#68 Ardgowan distillery

A whisky cathedral in the west

TL; DR: Early in November we went on a day trip to the west of Glasgow, to Inverkip. Our destination was the newly built Ardgowan distillery, finally producing after a long phase of set up. A stunning, modern building that really deserves a visit.

A part of Scotland that we haven’t explored much is that stretch to the west of Glasgow to the west, Inverclyde. Bar the one time we went to Gourock, near Greenock, to take the ferry to Dunoon on our first trip to Campbeltown, we never really visited the area. That was about to change in early November, as we embarked on a day trip to go visit one of the newest kids on the block: Ardgowan distillery! The company was founded in 2017, with the objective to bring back distilling in the area. There used to be an Ardgowan distillery in Greenock, founded in 1896, but the site was flattened by the Nazis bombings in 1941.

Proud of bringing back whisky production in the area.

The trip was quiet and uneventful, we only stopped for a light seafood bite in a lovely wee restaurant on the coast just before Fairlie, the Catch at Fins. As usual, we arrived at the distillery a few minutes early, so we used the time to take a few pictures of the building: a stunning copper-coloured building with a sloping roof (made for the 97% of recycled aluminium), with a nordic feeling, almost like a modern art museum somewhere in Scandinavia. We’ll find out later that it was indeed inspired by the Scandinavian longhouses!

A stunning building, you wouldn’t say it’s a distillery.

Next to it, other smaller buildings, where the visitor centre is currently located. They used to be part of a farm with horse stables, and nowadays they host gin producer Blackwoods, other than the distillery offices. Plans are to restore and turn them into a cafe, an improved visitor centre and tasting room, as well as some accommodations. Some of the buildings are used for cask storage as well.

The old stables.

At the distillery we were welcomed by Richie and Wendy, the tour guides: Richie would be the one showing us around. While waiting for the tour to start, we looked at the bottles on display: their full Clydebuilt range, mostly sherried single malts (rigorously undisclosed, named after professions like coppersmith, riveter, sailmaker, etc.), some grain whisky and a few blends as well. They also have the whisky that has been to the South Pole (here an old article about it). Soon after the other four people attending the tour arrived, two local couples (that we think we already saw somewhere…at a festival maybe?), and the tour started. Richie told us the story of the company and the site, including the long delays that followed the initial approval in 2017. Production finally started this year (2025), with the first cask filled on the 17^th of June.

Yes, it’s meant to be open.

After crossing the old stables, we got inside the new building, in the “full” bit (part of the building is open, almost looking like they have to complete it, but it is done on purpose). Richie explained us that the water they use comes from a spring water well on site, while the malt is bought up in Inverness. They mash 5 tons of grist at the time with 10,000 litres of water, first at 64°C. The second water, another 25,000 litres, is added at 80°C and the final sparging at 90°C, with the resulting water saved for the next mash. Unlike many distilleries, draff is sent to a biofuel plant rather than sold or given to cattle farmers. Mashing takes about 5.5 hours, and then the wort is moved to one of the six stainless steel washbacks, where distiller’s yeast is added to kickstart fermentation. In our understanding a mash is 20,000 litre, but we’re not very sure about the figures, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Shiny new equipment.

Fermentation lasts 3 days (72 hours), and then the wash is distilled in “Lady Octavia”, the 15,000-litre wash still named after a prominent figure of the Clan Stewart. The 9,000-litre spirit still is named after Sara, the founder’s daughter, and from there they take a spirit cut from 68 to 65%abv (a tiny one!). The stills are covered with a golden sheet to increase copper contact, in our understanding.

The best part of this whisky cathedral.

Currently the distillery capacity is about one million of litres of alcohol per year, but it is evident from the layout that there is much space for expansion. Currently the stills are heated by vapour obtained with gas, but the distillery is working together with Herriot Watt researchers to look into hydrogen, to make production even more sustainable. Casks are filled on site, at the usual strength of 63.5%, mainly in sherry seasoned casks, from Bodega Miguel Martin. There is an extension planned for the building itself, which might also include a dram bar and a panoramic balcony overlooking production.

Interesting view of the still.

As we approached the end of the production tour, it started “pishing doon”, so we had to wait a bit before walking to the visitor centre for the tasting. The tasting consisted of three small measures (10ml) of three of their Clydebuilt. The first was the “standard” 12-year-old, a sherried dram from and undisclosed distillery: a nice sherried dram, that we were tempted to buy (if only we weren’t trying to work through our stash at home…), with the same dram at cask strength also available. The second dram was the “Offical” Open Day dram (yes, OFFICAL!) for the open day that happened earlier in the year, on the 20^th of June, a vatting of Oloroso and Pedro Ximenex (PX) sherry casks. Finally, the Distillery Exclusive, a PX single cask, only available at the site. While the measures were a bit stingy, Richie offered a taste of other drams available at the shop, and Gianluigi got a nice single grain in its teen (Teresa was on driving duty). A pity we couldn’t taste the newmake spirit (it always puzzles us that some new distilleries won’t serve it…but hey ho).

A very sherried lineup.

Overall the tour was interesting, it’s always nice to see how things are being set up at new distilleries. However, the building is what really made this visit memorable. As always for new distilleries, we’re looking forward to trying their single malt in a few years’ time: we’ll be back!

See you in a couple of weeks for our 2025 wrap-up! Until then, happy holidays, Merry Christmas and, of course, slàinte!

