others at the Eagle Hotel (also restaurant and pub), we woke up In the morning not that rested, because of a cold we’d caught a couple of days before the trip: campervan + cold, not a great combination. We had to catch up, however, because it was going to be a long day: not one, not two, but three distillery visits, yay! We fixed ourselves a nice breakfast in the campervan, and it was soon time for the first visit: the very local Dornoch Distillery, founded by the Thompson brothers Phil and Simon in 2016.

Yep, that’s the whole distillery!

At the moment the distillery is just behind the Dornoch Castle Hotel (at the time of writing also property of Phil and Simon, who took it over from their parents), and near the Historylinks museum. It is a shed that used to be a fire station, more or less same size as the Stirling distillery, but without the bar…Intriguing! So small, that we had to divide the group in two, we were in the second shift. When it was our time to go, Phil Thompson let us inside: everything is very carefully placed to give the operators enough space to move.

One of the six wee washbacks.

There are a 300kg stainless steel semi-lauter mashtun, six (!!) wooden fermenter vessels and two beautiful copper pot stills from Portugal (1,000-litre and 600-litre). There is also a 2,000-litre iStill, which is used as the wash container before distillation, or for gin production (here Phil stressed out how long it does take to clean it after gin to avoid any trace of gin going into the newmake spirit for whisky…A care that we wish other craft distillers would have as well!).

Not the classic stills.

At the moment they are using an ancient variety of barley called Marie Otter, which according to them provides less yield but more flavour compared to other varieties because of the higher protein content. Fermentation lasts seven days, with liquid yeast (it used to be brewer’s yeast), and they leave the top open to allow natural yeasts to play their part as well. The stills are electrically heated, although they use steam coils to pre-heat for a more efficient process. Their capacity is a little more than a hogshead (so north of 150-ish liters) per week, and when we were there, the abv at the end of the last distillation’s heart collection was 66.9%.

In case you were still doubting this is a craft operation. It definitely is!

Probably one of the most geeky distillery visits so far, Phil’s knowledge of and passion for whisky making are impressive. His patience is impressive too, we asked so many questions! Overall, it was very interesting to see how their vision of traditional whisky making translated into practice. Also, we were very happy to have had the chance to visit the distillery shed before the big changes ahead. Indeed, the Thompson brothers have been recently granted permission to build a new distillery nearby, which will improve their capacity and include a visitor centre and a shop. This is a very exciting development, and given their flavour-forward thinking in each step of production, we can only imagine what they will be able to do with an improved capacity!

On the way to the shop.

Done with the visit, we moved to the shop, which is about 8 minutes walking north from the distillery. The shop is closed on weekends, and because we were leaving on the Sunday, if we wanted to get something from them now it was the time. We were lucky to find one of the last bottles of their recent Canadian Single Grain matured in in Sherry casks, for a Christmas gift, while for us we bought a “secret” Highland we’d tried before, very delicious in our opinion. The distillery it comes from would have been the next one on this trip.

Stay tuned to hear about it, and until next week, Slainte!

Bespoke Dornoch Distillery Visit
Link: https://www.thompsonbrosdistillers.com/

#38.2 Warming up for the Highlands, in Speyside

The Dunphail Distillery

TL; DR: After visiting Ballindalloch distillery (and an almost random encounter) we drove up almost until Forres, to the Dunphail distillery. We had already visited it during construction, but this time newmake spirit was flowing through their stills!

(missed Part 1?)

We left you last week at Ballindalloch, after a very satisfying visit to this new and very promising distillery. Unfortunately, the nice wee cafe behind the distillery was closed for the season, so we were about to jump back on Mr Vantastic and go look for another place for lunch. As we approached our van, however, a surprise: Post Dram Prat materialised in front of us, with our friend Justine! She’d just popped in at the distillery to browse the shop and for lunch, but for the latter we had to regroup together. We first tried Grantown East former station, but it was closed too, so we ended up in Grantown-on-Spey. There, we had a lovely soup-and-sandwich and a chit-chat at the High Street Merchants, a very nice cafe. Justine then drove to Tomatin to join some other Edinburgh Whisky Group friends, while we had another stop before driving up north: the Dunphail Distillery.

Gianluigi couldn’t wait to visit Dunphail!

If you’ve been following us for a while this name will be familiar, as we already visited it back in October 2022. At that time, however, they were still building it, and Dariusz (founder, master distiller…and builder!) gave us an in-depth preview of his plans. This time around, however, the distillery is fully built and, at the time of visit, they’d been filling casks for just a few weeks! Serendipity.

The distillery is located just off the road connecting Grantown-on-Spey to Forres, almost mid-way. We arrived at the parking mid-afternoon, we just had time for a couple of photos before going in. At the new visitor centre, Mike welcomed us with a coffee (nice touch!) and a good chat. We found out he moved to the area a few years ago, and started working at the distillery earlier in 2023, while things were getting ready to start.

Grogu, the photo bomber.

Similar to other distilleries (many others… the data analyst in us is starting to notice a pattern), the visitor centre and main production buildings used to be barns, while the warehouse (soon to be two) and the malting floor were purposedly built. Yes, the malting floor: a big difference between Dunphail and most new distilleries is that they are malting on site the barley, which they source from the area. At the moment they are using Lauriet and Sassy barley varieties, and the process to bring it from 42% (after steeping) to 5% humidity (after the kiln) lasts about 33 hours. They dry the barley with a combination of air, anthracite…and peat, so to produce both peated and unpeated newmake spirit.

Mike showed us how to turn the barley by hand with a rake, and also made us try it… so hard, a full-body workout for sure! One of the reasons is that the rake is made heavier by a hammer attached at the base of the handle, to make it stay lower on the ground, otherwise it’d unhelpfully pop up on top of the barley. This ‘adjustment’ was made by the staff, as this type of equipment has been out of production since industrial malting started: learning by experience at play!

Someone could get distracted by such beautiful setting…

…but we still listen carefully to Mike’s explanations.

The malt is mashed one ton at the time in a semi-Leuter mashtun (3 waters at different temperatures, as usual), aiming for a clear worth, which is then moved to one of their 12 Douglas Fir washbacks for a long fermentation: 144h (6 days). The distillery is equipped with three stills (remember these?), all same size, two wash stills and one spirit still: all three are directly fired, however to save energy and improve efficiency they are initially warmed up with steam coils. They are aiming for a 200,000 litres-per-annum capacity, which is small but still reasonable production size. In the warehouse (not dunnage, the floor is concrete), we could take a look at the first batch of casks they filled: history in the making!

The first three casks, exciting!

After the production tour we went back to the visitor centre for the tasting, where we (ehm, Teresa) tried the newmake spirit. It seems trivial for a distillery who just started production to at least make you try the newmake spirit. However, in a few instances this didn’t happen, so well played Dunphail! The other drams were all scotch whiskies coming from the Dava Way range, named after the historical 38km trail from Forres to Grantown-on-Spey. They were a 13y Teaninich from a hogshead, probably ex-bourbon, a 12y Caol Ila from a hogshead, and a sublime 28y North British grain whisky from a 1^st fill ex-bourbon barrel. At the visitor centre, other than merchandise, the available Dava Way bottlings were on sale, as well as some Bimber and the Apogee XII pure (blended) malt. They also had many drams to try at the bar!

So much more casks to fill.

Unfortunately to get to Dornoch we had an over 90-minute drive, and the Dunphail visitor centre was closing too, so we left right after the tasting. We arrived to Dornoch just in time for a nice dinner with our friends from the Edinburgh Whisky Group, and another couple of drams of course, ready for the following days adventures!

Visiting Dunphail was a great experience, a really good deep-dive into this new distillery and whisky production from green barley to newmake spirit. It was clear from how the tour was conducted by Mike that it was set up by whisky enthusiasts for whisky enthusiasts, so a must-do detour from the main roads in our opinion. We are looking forward to enjoying their single malt, when ready!

Until next time, slainte!

Dunphail Distillery Experience

Price: £30.00 pp (November 2023)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 drams for their Dava Way range and the newmake spirit

Target: everyone, but particularly whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the production

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.dunphaildistillery.com/

#38.1 Warming up for the Highlands, in Speyside

The Ballindalloch Distillery

TL; DR: On our way to the Northern Highlands, we couldn’t help but stop in Speyside for a couple of visits. First off, a distillery we’d driven past several times but yet to visit: Ballindalloch. Bonus, when we visited they’d just released their first few bottlings!

Important things first: happy New Year! We hope you are well rested after the Christmas and New Year holidays, and had plenty of good drams. We absolutely did – our (Italian) Christmas dram was a very tasty Glen Moray 18y (47.3%) grabbed at the airport, while as a last dram of 2023 and first dram of 2024 we chose the delicious Kilchoman 100% Islay 10^th Edition (bottled in 2020, 50%). We are looking forward to another year of tasty drams to share with you, lovely lot!

Back to 2023, one of our last whisky trips was in early November, with the mighty Edinburgh Whisky Group, organised by the mightier Justine from Kask Whisky. After the Campbeltown Jolly (2021) and the Speycation (2022), it was time for the Highlands: Who Wants to Dram Forever? “Highlands” is quite a broad whisky region (both in terms of area and flavour), we chose the North, and we were based in Dornoch. Of course, to get there you need to take the A9 (unless you go for some insane detour), and the A9 does run kind of close to Speyside as well…so why not doing a quick detour on the way there?

A long drive to Ballindalloch, but here we are!

And it goes without saying, we detoured indeedy. We decided to visit two distilleries, both quite new, starting with Ballindalloch. We’d driven past the this distillery many many times during our multiple Speyside holidays, and once we even stopped for lunch at the cafe just behind it. The distillery was founded in 2014 by the Macpherson-Grant family, who owns the entire estate with the castle (where they’ve been living since 1546!), pastures and barley fields. Before becoming a distillery in 2011, the building was a run-down farm originally built in 1848.

At the time of our visit, they offered various tours (now they changed a bit), but the only one available on the day we’d be there (Thursday) was quite pricey (£75pp), as it included old drams from Cragganmore casks (a distillery to which the family is linked). We asked if we could do the simpler (and cheaper, £20pp) tour they were offering on Wednesdays (now it is offered most days), which included a taste of their two distillery-exclusive single malts. To our big surprise they agreed, in our experience (not only in visiting distilleries), this kind of flexibility has been rarely seen: kudos to them! Just FYI, on Thursdays they also offer an in-depth all-day experience for £275, learning from the manager and the staff.

How an old steading can become a beautiful distillery.

The trip there was uneventful, under a grey sky, and fortunately we didn’t find any road closures due to rain along our route. At the distillery, we were welcomed by Evan, who later told us he was already working for the family but in their fishing range and had very recently switched to the distillery for the off-season. Being in an old stead building, the distillery follows a square layout: the side of the visitor centre entrance is occupied by a lounge (where the tasting took place) and offices, while the remainder is mostly for production.

After a brief introduction, we moved to the milling room, equipped with a modern mill. They process about 1 ton of malted barley every day, which after milling is moved to their semi-lauter mashtun, where one mash is done every day from Monday to Friday.

Every piece of equipment is clearly sized to fit into the building: as the latter is a listed building (and thus can’t be reshaped or expanded) and because of the barley provenance, expansion beyond their current production (100,000 litres of alcohol per year) is not under consideration. As a matter of fact, the barley comes from the family estate, which produces about 350 ton/year, just over their requirement for whisky production (a bit over 300), and it is sent away for malting (the only stage not happening at the distillery).

Gianluigi nosing the wash, a tradition 🙂

We kept walking along the buildings, and next we found the four wooden (Oregon pine) washbacks, where fermentation lasts between 92 or 140 hours (fermention over the weekend is longer, of course). Next, right in the corner, the two stills, a 5,000-litre wash-still and a 3,600-litre spirit still, connected to two wormtubs located outside the building, each one with 70m of copper tubes inside. From the second distillation, they take a cut between 75% and 68% abv. They cask everything on site, and the casks are stored in a warehouse in the courtyard. Surprisingly, their (wee) bottling line is on site too!

Creativity at play when space is limited.

Finally, we went back to the lounge/tasting room for our drams. We were lucky as they’d released they first single malts just a few months before, and we could try their second batch of distillery exclusives: both cask strength and single cask, one matured in an ex-bourbon barrel and the other in an ex-sherry butt. They are both approximately 7.5 years of age (see below for more details) and very tasty for their age, not too sweet and with the robust and thick spirit character clearly coming through.

At the shop, they also had their first small batch bottling, called Seven Springs Collection, Edition #1: a vatting of five ex-bourbon casks (1203 bottles in total, cask strength at 60.2%abv). Evan kindly gave us a sip, tasty but a bit up in price (£150.00).

You can guess who’s had drams and who’s driving.

Overall we really liked this distillery. It looks like they paced themselves and took their time to do things, including releasing their first whisky, which was indeed more robust and tastier compared to others from fairly new distilleries. Yes, their bottlings are pricey, but considering the scale of their operation it kind of makes sense…? Hopefully we’ll see a widely available and better priced expression soon.

Ballindalloch Short Tour and Drams

Price: £20.00 pp (November 2023)

Duration: 45min-1hr

Tasting: 2 drams of their new distillery exclusive bottlings

Distillery Exclusives: Single Malt Distillery Exclusive ex-Bourbon barrel (distilled 21/1/2016, bottled 28/8/2023, cask 29/2015, 62.3%abv) and ex-Sherry butt (distilled 3/12/2015, bottled 28/8/2023, cask 600/2015, 62.3%abv), both 50cl at £89.00

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the distillery layout and building

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.ballindallochdistillery .com/

#37 Farewell to 2023

A year full of whisky trips… and more!

TL; DR: It’s December, perfect time for some reflections on the year that’s about to end. Another year full of awesome whisky trips, not only in Scotland: 31 distillery visits, of which 27 seen for the first time!

We are quickly approaching the end of the year, so it’s the perfect time to reflect on the year that has been, of course whisky-wise. As we’re writing, we already travelled back to Italy to celebrate Christmas with our families. It’s around 15 degrees Celsius here, so the atmosphere doesn’t quite call for a dram by the fire, but we’ll try to make the best of it anyway, eheh.