Ardgowan Distillery Tour

Price: £19.50 pp (November 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 x 10ml drams, Clydebuilt (undisclosed) single malt 12y (46%, Oloroso + PX), “Offical” Open Day 2025 (59.5%, Oloroso + PX casks), Distillery exclusive single cask (54.8%, PX HHD)

Distillery Exclusive: Clydebuilt single malt cask (54.8%, PX HHD, £85)

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the modern building

Recommended: if you’re in the area, the building deserves a visit

Link: https://www.ardgowandistillery.com/

#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

#62 The EWG trips are back

Glasgow is hot!

TL; DR: On a hot Saturday in July the Edinburgh Whisky Group went to Glasgow for two distillery visits. First off, Glasgow distillery, for a preview on the tour that is now open for bookings. A great tour and wonderful drams! Then we visited Jackton distillery, a much younger project, which that day was hosting a nice market.

After the successful trips to Campbeltown in ‘21, Speyside in ‘22 (the Speycation^TM), the Highlands in ‘23, and Yorkshire in ‘24, this year the Edinburgh Whisky Group (EWG) trip was different. For who hasn’t read old posts, the EWG group was set up by Justine Hazelhurst (writer, organiser of the Fife Whisky Festival and whisky expert) on Facebook, a few years back, and during the COVID-19 pandemic it exploded to almost 500 members. Some of us started attending online tastings during lockdown, and after the group became a more restricted one (hence more manageable), some of us kept in touch and started the tradition of a whisky trip every year.

For this year (2025) we decided to do something different: not a long weekend away but one (or possibly more) day trip(s) from Edinburgh. These trips are less demanding to both organise and attend, but another reason is also a lack of new destinations. Islay is too complex for such a big group: logistics is awful on the island, you cannot reach many distilleries with public transport, and accommodation is scarce (and possibly too expensive). In the south of Scotland distilleries are too sparse, again requiring some logistic effort. A possibility was to go back to Campbeltown, ideal from many points of view, but for now we decided to skip it (maybe when we’ll go back one or more new distilleries will have opened…Who knows?).

Wearing sunglasses at a distillery, it doesn’t happen that often!

Another challenge was to find distilleries within reaching distance that not many of us have visited, which is not trivial. Two logical answers are: distilleries that are not open to public, or new…or both! Which is kind of the case for the first distillery we visited on this trip: the Glasgow distillery. We’re writing “kind of the case”, because Glasgow has been around for over 10 years now and, at the time of our visit, they were about to open to the public (here for more info). Anyway, that morning we all met at Haymarket, in our case after a very nice breakfast (though a bit pricey) at the Haymarket Cafè, in front of the station. Around 9.30, the minibus Justine had booked arrived, and our trip officially started: it was a sunny day, and the temperature was already toasty, but nothing compared to what would happen later in the day. The drive to the distillery was uneventful and we behaved on the bus: (almost) no drams were passed around.

The site is located in the south of Glasgow, near the M8, not too far from IKEA and Douglas Laing (impossible to miss the Big Peat sign when driving on the M8!). As you can imagine, the distillery is on an industrial estate, and we could see why they hesitated to open it to visitors (not that we care much though). We were welcomed by Sebastian, who works in the marketing and sales team, and is also one of the blenders. After the usual health and safety instructions, he took us to the warehouse, just a few steps from the courtyard. Currently, they mainly use two buildings facing on the courtyard in a L-shape: a big warehouse (some palletised, some stacked horizontally in rows two-high) with the bottling equipment, and a production building, where the spirits are produced, including an experimental lab, equipped with a small still to do small-scale trials, and a very nice and cosy tasting room. The latter is used for their regular tours, in our understanding limited to 8 people at a time, but we were too many to fit in.

The spirits range.

In the warehouse, we were presented with two bottle line-ups: one was their spirit range, which included the Malt Riot blended scotch (40%), the G52 botanical vodka (40%), the Makar gin (43%), and the Banditti spiced rum (44%). On the other barrel, their single malt core range, the Glasgow 1770. The name (1770) comes from the year the original Glasgow distillery was founded, which used to produce unpeated, peated and triple distilled malt whisky, until it closed in 1902. The (current) distillery founders, Mike and Liam, in 2012 decided to follow the footsteps of their predecessors and acquire the name to bring back distilling in Glasgow, at a time when only Strathclyde grain whisky distillery was operating, plus Auchentoshan in the city outskirts. Works on the site began in 2013, in 2014 they had their first product (Makar gin), and finally the first newmake spirit was distilled in 2015. Sebastian joined around that time, right after uni. Later in 2019 they doubled capacity by adding a second pair of stills.

the 1770 Glasgow range.

We had a taste of each of the three single malts. The Triple distilled is matured in a combination of 1^st and refill ex-bourbon casks, with a touch of virgin American oak barrels. The Original starts its journey in 1^st fill ex-bourbon casks, but is then finished in virgin oak casks. The Peated malt, however, is first matured in virgin oak casks and then finished for about 8 months in Pedro Ximénez sherry hogsheads. Other than their core range, they also release cask strength versions of the Original and the Peated malt (we tasted the latter), and a few small batches every year: these can either be from a single cask or a vatting of few casks. Sebastian told us they are introducing a new yearly limited release, based on previous small batches that went well: for this year they picked a Ruby port cask finish. We then moved to the production building, were Sebastian first introduced Tara & Mhairi and Margaret & Francis, the two pairs of stills for whisky, and then Annie, used for gin and other spirits. Then, he took us to the catwalk above the rest of production in two groups. The others, in turn, were left to enjoy another two drams: the current Small Batch Cognac cask (6y, 58%abv, ex-bourbon and finished for over 3y on Cognac casks, both peated and unpeated malt), and the Peated Cask Strength version (same recipe as the core range one, but 60.7%).