Even more than in 2022, this year we felt like the pandemic was a gone memory (despite Covid is still among us, and it will be for long): travels resumed in full force, Edinburgh is busier than ever, and so it was travelling around Scotland. The big novelty in our life was the campervan, Mr Vantastic, which allowed us to travel a bit more on the wild side, without worrying about reserving accommodations (which in the meantime became quite expensive) or planning too much in advance.

Mr Vantastic, yay!

For our summer holidays we went on a big road trip down to Wales, to discover this beautiful country and its whisky scene. Except for a couple of producers, with Penderyn being the main one, the Welsh whisky industry is still in its infancy and mostly populated by craft distillers, but it’s nonetheless promising. While travelling to Wales, we also stopped by a couple of English distilleries – White Peaks stood out, definitely a hidden gem.

A hidden gem in Derbyshire, White Peaks.

Also, we couldn’t help but going to Speyside again, this time for the Spirit of Speyside festival, a different experience (not in a bad way) compared to our beloved Fife Whisky Festival and Whisky Fringe (which we attended this year too). We had great time, and visited a number of distilleries that are usually closed to the public.

A highlight of the Spirit of Speyside.

Mortlach, Linkwood and Dailuaine were fantastic, in spite of the entry price, and so it was Speyburn, but good news: the latter is now open to the public! Now every whisky enthusiast can visit and check out their old drum maltings: a piece of industrial history! We briefly stopped in Speyside again later in the year on our way to the Highlands, to visit a couple of new distilleries: Ballindalloch and Dunphail. The first one had just released their first single malt, while the latter had just filled their first batch of casks…History in the making!

Even Grogu is excited to visit Dunphail!

The Highlands were the destination of the Edinburgh Whisky Group annual trip. In Dornoch, Phil from Thompson Brothers gave us a quick tour of their craft distillery. Then, we visited other local distilleries, two for the first time (Glenmorangie and Balblair), and Clynelish for the second time (blog posts about all this coming soon). This was not the only one we visited for a second time this year. In early February we had a very wet trip to the West Highlands to revisit Ardnamurchan and Tobermory. Moreover, in August we did a Warehouse Tasting at Deanston with a couple of friends from Italy. Gianluigi even went on a solo trip to Campbeltown in December, to use a couple of remaining leave days from work and take advantage of his Cadenhead Club membership by getting a free warehouse tasting: a string of awesome drams, including a spectacular 9y old Staoisha (Bunnahabhain) finished in an ex-Amontillado sherry cask.

Two things we love in one picture.

We did a lot of things, but also missed a few opportunities: first, we wanted to go back to Islay, but we couldn’t make it, too busy with work. Then we missed the Dramathon due to a flood risk in Aberlour (this year we were supposed to run the 10k only), as well as the Roy Aqvavitae Blind Challenge, this time because of a terrible cold we’d caught.

Leaving whisky trips on a side, it seemed to us that the number of tastings happening around Edinburgh has grown exponentially. We had great fun with Justine from Kask Whisky, now doing her monthly tastings at the Lind and Lime gin distillery, conveniently near home. One of the highlights of this year was definitely the Glen Mhor tasting, on the 40^th anniversary of its closing, organised by Jason and Mark/Jolly Toper. Other great ones were the Woodrow’s of Edinburgh tasting at the Palmerston, organised by our pal Murray, and some tastings at Kilderkin and at Bacco Wine.

On the bad side, we noticed the sharp increase in bottle prices. It was interesting to follow a recent vPub from Roy, where he showed that for some products the growth was mostly in line with inflation. However, this was for core/standard releases. We still feel that, instead, some independent bottlers and some producers are “taking the piss”, for a lack of a better term, particularly in relation to single cask and limited releases. Among these, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottle prices increased substantially, which resulted in us buying almost zero bottles and going only a few times to the venues compared to previous years. We have to say, though, that food at Queen St is still awesome, and the renovated Vaults look great.

Cask experiment 1.0.

One of the few bottles we bought from the SMWS was for our cask experiment: we got a 1-litre American Oak cask (virgin), which we seasoned with Gutturnio red wine (a typical red wine from Piacenza’s province) for 3 months, and it is now holding a very tasty 12y Dufftown…In 2024 we will find out if it’s turning into pish or is actually drinkable.

After plenty of distillery visits and more than a handful of tastings this year, we’re already planning for next year trips with Mr Vantastic …Islay & Jura? More English distilleries? The Western Hebridies? Back to Speyside? We shall see, but nonetheless, we are already looking forward to it! Now is the time to rest and enjoy some time with our families, hoping that you are doing the same, wherever you are. Possibly, with a good dram in your hand.

Until next year, slainte, and have a great New Year!

#36 The Stirling Distillery

Distilling underneath the castle

TL; DR: Very gloomy Sunday afternoon, we decided for a last-minute distillery visit not far from Edinburgh: the Stirling Distillery. Very close to the Stirling Castle, they distilled only gin until very recently, when they added malt whisky (well, newmake spirit for now) to their portfolio.

Most of our trips (in particularly whisky trips) are carefully planned in advance, mainly because of the popularity of distillery visits nowadays. Of course, we don’t want to risk travelling to a distillery and being told they’re fully booked, it happened once during a non-whisky trip and it was disappointing. Careful planning also helps because Scotland is not the easiest country to travel, with ferries, single track roads, etc…And before we got Mr Vantastic, finding reasonably priced last-minute accommodation was always a challenge.

Sometimes though, we can still sneak in a last-minute whisky trip, and this was the case of today’s story. On a Sunday at the end of October we’d planned to take the van and go somewhere for a walk. However, as usual when we plan outdoor activities, the weather was dire: dark, gloomy, rainy (we should probably just buy waterproof walking gear at this point…). So, instead, we went to a new whisky distillery: the Stirling Distillery!

When the rain brings you to a distillery…

This is one of the newest whisky distilleries in Scotland, and as the name reveals, it’s in Stirling, on the same hill that leads to the magnificent Stirling Castle (one of the most interesting to visit, and where Kings of Scotland stayed until the end of 1500s). Unlike many others, the distillery has not been talked much about in the whisky world, it’s not even mentioned in the very comprehensive Malt Whisky Yearbook 2024, despite the notable feature of starting distilling whisky in the town of Stirling for the first time after more than 170 years. We can think of two possible reasons for this: first, it’s tiny, definitely a craft operation (see later for more details). Second, and more importantly, owners June and Cameron conceived it as a gin distillery in the first place, all the way back in 2015, with the aim to “reflect the Stirlingshire countryside” in their gin, and only very recently they moved to new make spirit.

Outside the distillery…

So there we are, under a dire weather, after an almost-hour drive from Leith. The stone building is very beautiful, we will soon find out that it was called “the Old Smiddy”. Built in 1888, funnily enough it used to be a church temperance hall and a blacksmith. The distillery moved there in 2018, although they also have a warehouse and gin production in the Stirling outskirts. They have two experiences, one dedicated to gin and one to whisky, with the latter being very new as whisky production had only started 2-3 weeks before our visit. They also offer a gin school for £90 (or for £140 for the couple, quite unusual to find such discounts in the Scottish whisky landscape).

The building is very beautiful inside too, with low lights creating a very peaceful atmosphere. On the right side there is the shop, and on the left the bar, offering a variety of beverages (including soft drinks). There is also a mezzanine where we didn’t go, it looked like an office/warehouse space. The guide for the day, Kiran, told us he was mostly into gin and cocktails, and that was one of his first whisky tastings. When all visitors had checked in, we started the tasting, which included four single malts from their independently bottled range called Sons of Scotland (all non-chill filtered, not artificially coloured and bottled at 50%).

The expressions we (well, Teresa) tried are named after historical distilleries near Stirling. The first (*) was the Cambusbarron (batch 3), a 3y Lowlands whisky (vintage 2020) matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The second dram was the Arngibbon (batch 4), an 8y Speysider (vintage 2015) matured in ex-bourbon casks. Then we tried the Stoneywood 9y, an Orkney whisky (vintage 2014, we still wonder which distillery this was from), finished or fully matured (we didn’t get it) in ex-white wine casks (batch 3). Finally, we tried a previous batch of the Arngibbon (batch 3), a 14y Speysider matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry hogsheads (vintage 2008). Overall a nice string of drams, with the Orkney one being definitely the most interesting.

A bad picture of the nice line-up.

After the tasting, Kiran showed us the whisky production, which is entirely happening in a separate part of the building, all in the same relatively small room! They buy malted barley grist (pre-milled), which they mash on site stirring by hand. Then they move it into two fermentation vessels, where it ferments for 4 days (96 hours approximately, they use distiller’s yeast). They finally distill it twice in the same 170-litre copper pot still, a very beautiful Portuguese still, named Flora after June’s mother. The spirit comes out at 70%abv, and it is first put into plastic jugs, only later transferred in casks at the warehouse for maturing. Edit (April 2024): they later installed a second still, to fully comply with the SWA regulations.

At the time they were producing the newmake to fill the casks for their King James Collection: six casks of different type (bourbon, sherry, rum, etc.) which will be released biannually starting in 2027. They also have a cask sale programme, from 55-litre Firkin to 250-litre hogsheads. They aim for a production of 10,000 litres of alcohol per year, which would put them as the smallest distillery in Scotland (currently the smallest are Dornoch and Moffat, with 12,000 litres each).

Some distilleries we visited started gin production as a way to get quick cash (for example Borders, Cotswolds and Holyrood), but they knew from the beginning they mainly wanted to do whisky. Stirling (and others like In the Welsh Wind or Deerness) on the other hand, started with gin, and decided to add whisky along the way. This is definitely reflected in Stirling distillery’s size and equipment, which makes them a truly craft operation. As we couldn’t try their newmake spirit, we cannot really say much more at this stage, but this left us very curious for the future. Hopefully we’ll come back to try it, or try their single malt too.

Until next time, slainte!

Stirling Distillery Whisky Experience

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2023, £12.00 for drivers + £1.85 fee)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: four drams from their Sons of Scotland independent bottler range, depending on availability (see * for description)

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the bar and the distilling “shed”

Recommended: if you’re visiting Stirling and have some spare time, definitely, otherwise we’d suggest waiting for their single malt

Link: https://stirlingdistillery.com/

#34 One last stop before home

A new distillery in Moffat

TL; DR: You would think we visited enough distilleries in our summer holidays, but we managed to stick another one in at the last minute, while on the way home. Moffat, one of the newest in the Scottish Borders. Very experimental at this stage, it’ll be very interesting to see how their malt ends up being!

After visiting a couple of English distilleries, and a few more down in Wales, we couldn’t end our holidays without a Scottish one, right? However, this distillery visit was not in the plans until the night before. After leaving Wales we briefly stopped in the cute town of Chester, where we had a half pint in a hidden pub called The Cavern of the Curious Gnome (to get there you need to go the balconies, the Rows, and the pub is above a wine bar that you need to cross).

Afterwards, we drove straight north, while having some sandwiches we’d prepared earlier. We spent the night at a farm-brewery, just before Lancaster, the Farm Brew Co (found on SearchForSites): if you have some pints there, they let you stay…And their beers are delicious, so we had a couple each and bought another few to bring home. While there, we were browsing on our phones, and realised that the Moffat Distillery had just opened to visitors. We’d already heard about them, and Moffat was on our road back to Leith, so why not? We booked right away!

The yummy beers we brought home.

In the morning we left early, unlike the sunny dusk the day before, it was a very cloudy and grey day. We stopped in rainy Carlisle for breakfast and to pay a visit to the House of Malt (they have very good deals sometimes), and then we drove straight to Moffat. The village looked very nice and quiet, like many others in the south of Scotland, with a large central square with shops, restaurants and cafes. The distillery is just outside the village heading south, in a wide clearing just off Old Carlisle Rd.

Unable to cope with the wind at Moffat distillery.

The building is clearly new, a black barn with a glass wall covering all the entrance side. We could see the visitor centre on the right, while on the left we could glimpse at the production area, although we could not see the stills as usually happens with new distilleries. As we entered the building, we realised how everything is new. The main room is very large, at the moment occupied by the visitor centre: a bar in the centre, the bottle shop on the left, some sofas on the right, and a grand piano just behind the bar.

Not so small as a visitor centre!

Alex (the bartender/guide) told us about the company, Dark Sky Spirits, founded in 2017 by Nick and Erin Bullard, focusing on sourced products. The name comes from Moffat being one of the first towns in Europe installing low-impact street lighting to decrease light pollution. A few years later they decided to start a distillery: permission was granted and land was purchased in 2020, ground was broken in 2021 and distilling from 2023, really just started. We soon moved to the production area, where Nick (founder and distiller) talked us through the process. They source the barley (Lauriet variety) in Fife, where it is also malted. The operation is very small at the moment (max capacity only about 12,000 litres per annum of alcohol), as they are in an experimental phase. Experiments include mixing regular and toasted/heavily toasted barley, brewer’s mashing (ie lower temperatures to retain sweetness), fermentation times (now fairly short at 39-42hrs, but planning for longer ones), and spirit cut (eg low wines at 29.5%, much higher than the usual ~20% in most distilleries).

Mashing and fermenting.

Experimenting with barley.

The mash tun and the washbacks are less than 500l (they use American yeast), while the wash and spirit stills are respectively 350 and 60 litres and at the moment, they sit outside in a container. Their main characteristic is that they are wooden fired, a unique feature among Scottish whisky distilleries. They approximately fill one barrel per week, and mainly source barrels from Tennessee.

Can you distill in a container? Yes, you can.

Back inside, we spotted some of their casks in a “temporary warehouse”, and saw where the definitive stills will be in the future – now there is the gin still (200l) and the bottling equipment. Blending and bottling has been the main activity for Dark Sky Spirits, indeed. In 2020 they developed a range called Auld Special Edition, including two blended malts (#2 Spicy 13y, and #3 Fruity 15y, both 48%) and two single malts (#1 Smoky 16y, 47% and recently a 26y from Speyside Distillery, bottled at 45% and distilled in 1997). They also produce the Moffat blended malt (40%, NAS), recently replaced by the Doorhamer (blended malt, 40%, NAS), the Moffat gin and a series of gin liqueurs. Moreover, they bottle expressions for local events, like the Stranraer Oyster Festival or the Moffat Eagle Festival (this year both blended malts at 46%). All their products seem to be reasonably priced (still now, after the August increase in taxation).