A nice setup behind us.

The production water is from Loch Katherine, which is the same source as Glasgow tap water. Originally, they used to work 7 days a week (13 mashes), but because they are short of a distiller, at the moment they only work 5 (10 mashes). This translates into about 200,000 litres of alcohol per annum, but with an annual release of “only”6-7,000 bottles, they are keeping a lot of stock for the coming years: playing the long game here. We didn’t get to see the 27-ton malt bin (refilled twice a week) and the (four rollers) mill, as they are not in the production building. For mashing they use three rounds of water, the last one is sparged and kept for the following mash, as usual. Fermentation lasts at least 72 hours, and they use MG+ yeast for the double-distilled unpeated product, and other types of yeast for the other products. They also devote a few weeks a year for experiments. The second distillation cut depends on the type of product: 85% to 75% for the triple distilled, down to 64% for the unpeated double distilled, and 57% for the peated spirit. Casks are filled on site, but some are transferred in partners’ warehouses, while they wait to acquire more buildings. Their plan is to keep the adjacent warehouse for finishing casks only. About 20% of the casks are “speciality”, with the remainder being ex-bourbon, virgin oak or sherry. After the tour, we went back to the warehouse where another two drams were waiting for us, both straight from the cask: an unpeated 9y fully matured in an American oak virgin cask, and their Distillery Exclusive, a delicious peated 7y/o malt matured in a Virgin oak cask but finished in an Oloroso cask (60.9%). A great close for a great tour and a wonderful tasting!

Getting ready for a delicious dram.

After the purchases (of course) and an extra dram we brought to share with the gang (a delicious Glasgow 5y from Fragrant Drops independent bottler) we were back on the bus. We had a quick bite (a very “meh” M&S sandwich for us), before we arrived at our next destination: Jackton distillery, in East Kilbride. We won’t spend much time describing the tour, since we visited them less than a year ago, and that tour was more geek oriented than this one (and again, a pity we couldn’t try their Raer blended scotch finished in French wine cases, the only one of their range bottled at 46% instead of 40%). Different to our first visit, there was a nice wee market at the distillery that day, with the distillery team serving gin cocktails and wine, and food carts and art craft vendors. Gianluigi, obviously, chose the fattiest cookie from the cookie vendor. But mostly, we had some refreshments, as the day became very hot in the meanwhile, and in the warehouse we were all sweating: very rare occurrence in Scotland!

Nice to be back at Jackton distillery.

Not everybody copes well with the heat.

Once back at Haymarket, we all shared a pint at Ryrie’s (a pub we like, but because it’s far away we rarely go to) before everyone went home. What a lovely day, and a lovely visit to these distilleries. While we look forward to the first Jackton single malt, we witnessed how Glasgow distillery is really upping its game, and it’s no surprise that it became one of whisky aficionados’ favourites. Sebastian was a great host, and very generous with the drams! We loved the 1770 Triple Distilled, so fresh, crisp and sweet, a great dram. However, we took home the Distillery Exclusive, totally on the other side of the spectrum: smoky, rich and bold! This to show the great variety of their products: well done!

Next up a long weekend up in the Highlands, so stay tuned! Until then, slàinte!

The Glasgow Distillery Experience

Price: £45.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 7 drams, in our case they were Glasgow 1770 Triple Distilled (46%), Original (46%), Peated (46%), Peated Cask Strength (60.7%), Small Batch Cognac Cask (6y, 58%, unpeated), Virgin oak cask sample (9y, about 60%, unpeated), Distillery Exclusive Virgin Oak/Oloroso cask (7y, 60.9%, lightly peated)

Distillery Exclusive: 7y Virgin Oak/Oloroso cask single malt (£65.00)

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the variety and quality of single malts

Recommended: definitely

Link: https://www.glasgowdistillery.com/

Jackton Distillery Tour

Price: £35.70 pp (July 2025, it was £34.00 pp in September 2024, plus £2.04 transaction fee)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Raer Orginal blended scotch (40%), Rarer Oloroso finish, Amontillado finish, PX finish blended scotches (all 40%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

Link: https://raer.co.uk/

#57 Fife Whisky Festival and Independent Spirits Festival

A tale of two festivals

TL;DR: March has become the month of festivals for us. First, the Fife Whisky Festival, marking our fourth time as volunteers. A couple of weeks later, the first edition of the Independent Spirits Festival. Both of similar size, and both geared towards whisky geeks – two great opportunities to chat with whisky connoisseurs and enthusiasts and have some tasty drams.

As we got deeper into 2025, the festivals’ season started. Last year it had kicked off very early, in January, thanks to Funky Booze, a very fun and lively festival in Edinburgh that this year was on a hiatus. Nonetheless, this year we didn’t have to wait much longer, as on the 1^st of March, taking advantage of a pause in the Six Nations, we were headed to Cupar for the Fife Whisky Festival. This was the fourth time we attended as volunteers, but for the first time we skipped the opening dinner on the Friday, at Lindores Abbey distillery. Feedback from our pals was very good though, and it made us almost regret not going: among the drams that were served, there was a Gianluigi’s favourite, Laphroaig, and a 25y cask sample, wow!

Ready? Ready!

Anyway, we arrived in Cupar on Saturday morning, after picking up our pal Francesco, a Leither like us. After checking in with the festival’s directors, Justine and Karen, we helped the exhibitors set up their stands in the upper and lower halls, and then went out to check tickets and distribute wristbands in advance, so that the attendees wouldn’t lose precious dramming time. Both sessions went well, we met a lot of friendly faces (as in previous years) and had the chance to sip some very tasty drams. This year, against all odds, we managed to use our sampling bottles and take them home for quiet sipping. We did the same with the leftover bottles (kindly donated by the exhibitors) – by taking just samples, we could try way more drams at home, much better than having a half bottle of something, which we really don’t need.

Busy dramming session in Cupar.

Different to the previous year, the following day there was no distillery trip, but a choice between two warehouse tastings by Fife-based independent bottlers: Lady of the Glen, in Dalgety Bay, and The Single Cask, in Glenrothes. Folks could go to both events if they wanted, as Justine and karen organised a bus to transport people between the two locations. We only did the Lady of the Glen tasting though, with no regrets – we had great time and tried some excellent drams with Paul and Gregor. It was a pity we couldn’t visit a distillery this year (after all, that’s our hobby!), but we love warehouse experiences too.

Keeping warm with Lady of the Glen drams.

A couple of weeks later it was time for another festival, a brand new one: the Independent Spirits Festival! It was organised by David Stirk, and conveniently for us, it was held at the Leith Theatre, at crawling distance from our flat. Having been heavily advertised on Roy Aqvavitae Youtube channel, there were many barflies (the channel followers and supporters) from all over Europe and beyond (we think we heard someone coming from New Zealand, impressive!).

Round two of the March festivals.

The event was split into two: first, at noon, there was the screening of Independent Spirits. This is a 4-part documentary series about independent whisky bottlers and their role in the industry. It is directed by Greg Swartz and Guy Satchwell, and produced by the same crew behind the great Water of Life documentary. The series is made of short bits of interviews, that together tell the story of how independent bottlers came to be, what’s their role in the whisky industry, currently and in the future. During the screening, we could enjoy a couple of drams, a sherried Tormore, offered by the Elixir Distillers folks, and a peated dram from Glasgow Distillery, matured in an oloroso cask. Both very delicious.

Hanging out with whisky enthusiasts…

Once the screening and Q&A session ended, we had about one hour to grab some food. We picked one of our favourite spots in the neighbourhood: Peter’s Food Hub, a multi-cuisine take out. The festival session started at 4pm, although people who had attended the screening could get in a whole 15 minutes before others (but no drams served). Now, as the name suggests, of course the festival was focused on independent bottlers, and there were many, many, many of them. Basically, most of the ones you can think of (with one exception, one of the oldest, owning a distillery near Pitlochry…iykyk). For whisky nerds like us, it was like being a kid in a candy shop – the range of drams was impressive, from a young blended scotch called Peatsmoke on Gorgie, by the Campbeltown-based Watt Whisky, to a 25y Bowmore from Tri Carragh. And so many others: Woodrow’s, Fragrant Drops (with a new line of small batches whisky called Elevenses), obviously the SMWS, Cadenheads, Elixir Distillers, Thompson Brothers, the small but great Whisky Concerto, Lady of the Glen…you name it! It was a great session, not too crowded and we had a lot of fun. We didn’t know at the time, but we know now, that there is going to be a second one in 2026, hurray!

…more whisky enthusiasts…

…and more!

Overall we loved both of those festivals, we feel that are the perfect size for us: not too big, not too overwhelming, but with all of the whisky we want to sip. But mostly, with the right people: in the crowd, behind the stands and among the staff. Getting to chat with friends and other whisky enthusiasts like us, exchanging drams’ suggestions and having a laugh is really what makes these occasions special. What to say more? Just that we are looking forward to next year editions!

Until next time, slainte!

Links

Fife Whisky Festival: https://www.fifewhiskyfestival.com/

Independent Spirits Festival: https://www.independentspirits.co.uk/

#54 Another whisky year under our belt

What a 2024 it was!

TL; DR: The recap of our whisky year: 33 distillery visits, 28 visited for the first time, and 9 not in Scotland (a record for us?)! Also, 5 festivals attended (3 as volunteers), and 1 non-whisky focused. But more importantly, a lot of drams with a lot of friends, who really made our year special!

Another year about to end, we hope you are enjoying these last few very mild days (at least, mild in the Central Belt) of the year with some good drams, possibly in a cozy room, by a nice wood fire. For us it’s like that, minus the wood fire.

These quieter days come with some reflections and thoughts, as is usual for this period. Nowadays we give for granted these recurring events like New year, but it being established on January 1^st has more to do with cultural traditions coming from ancient Rome, rather than astronomical events. This said, the fewer hours of light (particularly at higher latitudes like in Scotland) bring some natural peace and tranquillity, helped by things slowing down due to most people being on holiday.

Inevitably, we fell in love with this place – Raasay.

This year has been another good one: we visited over 30 distilleries, most of them for the first time. We started with a bang during our usual trip around February, this year on Skye and Raasay. The latter in particular was quite spectacular – the 3-hour tour at the distillery and at the warehouse was great, but it was also amazing to drive around this pearl of an island, definitely one of the best we visited so far. That weekend also marked our appearance in Roy’s Aqvavitae vPub, as Italian guests in a 6-Nation themed blind tasting (which we both horribly failed). We had so much fun, it was one of the whisky highlights of the year!