Things we tasted.

Finally, we had a taster of their products at the bar (the tasting room was not ready, in our understanding): Moffat blended malt, Moffat gin and some gin liqueurs. However, Alex was nice enough to pour us wee samples of their Smoky and Fruity whiskies, the latter being the winner for us. With that our visit finished, and we slowly drove through the south of Scotland to Leith. This distillery was one of the few that left us with more curiosity than before we entered, honestly. It is going to be very interesting in the coming years to see how this distillery will develop, and in particular to understand how the wooden fire still will affect the whisky, in texture and taste.

Until next time, slainte!

Moffat Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 1hr 15min (on paper, but Nick got carried away and it was actually longer)

Tasting: Moffat gin, the Moffat Blended Malt (40%, NAS, 2536 bottles), and gin liqueurs

Target: tourists and craft distilling geeks

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the wooden fired stills

Recommended: if you’re driving on the A74, a stop won’t hurt 😉

Link: https://www.moffatdistillery.com/

#33.5 The Welsh Whisky Trail (not TM)

Aber Falls and the last few days in Wales

TL; DR: Our final distillery visit in Wales was at Aber Falls. We had somehow high expectations, but to be honest the experience was a bit flat. We finished our holiday in Wales visiting the North-West, including the Eryri National Park (Snowdonia), before driving back towards Scotland.

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

The bus ride back from Llanduno to Abergwyngregyn (we had to copy/paste this name…) was uneventful, under a grey Northern Welsh sky. We spent most of it having lunch with warm rolls and bakes we got just before taking the bus, to put something solid in the stomach after the extensive masterclass at Penderyn. Once we got off, we quickly checked the campervan, and left again for a 20-minute walk to Aber Falls distillery, but not before getting a coffee at the nearby Alma’s Cafè. When the bartender understood we were Italian, he got excited and started showing off his Italian vocabulary. It was not the first time this happened, probably not many people there are used to Italian tourists (which is a shame, some parts of Wales are truly beautiful!).

Walking under the rain, oh well.

Anyway, we were looking forward to visiting Aber Falls distillery, as it was the only other Welsh single malt we had tried before, beside Penderyn. We had tried two expressions. First, the inaugural release (thanks to a tasting put together by the always-on-point Justine from Kask Whisky), which was a one-off bottled at 46%, unchillfiltered and natural colour: a delicious dram, which punched above its weight being 3 years of age. Then, the ubiquitous expression that (if you’re reading from the UK) you can find in most supermarkets… this is not a memorable one, geared towards quantity rather than quality.

Aber Falls, nice location!

In spite of the gloomy day, the location looked still very pretty: the distillery is at the end of a road with a parking lot, on a land crossed by a wee stream, surrounded by a rural landscape. The building on the left is the bar/visitor centre, with tables outside for warmer and dryer days. The production building is on the right side instead, along the stream. Past the bridge to cross it, a red copper dragon welcomed us. The visitor centre looked very tidy and clean, with lots of merchandise on the shelf. We looked for potential whisky buys right away, but it seemed that the only expression beside their standard release was a 3yr ex-Sauternes cask finish from the Distiller’s Cut series, bottled at 47% (£75). We were told that they usually have either a Distiller’s Cut or a Distillery Exclusive.

Always a dragon somewhere :).

When the tour started, Carmel collected us, and the first thing was a video in a small room. As usual, the video talked about the distillery history and how they came to be. We then went outside, and across the site, to start the visit to production (again, no pictures allowed). Bar for the gin still (where they rectify neutral grain spirit), the distillery is very similar to a Scottish one. Their stills, made of copper, have a couple of interesting bits however: first, the spirit still has what we think it’s a cooling ring around the neck. This is a feature we found at Fettercairn, although they didn’t look the same. The second feature is a stainless steel condenser in parallel with the copper one. Carmel told us this one is rarely used, mostly for special bottlings and not for their core release. And in fact, one of the most interesting parts of the tour was to compare the newmake spirit from the two condensers, just nosing however. The difference was obvious, with the steel condensed spirit more earthy and oily, the other fruitier and more floral.

Spirits selection for the tasting.

For the end of the tour, we went back to the visitor centre, to try an array of spirits: gin, gin liqueurs and their single malt. We skipped most of the gin liqueurs, as from smelling them we figured out they weren’t for us. The bar was open for another hour, so we went there with the idea of trying some of their Distiller’s Cut and Distillery Exclusive, whose bottles were sold out. However, the price for a dram was £14 (mental!), so we tried one only, Barolo red wine cask (well, we’re still Italians…) Distillery Exclusive, which was ok. Fortunately, we managed to find Carmel again, and she kindly gave us a sip of the current Distiller’s Cut, from ex-Sauternes casks, but this one failed again to impress.

Overall, it was an ok tour, and we reckon this distillery has lot of potential. Probably they could do more to create interesting expressions and engage the whisky enthusiasts, because as it is, it looks like another tourist-driven experience with a supermarket style production. These are not bad things per se, of course, but it would be nice if they targeted whisky enthusiasts too.

After the tour, we slowly walked back to the campervan, under a rainy sky. The decision to spend the night there was not the best one. Being so close to the expressway, we barely slept.

Another castle yet – Caernarfon.

We spent the following days visiting the north of Wales, first the isle of Anglesey and Caernarfon Castle (very nice, but without a guide the experience was not as enjoyable as Pembroke), then the Lynn peninsula. One of the highlights was Nant Gwrtheyrn, a former miners’ village once abandoned, now restored thanks to the start of a Welsh language school: a place to go back to. We even spent a few hours on a nice beach, although we didn’t swim…We just enjoyed a pint under the sun.

Mining past in a beautiful scenery, Nant Gwrtheyrn.

The following two days were supposed to be the hiking ones, but the weather discouraged us to climbing mount Snowdon, in the famous Eryri/Snowdonia National Park. The first day, we decided to walk anyway, near Llanberis, on a trail climbing up to an old quarry…and in the two hours we ended up completely soaked. The following morning the climate wasn’t promising either, so we slowly started driving east. We stopped for an afternoon tea right before the crossing to England, to visit the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, another record of the once dynamic industrial life in the area.

Not the best weather for hiking…

So that was it, our first road trip to Wales! The country is very beautiful, although in some parts quite busy (in particular Gower and Pembrokshire), and with such narrow roads, driving was trickier than prevented. The North is quite spectacular, in particular around the Eyri National Park mountains.

Our likely reaction if we were able to see mount Snowdon behind us.

Whisky-wise it was a very interesting trip. Now that Welsh Single Malt is officially recognised as a whisky category, there is lot of space for further growth. Penderyn, of course, is leading the charge with its three distilleries. Thanks to their different types of stills, Faraday and traditional pot stills, they can really experiment and come up with a variety of flavours in their whisky. Aber Falls production, on the other hand, is more similar to a Scottish one. The craft scene is very interesting as well, with Coles, In the Welsh Wind and Dà Mhìle distilleries all giving a different take on the category. The use of a combination of pot and column distillation can be very interesting, although we think it can be tricky as well: some expressions had a very “gin-ish” flavour which we were not too keen on. In this crafty category there are a couple of distilleries we might have missed, Cardiff Distillery (it looks like they are doing gin and vodka, but someone told us they might make whisky too) and Anglesey Mon (for which we couldn’t find any information online). Overall, it’s a very interesting scene, and this trip definitely satisfied our curiosity…At least for now, eheh.