A few weeks later, we visited Aberargie distillery, in Fife, thanks to an event organised by the Fife Whisky Festival crew. The distillery, which hasn’t released any single malt yet, is run by the Morrison Distillers Company, who also own very tasty brands like the sherried blended malts Old Perth, the Islay single malts Mac-Talla, and Carn Mor range (usually single casks or small batches). The Mac-Talla Mara (cask strength edition) was Teresa’s whisky of the year.

Mr Vantastic and Teresa at Aberargie Distillery!

The next appointment was, for the second year in a row, the Spirit of Speyside Festival. This festival is great because it includes visits to some distilleries that are usually closed to public – this year we visited Auchroisk, Tormore, Craighellachie, and Kininvie (where we met our friend Paul, who used to work at Linkwood and other Diageo distilleries). We also attended the Whisky Fair, a mini-festival at the Mortlach Memorial Hall in the familiar Dufftown, and a very fun and nerdy Start Wars themed tasting at Glen Moray!

We fell in love with this place too – Tormore.

In the summer we managed to visit Islay twice, first with our pal Justine and Gianluigi’s brother Edoardo, and then with our pals Clay and Glaire. Between the two visits, we managed to finish visiting all distilleries on the island, including Jura (another awesome location we’d like to go back to) and the newly reopened Port Ellen, during one of their monthly open days (spoiler, you don’t get any dram, but the visit is free). After the first trip, we also somehow managed to sneak in a visit to Campbeltown, for a cheeky Cadenhead’s Warehouse tasting…What else?

Happy, wee whisky group.

During the nice season we also visited a handful of distilleries around the Central Belt, including the newly reopened Rosebank, Crafty in Galloway and Glengoyne (Teresa had never visited production before) in the southern Highlands, almost all single-day trips. Edoardo was back in October to run the Dramathon, and in that weekend we visited production at Glenlivet, and had a tasting at Glenallachie, with our friend Sue pouring some super tasty drams!

Our yearly trip with our pals from the Edinburgh Whisky Group was in…England! Yorkshire precisely, where we visited three distilleries, two breweries, and a tasting room in Scarabourgh (The Distiller’s Lounge, also likely harbouring the most complete English whisky collection). Our longest holiday was in Australia, where we visited five distilleries and three wineries. We won’t talk much about these trips here as we still have to write the blog posts, but we were surprised by the quality of some of the whiskies we tried, particularly in Australia, but mostly by the incredible hospitality. In Yorkshire, all the distilleries offered in-depth tastings for (relatively) cheap, and they went above and beyond to accommodate our 15-people group. Similarly, in Australia some of the visits were arranged at the very last minute, but still, everyone was happy to show us around and was very welcoming. In our opinion, that’s something that the Scottish whisky tourism in general needs to learn, or maybe re-learn? In the past, with the EWG we struggled to find activities, we almost needed to beg for a chance to spend our money in some distilleries. Both in Yorkshire and Australia, things were so effortless that it left us wondering if Scotland is resting on its laurels.

Dramming south of the border – Yorkshire.

Dramming further south of the border – Australia.

A good opportunity to meet nice whisky people are whisky festivals, in particular the small ones! The year started with Funky Booze, organised in January by our pal Francesco, right here in town: small sized, very focused on Edinburgh companies, with a funk band playing in the background. It was very fun, with a younger and more diverse crowd compared to most festivals. March was the month of the unmissable Fife Whisky Festival, third time in a row for us volunteering there. The team behind this festival organised another event in October, for the first time with a different name and location: the Borderlands Whisky Festival, in Lockerbie. In August we attended the Whisky Fringe for the third time as well, almost in Leith, and earlier in the year (March) the same company organised the Drinkmonger Spirits Festival, in the same location: it was fun to try different spirits for once, we were impressed with some of the rums and Mezcals.

Working hard at the Fife Whisky Festival.

It was a very busy year also for tastings. Edinburgh’s offer is huge, with many tastings representing a great value for money. Mark’s Jolly Toper tastings, now happening at different locations and no longer at Kilderkin, are a good example. The Belfry pub is also hosting many tastings, for example the ones of the newly formed Edinburgh Drammer’s Club (IG profile here), a new whisky club inspired by the Glasgow Whisky Club. Gianluigi attended the initial meeting, but other commitments got on the way…Let’s see if we manage next year. Other great tastings were the Springbank Society new releases early in the year, Rob’s (aka Quasidrams and Marshall Spirits) Adelphi tasting at the World’s End, and Murray’s (aka One Malt at a Time) Springbank, again at the Belfry.

Trying to come up with decent tasting notes.

We’re looking forward to next year: no detailed plans for now, but we’ll definitely go back to the Fife Whisky Festival and, depending on the events, we’ll likely attend the Spirit of Speyside again. On our wish list there are the northern Highlands, particularly the area around Wick and Thurso, and the Outer Hebrides, which would be quite exciting (they look quite spectacular, not just because of whisky, of course). But mostly, we’re looking forward to having drams with the new people we’re going to meet, as well as with our many pals around Scotland: that is what really makes whisky a great experience!

So, until the next year, slainte mhath!

#52 Rosebank Distillery

28 (+2) years later

TL; DR: Nope, not a post zombie-apocalypse story here, but the distillery we visited this time really came back from the dead: Rosebank. On a gloomy Saturday morning we paid it a visit: it was very interesting, we were particularly intrigued by how they rebuilt the distillery. The tour was a bit “corporate”, but hey ho, you cannot win them all.

Yes, some things, entities if you want, come back from the dead for real. No, we are not talking about zombies, ghosts (or else…), of course. In the last few years, we witnessed a number of distilleries being rebuilt, after being closed for decades. Most of them were closed because of a company strategy, following the downturn in whisky in the 1980s. Many of them were outdated at the time, like Brora, or not very highly regarded, like Port Ellen. We could add Annandale to the mix, although the original one was closed much earlier, in 1927.

Anyway, the protagonist of today’s post is another one, located in the Central belt: Rosebank. While Brora and Port Ellen have been rebuilt by the same company that closed them down (DCL/Diageo), in 2017 Rosebank was bought by Ian McLeods distillers (owners of Glengoyne and Tamdhu, plus a number of blends), who decided to rebuild it. After years of construction, in 2023 newmake spirit was flowing through its stills once again.

No way we could miss it.

Earlier this year (2024), they also opened to the public. We didn’t go right away – being relatively close and easy to get to for us, we could wait. The perfect occasion came in September: Roy Aquavitae organised the “Barflies gathering” in Glasgow (or Leg-fest II…IYKYK). The event started in the early afternoon, so instead of taking the train straight to Glasgow, we did a cheeky detour to Falkirk. The train ride from Waverley to Falkirk was quick, less than 45 minutes, and from Falkirk High station it was only a 20-minute walk to the distillery (well, according to Google, turned out to be closer to 15 minutes). We arrived at Rosebank distillery a few minutes earlier, enough time to take a few pictures, a nip to the loo, and check the building from the outside. From afar, the distillery looks like a black block, except for the very recognisable chimney. Getting closer, we realised that it is a beautiful building, very tastefully done, with a big window in the stillroom. The entrance to the visitor centre, though, reminded us of some hotels. The visitor centre also looks like an hotel lobby, while the shop is more akin to a high street boutique.

Old and new beautifully combined.

Our guide for the day was Jack, a nice young fella, but clearly following a script probably set up by management. We started with a visit to the old warehouse, in the same building as the visitor centre (in part still a warehouse). Most of the wood finish around there and the rest of the distillery was reclaimed wood from the old buildings. We watched a video explaining the history of the distillery. It is located near the Clyde canal, very close to a lock as well. The cottage for the lock keeper is still in existence: it is now part of the distillery, used as storage previously. Very funnily, it was found out that, somehow, contractors installed a tap bringing spirit directly from the old distillery! Another curiosity was that, in the past, when water from the worm tub condenser was put back into the canal without cooling it (which now environmental regulations don’t allow), locals were enjoying a swim in the warm water.

A big production area.

The equipment was completely refurbished, as nothing had remained of the old distillery. The production space is quite wide, probably to accommodate a potential future expansion. The Porteus mill dates back to 1933, and it was previously located at Port Ellen distillery. Malted barley is sourced from Crisp, in Alloa, and they get 28 tons twice a week (apparently, the variety can change). The mill produces a grist with a slightly higher percentage of husk (22% instead of the usual 20%), thus lower in grit (68% instead of 70%), and the usual flour (10%). The mash takes 3.2 tons of malt, to which they add the first water, 10,000 litres at 68°C. It is followed by the second water, 5,000 litres at 80°C, while the final one (used for the next mash) is around 90°C. They do 17 mashes per week, each taking about 6 hours in total. Here Jack gave us a barley sugar candy: it was nice touch, being foreigner, we finally understood what people mean when this comes up as a tasting note!

A shiny mashtun.

The resulting wort is moved to one of the 8 washbacks, where it is fermented for 62 hours, using distillers’ yeast. But it is with distillation that Rosebank brings something special: it is a triple distillation, and they use worm tub condensers, a unique combination of these features. The first distillation is very similar to the usual first distillation in Scottish distilleries. The second one, in the intermediate still, is divided in two cuts, the first sent for the third and final distillation, one sent back to be redistilled (the low wines below 1%). The last distillation, in the spirit still, produces 1,700 litres of spirit between 82% and 69% abv, on average 77%. Jack sprayed our wrists with newmake, which was very floral, reminding us of lavender. We finally visited the remaining bonded warehouse on site, which only held about 100 casks. Among these, both the eldest (1989) and the youngest (1993) of the old distillery.

Three different shapes for the three stills.
Triple distillation and worm tubs…A special distillery!

Finally, we did a tasting in the Clyde Tasting Room, a very cozy space. Having bought the regular tour (£25), we got to try the newmake spirit and a dram of Tamdhu and Glengoyne, both 12 (both 43%: despite this reduction, Tamdhu was still very viscous and not watery: amazing how it takes reduction so much better than Glengoyne). Unfortunately, no old Rosebank: that one (together with an upgrade to Tamdhu and Glengoyne 15 as well) comes with the upgraded tour, for the upgraded cost of £95. By reading the description on their website, we got the impression that the two tours are actually very similar, meaning the Rosebank dram costs £70: a bit too much for the one dram.

A mini Ian Mcleods’ tasting.

As the tour finished, we quickly walked to the closest station to get the train to Glasgow. There, we had an awesome time, getting to know a bunch of barflies from all over the place (some came from Canada!), and hanging out with whisky pals (including Ally from Cadenhead’s). The dinner at Rishi’s Indian restaurant organised by Roy was fantastic, as well as the drams shared at the Bon Accord. We even met Ralfy, the legend himself! His videos really helped to keep us sane during the pandemic, as well as enhancing our whisky curiosity. What a day, on the train back to Edinburgh we were tired but very happy.