Until next time, Slainte!

Aber Falls Distillery Tour

Price: £12.50 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: a neep of the available spirits, including Aber Falls Single Malt (40%), and various gins and gin liqueurs

Target: tourists

Value for money: good

Highlights: comparing the newmake spirits made using different condensers

Recommended: not for whisky geeks, unless you really want to

Link: https://www.aberfallsdistillery.com/

#33.4 The Welsh Whisky Trail (not TM)

Nosing whisky in the north of Wales: Penderyn Llanduno

TL; DR: After the lovely Aberystwyth, a long drive north in the rain and the mist through industrial relics and castles to get to Llanduno, where we visited the third (and last) Penderyn distillery and enjoyed an interesting, full-on whisky masterclass.

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

We woke up in a misty Aberystwyth. Unfortunately, weather forecasts were right: a day of rain. Thus, a change of plan was needed: we were supposed to take the Cliff Railway to admire the Afon Rheidol valley, of which we’d had some glimpse the day before, but with fog and rain what was the point? Instead, we had breakfast and afterwards we visited the National Library of Wales, which had very interesting exhibitions (and a cosy cafeteria).

City encounters while walking up to the National Library of Wales.

We soon left the nice wee town driving north, towards the camping for the night, in Blaenau Ffestiniog. We tried to drive “the long way”, so first we stopped at the Dyfi Furnace, a well-preserved industrial relic. We kept driving north, to Machynlleth and past the Dyfi Bridge, until Llanelltyd. Here, we took a detour to drive on the coast, and we stopped at Harlech Castle, in a very picturesque little village. This was our last stop before the camping (named Quarry View… and indeed it is surrounded by quarries), where we arrived still under the rain: a shame, as the camping looked it could have been very enjoyable with nice weather.

Dyfi Furnace…

…and the Harlech Castle.

The morning after it was not raining but still misty. We had a quick breakfast and then we were on the road, as we needed to get to Abergwyngregyn in time for the bus to Llanduno. The road across Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park was quite spectacular even in the mist, and we passed many groups of hikers getting ready to climb the sharp mountains. That day we had two distilleries booked, Penderyn Llanduno and Aber Falls. We parked the van walking distance to the latter, but with a convenient bus we could reach Llanduno so we could both fully enjoy the Masterclass at Penderyn. The trip on the North Wales Expressway was quiet and smooth.

A distillery in the town centre: Penderyn Llanduno.

As we got off the bus, we got a hint on why the distillery is located in this town: it’s a very touristy place, dating back to Victorian times. We had just enough time to get a coffee and walk to the distillery, which contrary to many others, is located in the town centre. The building, in fact, is one of a former school. There, we were welcomed by Angharad, which collected us and other two people to start the Masterclass. She walked us into a big room and played a video about the history of Welsh whisky and Penderyn. She also served us coffee and a Welsh cake, a nice and appreciated touch. This was accompanied by a first dram, a Penderyn Myth, from the reduced strength range (41%), initially developed for the French market and finished in shaved-toasted-recharred (STR) casks.

After the introductory video and history, we did a nosing challenge: 10 fragrancies to recognise. Teresa was the best in the class, with 8/10, while “slow noser” Gianluigi had to be asked to finish twice, and only got 4…Ouch! In spite of her modesty, that confirmed what we knew already, that she has a great nose! For the next dram, we were asked to guess among Johnnie Walker Black Label, Monkey Shoulder, Haig Club single grain, and the Penderyn Madeira. Clearly it wasn’t the latter two, and it took a moment but we recognised the JW Black Label (due to the presence of a whiff of smoke).

Getting ready for the nosing challenge.

Now it was the time for the tour of production (where we couldn’t take pictures): it is very similar to what we’d seen in Brecon Beacons and Swansea, but on a smaller scale. They have only one Faraday still (and no copper pot stills), with which they produce only peated spirit. Of course, being in a town centre, they don’t have a warehouse on site, and the tour finished in a hallway with the types of casks they use on display for us to nose, like we did in the other two sites. This was accompanied by a dram of Buffalo Trace bourbon (their standard at 40%), because they mainly fill ex-bourbon barrels from this distillery, and a wee glass of Madeira wine, the finishing cask for their main expression.

Faraday still explainer.

After this, we followed Angharad first in an exhibition room, then in the bar, where we could choose a dram: for us, it had to be the Icons of Wales #7 Rhiannon (finished in ex-sherry casks, 46%) and the Penderyn club exclusive (an ex-Madeira cask exclusive, whose purchase for £95 allows to be in the Club for 3 years, with some benefits like discounts, etc.). We headed back to the “boardroom”, for yet another test: we had four Penderyn from the Gold range (Madeira, Peated, Sherrywood, Portwood and Rich Pak/STR) and we had to recognise which one was which (one missing). We both did the same: got the Sherrywood and Peated right, correctly guessed the Portwood was the missing one, but mixed up the Rich Oak and Madeira. Nosing is a tricky thing! Finally, we headed down to the shop, where we collected some memorabilia included in the tour.

A beautiful bar!

The second guessing game of the day…All Penderyn, but which one?

The masterclass was supposed to be 2-2.5 hours, but it ran for over 3.5! So, as we walked out, we raced to the bus stop and barely had time to get a couple of hot rolls and beefy bakes to eat on the bus. Overall, we liked the experience, even if it was more challenging than expected. We were hoping for some drams from the cask, like some sort of warehouse tasting. It wasn’t the case, but the offer was very generous nonetheless, and we could appreciate the variety of the Penderyn offer. After visiting all three distilleries, we are left wondering how different the whisky from the three sites will be, in particular the peated one. In our understanding, the way they’ve made peated whisky before opening the site in Llanduno is by using ex-Laphroaig casks). Anyway, definitely a trio of distilleries to keep an eye on and revisit at some point. Slainte!

Penderyn Llanduno Masterclass

Price: £60.00 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 2hr 30min

Tasting: 8 drams (Penderyn Myh, JW Black Label, Buffalo Trace, one from the bar, 4 from the Gold Range) and a sip of Madeira wine

Target: whisky novices and nerds

Value for money: good

Highlights: the sensory experience

Distillery exclusive: mostly the same as Swansea and Brecon Beacon distilleries

Recommended: for craft distilling enthusiasts in particular

Link: https://www.penderyn.wales/

#33.3 The Welsh Whisky Trail (not TM)

Craft Distillers in the South West: In The Welsh Wind and Dà Mhìle

TL;DR: A relaxed but at the same time full-on day in the south west of Wales. We visited two craft distilleries, In The Welsh Wind and Dà Mhìle. We discovered the existence of iStills in the first one, and got to know more about organic whisky in the second one…Both very interesting projects, so much information to take in!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

The night at the Lleithyr Farm camping near St. Davids was quiet, and we woke up definitely very rested, with a couple of black pigs snuffling on the other side of the fence and rabbits sprinting around. At that point of the trip we had perfected our morning routine: breakfast, shower, washing dishes, and packing up. So much that soon after we were able to leave the camping towards north, along the Welsh west coastline.

Our next stop was a new distillery: In the Welsh Wind! We were a bit ahead of schedule on the road, but we lost all of our advantage because of tractors and other heavy vehicles on a very narrow highway (also, Mr Vantastic isn’t really good at overtaking…). The distillery is on the A487 near Tan-y-gros, very easy to spot, about five miles past Cardigan towards north, towards Aberystwyth. The building used to be a pub, now it’s all painted black with their logo on the side.

No way we could miss this…

Also, their neighbour is an old small car…collector? Dealer? Deposit? Who knows! The cars are mostly eviscerated (no engine) but painted with bright colours: very peculiar.

…Or this.

As we walked in the distillery, we realised that the staff were busy in a meeting, so James (the distillery manager) came to us asking to wait a couple of minutes. He came back very soon, apologising: they were having this meeting to deal with a new big customer of theirs, Tesco!

We had chosen the “Tour only” option, as we were not very interested in the gin tasting coming with the regular tour. James told us the story of the distillery: it was founded by a couple, Ellen and Alex, after a sabbatical period when they walked over 1,000 miles on the Welsh coast and the historic border. They started the distillery in 2018, making gin first, but since 2021, they lay casks down for whisky. So no whisky yet, but they aim for a first release in 2025. Besides whisky, and other than gin (under two different brands, more of that later), they make vodka and rum (mostly spiced, they had some limited wood-matured release which promptly disappeared), as well as…malt vinegar! That was a “pandemic project”, to make use of local brewery’s beer that otherwise would have been wasted. This featured in some TV-shows, and the popularity that followed apparently helped put them “on the map”.

Warehouse / malting floor at In The Welsh Wind.

The production area is quite small, and a big part of the surface is dedicated to their own malting floor. A very important aspect is that, for the whisky, they source the barley locally, all from a 10-mile radius, and they malt it themselves (without peat). When we visited it was July, which, because of the heat, is their “off-season”, when they don’t malt and don’t make any whisky. Another interesting and distinctive thing is that they have two iStills (the first time we saw them!). This “all-in-one” still is made by a Dutch maker, and saves on space and personnel: in our understanding, they charge it with milled barley, water and yeast, and it does the whole process, in a very efficient way. They have two iStills, one for big batches and a smaller one for experimental runs.

The iStill. Never seen anything like this!

They use these for whisky (aiming to ~80%abv in the newmake), vodka (higher abv, ~90%) and rum. The whisky is filled in the usual casks (many ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, ex-wine) diluted with local water to ~62%abv. On top of that, they also fill a lot of 30-litre casks to sell to privates (for £2,000). Some casks were stored there, although James told us they had just bought a warehouse to store most of their products.

On the other side of the building, near the bar, there are the two gin stills (200 and 50 litre), and also six mini-stills. These are part of the “distill-your-own” business, where people can come and choose among the many available botanicals to make their own recipe and redistill a pre-prepared 50% neutral grain spirit. Very clever! They also sell their products to the local trade, in particular a brand called Eccentric Spirit, which they bought and resurrected (this is the one that will go to Tesco). The tour ended at the shop (which in the meantime became quite busy), with a nip of their In the Welsh Wind gins (a dry one and a Palo Cortado cask matured one), and of the whisky they source from Mackmyra distillery, in Sweden (curious choice).

Wanna distill your own gin?

Left the distillery, we had enough time to do groceries and refuel before driving to the next one: Dà Mhìle. This wee distillery is on the Glynhynod farm (in Welsh, “remarkable valley”), in a stunning and hidden place (it reminded Gianluigi the village where his mother grew up, Casali di Morfasso) off the A486. Although a very different business compared to the In The Welsh Wind, the ignition was somehow coming from the same place: the need for a life change. In 1981, John, Patrice and Paula moved to Wales from the Netherlands and purchased the farm, where they started organic farming and in particular organic cheese-making (named Caws Teifi). About a decade later, John went to an organic food festival and spotted a gap in the market: organic whisky. So, they farmed barley on their fields, and looked for someone to produce their organic whisky. After many “no thanks”, someone accepted their offer: Springbank! They sent their barley to Campbeltown, where it was turned into newmake spirit by the popular distillers in 1992, and was firstly released in 2000. Although that was the only ever batch of barley produced at the farm (apparently it is not an ideal location for growing barley), they commissioned another batch of organic whisky, this time at Loch Lomond. In 2012, however, after the legalisation of craft stills, Dà Mhìle purchased their own and started producing their own spirits: whisky, rum, gin, brandy, vodka and liqueurs.

A tasting room or a mountain cottage?

This story was told us while sitting in the lovely tasting room, resembling a mountain cottage, and equipped with a bar and shelves full of their products. The lower level of the same building is the “distillery”, which consists in a 350-litre German still, with a wood-fired steam boiler. The wash is bought from a local brewery (we couldn’t understand which one), which comes already fermented and ready to be distilled. After this explanation we started the tasting, with the whiskies first. The first dram was the 2023 release of their organic single malt Welsh whisky, vatting of two sherry casks (bottled at 46%abv). The second was an organic single grain Welsh whisky, released in 2022, and finished in ex-Laphroaig quarter casks, a bit smoky and tasty (46%abv). The final dram was a delicious 20 years old organic single grain Scotch whisky (again, 46%abv), from the batch they had commissioned to Loch Lomond in 2000.

A lovely tasting.

After the whisky tasting, we had another one: the cheese tasting! One seasoned with nettle, one with cumin, a mature cheddar and the “Celtic promise”: all tasty, the latter two were delicious! Then, it was time for lunch, a Welsh rarebit, something we had never tried before.

As a final part of the tour, we went outside to check out the warehouse: a small building with concrete floor, where a few dozen casks were resting. The space is quite wide, looks like it was sized for the medium-long term, since they only fill about 22 casks per year. Finally, we visited the shop, where they sell a range of organic products: other than cheesy and boozy goodies, also meat, eggs and produce.

We left the distillery very happy, driving towards Aberystwyth, where we would have spent the night. Before driving into town, we did a detour to visit the Devil’s Bridge, which we remembered from the Hinterland TV show (which we loved).

Can you see the devil?

Once in Aberystwyth, we parked Mr. Vantastic and had a stroll in the centre. We found it very nice, and although quite small, the place gave us “towny” vibes. After dinner (well, some sandwiches we’d made earlier), we celebrated a day of exciting discoveries about the art of craft distilling in a lovely pub, with craft beers and live acoustic music. Slainte!