No better way to end the day.

This is the last of our Central belt distillery tours for now, we closed with the most popular among those four. Overall, the visit at Rosebank was fine, but too corporate for our taste. Unfortunately it seems that Ian McLeods is going toward premiumisation of their products, but kudos to them to set a reasonable option to visit the distillery (Brora anyone?) and check this piece of whisky history coming back to life. We just hope that in a few years, when Rosebank single malt will be back on the shelf, it’s going to sell for a reasonable price. With the industry going towards overproduction, however, sometimes we ask ourselves whether reopening these celebrated distilleries doesn’t hide some nostalgia element, of people struggling to let go of the past. But well, we love the current whisky variety, so the more the merrier…. hopefully?

Until the next time, slainte!

Rosebank Distillery Reawakening

Price: £25.00 pp (September 2024), plus £2.50 transaction fee

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Rosebank newmake spirit (63.5%), Glengoyne 12 (43%), Tamdhu (43%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the history of the distillery

Recommended: for historical reasons

Link: https://www.rosebank.com/

#51 Jackton Distillery

Driving West to East Kilbride

TL; DR: Another Friday afternoon, another distillery in the Central belt, this time just outside Glasgow. Jackton started as a gin distillery, but now they are making whisky as well, in a lovely setting.

As we said in our earlier posts, the Central belt of Scotland, the region between and around the two major cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, became a fertile land for new whisky distilleries. After Blackness Bay and Falkirk, it’s time to move closer to Glasgow. In September, we visited Jackton distillery in East Kilbride, in a neighbourhood carrying the same name. This company, whose brand is Raer Whisky, had been on our radar for a couple of years, since we spotted it on the Scotch Whisky Association distillery map. Thanks to our whisky pal Graham, we learned that they’d opened the visitor centre earlier this summer. We jumped on it and booked a visit in late September, taking advantage of a bank holiday weekend.

We left Leith early in the afternoon, right after lunch: not a great move, as we got stuck in traffic, and a wrong turn costed us an extra 20 minutes. Fortunately, we were the only attendees, so they waited for us despite being 10 minutes late. The neighbourhood looked residential at first, until it suddenly turned rural as we reached the distillery: this suggested a new development. The site is very nice and tidy, with mostly new buildings. In the courtyard, across from the distillery, there is a row of low building: we’ll learn later that they are flats ready to accommodate visitors on special occasions.

Late, but here we are!

As we walked in, Colin welcomed us. He usually works in the marketing department but for today he was our guide, as their main tour guide was on holiday (probably the reason why it was just the two of us, they pulled the tour after we booked… very nice of them not to cancel it). Like other new distilleries, they started with gin, but since February 2020 they’ve been producing spirit to become single malt scotch whisky. Since November 2021, they are a fully farm-to-glass distillery, as they are malting on site the barley from their farm in Ayrshire. Unfortunately we couldn’t check out the small drum malting, as it was operational while we were there. They have a modern mill, which can process one ton of malt in 18 minutes, and are currently using Belgravia malt.

Crappy picture of a modern mill.

They mash one ton of barley per day, together with 5000-litre of water. The mashing is slightly more complex than the usual: they have three separate tuns, with the last one for beer. As a matter of fact, they also brew beer, although we didn’t manage to try. They add water at 63.5°C for 30 to 40 minutes, then at one degree Celsius higher, than again a second water at 78°C for 5 minutes before moving it to the lauter tun, where it is filtered to obtain a clear wort. Fermentation happens in one of the six (only five in use) stainless steel 7,000 litre washbacks, and it is quite a long one, seven days!

A wall of washbacks on the way to the stills.

Next phase, distillation: the stills (the whisky pot stills and the gin still) were made by the German company Kothe. For the whisky, the wash still is 5,000-litre big, while the spirit still is only 2,000. From each distillation they collect approximately 350 litre of spirit, a cut from 74.9%abv to 64.9%. In our understanding, their single malt will be marketed as Raer, the same brand with which they currently released a series of blended scotch. The ones released for the UK are all 40% – the Original Blend, and three expressions finished in Amontillado, Oloroso and PX sherry casks. They also have one finished in French red wine, to cement their collaboration with the wine producers Chambord. Bottled at 46%, unfortunately it’s only available overseas. Bottling is done on site as well, using a very manual machine.

Quite a unique setting for the still room.
That’s a wee bottling line.

After production, we went to their lab, where all the samples of all their casks are archived. There, Colin let us nose a few from a variety of casks: not that we could tell much, but what we smelled seemed very promising, looking forward to their release!

Wanna a Raer?

After that, we went back to the bar and shop for the tasting, but we decided to take our samples home. We chose one of each of their available blends, plus a couple of other spirits. We also bought a sample of their Something Blue gin, which has a very good story: it was a brand Colin and his wife came up with, for their wedding (“bring something blue…”). After he started working at Jackton, he brought this to a staff gathering and people liked it. As a result, the company asked them if they could start making it at the distillery, they accepted and here we go: very serendipitous, but also showing what being a good company looks like.

A few days (ehm…actually weeks) later, we tried their blends: the Original Blend is quite inoffensive but drinkable. We liked the sherry finished ones, again very drinkable. Not something overly complicated, but a decent mouthfeel and experience overall. Something Blue was very nice too, quite different from other gins we tasted.