In The Welsh Wind Tour only

Price: £8.00 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 45min

Tasting: nip of available products

Target: everyone, but still mostly gin lovers

Value for money: good

Highlights: the iStill

Recommended: yes for craft-distilling enthusiasts

Link: https://inthewelshwind.co.uk/

Dà Mhìle Whisky tasting (talk, tasting and lunch)

Price: £35.00 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3-dram from the available range, for us it included 2023 Organic Single Malt (two ex-sherry casks vatting, 46%, natural presentation); 2022 Organic Single Grain (finished in an ex-Laphroaig quarter cask, 46%, natural presentation); 20y Loch Lomond Organic Single Grain (46%, natural presentation), and

Target: everyone, foodies in particular

Value for money: good

Highlights: the bucolic location

Recommended: yes for craft-distilling enthusiasts

Link: https://www.damhile.co.uk/

#33.2 The Welsh Whisky Trail (not TM)

From Cardiff to Pembroke: Penderyn Swansea and Coles

TL;DR: After visiting Cardiff, we spent the next couple of days again on the road in South Wales for a mix of whisky and non-whisky activities: Penderyn Swansea distillery, Gower peninsula and Rhossili, followed by Coles distillery and Pembroke Castle.

(missed Part 1?)

That morning in Cardiff the sky was a bit moody, but this didn’t stop us going for a morning run (to Teresa’s disappointment). Near the camping there is a huge park, the Bute Park River Side, which continues along the river Taff, with plenty of pedestrian and cycling paths. We took advantage of it – always nicer to run in green areas. We spent the rest of the day in Cardiff, visiting the castle first, buying rugby-related gifts for Gianluigi’s brothers and father, and looking out for some local beers to try: we found a pub we quite liked right in front of the stadium, but we found out soon it wasn’t Welsh: Tiny Rebels, from Bristol (delicious beers!). We liked Cardiff as a city, small but cosy, and seemed very liveable. Definitely a place to go back to!

Inside Cardiff Castle.

The following day we left early in the morning, directed to Swansea. No matter how we liked Cardiff, we have to say that the landscape along the road between the two cities was not nice at all, very industrial and a bit decadent. Even Swansea didn’t look that good to be honest, not to their fault: it was quite flattened by the Germans during WWII. We soon managed to find the distillery (although Google Maps pointed us somewhere else): the newest of the Penderyn.

A beautiful building – Penderyn Swansea

We did the regular tour here as well (pricier, see summary below), as it was the only experience available in July. In fact, the distillery was so new that they hadn’t even started distilling yet (all the equipment was there however). Being built inside a former copperworks, in the first part of the tour they showed us some videos and the reproduction of a little copper mine, showcasing the importance of this material for electricity (and distilling). Very interesting indeed!

About the importance of copper.

We then visited the soon-to-be active production (again, no pictures allowed), and we realised it is a replica of their Brecon Beacons site. We couldn’t quite get why they made two almost identical distilleries, but our guesses are for tourism (see later) and because it was not possible to increase the size of the original production site. They have a warehouse, however, which we got to after walking on the remains of the copperworks building (covered by glass, hence why we could walk on them). Finally, in the very beautiful tasting bar, we could try two of their expressions each. We picked another two drams from the Icons of Wales series, the #6 Royal Welsh Whisky (43%, peated Portwood finish, to commemorate the original Welsh Whisky distillery at Frongoch) and the #10 YMA O HYD (43%, matured in ex-Rye casks), plus a couple from the core range, the peated ex-Islay cask and the Rich Oak. Despite the fairly basic tour, overall we enjoyed the experience, especially thanks to the very friendly staff.

Teresa is ready for the tasting.

While Swansea didn’t look very beautiful itself, just past it we found a very touristy seaside location, Mumbles, where we stopped for a coffee and a bite. Further ahead, the Gower peninsula. In spite of the narrow and busy roads, we really loved it, in particular Rhossili. We spent the afternoon there, walking to the Ynys Weryn and the Worm’s head before the tide would make it an island again.

Rhossili, probably our favourite spot in this part of Wales.

For the night we didn’t park much far away, just past Crofty, so we had time for a walk. The spot is popular for dramatic sunsets on the river Loughor estuary.

Enjoying the sunset – a bit chilly, but worth it.

In the morning we drove towards Llanelli, but only after checking out a nice café inside a gym (!!) to get a coffee and a morning roll. One of the peculiarities of this holiday was that the offer of morning rolls in Wales seemed to be less rich than in Scotland (lacking black pudding and haggis, for example), so we always ended up with bacon…bacon and sausage in this case (delicious!). Anyway, we soon got to the next stop, Coles Distillery, at the historical White Hart Inn pub, in Llandarrog, which dates back to 1371.

As we parked behind the inn, our guide for the day, Tom, approached us. He is a young and enthusiastic fella, who works in both the brewery and the distillery. The Coles family (who took over the pub in 1994) started brewing their own beer in 1999, cider in 2011 and since the craft stills legalisation, they have been making whisky, vodka, gin, brandy and the first ever welsh rum (as you can imagine, all in small batches). Except for the rum, for which they import molasses, they are a proper grain-to-glass distillery (or fruit-to-glass), as even the gin and the vodka are made from scratch using wheat.

Understanding the theory…

The first part of the tour took place in a hallway, in the pub building, where there is a panel displaying how their distilling operation works, including the botanicals for the gin. They take the water from a well about 90 meters deep, and mashing and fermentation take place in stainless steel tanks (the latter are 6, and fermentation lasts 70 hours). The actual distillation is the interesting part: they have one stainless-steel pot still which takes 3000l wash, and of which only a joint before the lyne arm is made of copper. Then, they have two column stills, each one with 20 copper plates. This setup, all using a steam boiler, gives them lot of flexibility, thanks to which they are able to make different products.

…Still understanding the theory.

After this very thorough explanation, we moved inside the distillery, just a few steps away from the pub. Because of the craft size of the operation, everything is under one shed, including some maturing casks of whisky and rum. There we could revisit all the steps of their process under Tom’s careful guide, which explained that they mostly use American oak ex-bourbon barrels, in particular for their main whisky.

Back to the pub, we sit at the bar to try a few of their spirits. Sips were very tiny, but they also sell almost everything they produce in 5cl miniatures, so we took a few with us for a more in depth tasting in the evening.

For once, not a distillery behind us.

Back on the road, we started driving towards Pembrokeshire, to visit the Pembroke Castle, probably our favourite of the holiday. We were able to catch a guided tour, and what an amazing tour that was! The history of the castle is very fascinating too, definitely a must-do if you’re ever in the area. Our camping for the night was still in Pembrokeshire, near St David.

Sunset tasting.

It was on a farm, and because the weather was nice, after dinner (we went “true Italian” and made pasta) we could relax and watch the sunset while sipping the Coles distillery’s miniatures: Welsh single malt (5y, 42%, ex-borubon), Organic single malt (42%), dark rum (oak aged, 40%) and the Plum brandy (40%). The latter was the winner for us, delicious!

See you next week, slainte!

Penderyn Swansea Copperworks Tour

Price: £19.50 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 2 drams of choice

Target: everyone

Value for money: less good than Penderyn Brecon Beacons

Highlights: the copperworks history of Swansea

Distillery Exclusive: same as Penderyn Brecon Beacons (except the Fino cask)

Recommended: if you are curious about the copperwork history and/or if you haven’t visited the Brecon Beacons site

Link: https://www.penderyn.wales/tours-swansea-copperworks/

Coles Distillery Tour

Price: £12.50 pp (July 2023)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: a nip of anything they produce

Target: everyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the range of spirits

Recommended: for craft-distilling enthusiasts in particular

Link: https://www.coles.wales/