Visiting Jackton was refreshing: we loved the distillery, we loved the tour, and the company seems on a very good track. They have a very interesting process, and a great care for details (the bottle is very cool!)…Now we are just waiting for their first single malt!

Another couple of weeks, for our last Central belt distillery visit (for now): a new but old distillery, you might have guessed it already. Until then, slainte!

Jackton Distillery Tour

Price: £34.00 pp (September 2024), plus £2.04 transaction fee

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 3 spirits of choice among Raer Orginal blended scotch (40%), Rarer Oloroso finish, Amontillado finish, PX finish blended scotches (all 40%), London dry gin (40%), Rose gin (40%), Something blue gin (39.5%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: a tad pricey

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

Link: https://raer.co.uk/

#50 Falkirk distillery

Old stills for a new whisky

TL; DR: On a gloomy Friday afternoon, we visited the Falkirk distillery, guess where? While surrounded by construction sites, the distillery is up and going (well, not when we visited, as it was silent season): one of the most classical distillery layouts among new distilleries we visited so far. The drams we tried reflected this, maybe merit of some old stills being used?

In 2021, on a lazy summer Sunday towards the end of the pandemic, we joined our friend and whisky expert Justine (btw, her new book on the Pattison brothers and their crash is due soon!) on a drive around the Central belt, to visit the site of an old distillery, Kennetpans. After visiting the site, mostly ruins, we did a couple of detours on our way home. One was to check out the construction works at Rosebank distillery, the other one to look at a newly built distillery, the Falkirk distillery indeed! The distillery building was fully up, all white and shiny, with the home brand painted on the side, while some construction was still going on in the car park. This September, over three years later, it was time to go back, and check the distillery out.

The Falkirk whisky got on many whisky people’s radar last year, but for the wrong reason: their first release was priced just south of £200; it surprised many and enraged a few. We don’t know anybody who bought a bottle for themselves, but of course it was sold out, so bottles are probably laying in some collector’s cabinet, or in the storage of some hopeful flipper. That was followed by a more reasonably priced release, named after the distillery founder: George Stewart, for £58. It is still available on their website, and the proceedings are going to Prostate Scotland charity.

Things you can do on a Friday afternoon.

Distillery tours are available through email reservation and only during weekdays, which prompted us to take a few hours off on a Friday afternoon. At the time the tour was £20, now there is an extra option for a three-dram tour instead of two, for £25. The person who answered our email was also the guide for the tour, Zilvinas (or Zi), who has been working at the distillery for a while in different roles.

As we arrived at the distillery, we noticed some construction works around the parking lot. Zi told us later that the plan is for a restaurant/cafè next to the distillery, and for commercial units in the building on the other side of the parking lot.

Zi welcomed us very warmly and was a great host throughout the tour. To start, we watched an introductory video with some words from the founder, and some drone footage in the distillery. We then moved to production, of course starting with the milling: they are equipped with a modern 4-roller Buhler mill, so no Porteous, nor Bobby Mill, which makes sense for a fairly new distillery. They use Lauriet malt, from Boortmalt in Speyside, exclusively unpeated as they are aiming for a typical floral, lowlander style. The malt is automatically processed in the mill, and the resulting grist split is the usual 70/20/10 (grit/husk/flour).

An old mashtun in a new distillery.

Here, we could see the first piece of old equipment: the mashtun. A massive 4.5t semi-lauter tun, it comes from the defunct Caperdonich distillery. The distillery, also called Glen Grant #2, was closed in 2002 and demolished in 2011 to make space for the stills-maker Forsyths (which we visited in 2023). The only new part is the plates underneath the tun, used to obtain a very clear and filtered wort. They use three waters, which they draw from a 90m deep borehole, at increasing temperatures (60°C, 72°C, and finally 85°C). They do two to three mashes per week, but they’re aiming for 10 a week, for a total of about 750,000 litres of alcohol per annum. The wort then goes into one of the six stainless-steel washbacks, each one with a 34,000-litre capacity (but only filled up to 20,000 litres for safety). Fermentation is kickstarted with 75kg of distillers’ yeast and lasts 100 hours.

New washbacks, with an old mashtun on the back.

And then, the other piece of Caperdonich equipment: the two stills (another couple was sold to Belgium’s Owl Distillery). They are magnificent, and it is great that Falkirk gave them new life. The stills are heated with steam from a gas boiler, and they are run quite slowly to increase the reflux in the spirit. During the second distillation they take a cut from 75-76%abv down to 65%, in about 2.50-3 hours. From two mashes they get about 4,200 litres of spirit before dilution to 63.5% abv to fill the casks.

A blast from the past…Caperdonich stills.
…and safe.

They have two warehouses on site, and they are planning for a third. We visited the first one, which was a “semi-dunnage” on two floors: the cask are stored horizontally three high, but the floor was not earth but concrete. They mostly use ex-bourbon American standard barrels from Heaven Hills, less often from Jack Daniels, and sometime other casks too, like Oloroso sherry.

Lot of promising spirit here.

After this, we went to the shop to pick up our drams to go, as we needed to head back home. The two drams were the newmake spirit (63.5%) and the George Stewart expression (48%). We also got an extra dram from a small ex-sherry firkin (about 40 litres), 3.5 years old, at 58-59%. In the shop there was a bit of a mix of stuff on sale: some gift packs with aged spirit (not yet whisky), merchandise, and some random bottles of whisky on sale. We remember spotting a Deanston 12, but also a Laphroaig Select and maybe a Famous Grouse.

Take-home whisky tasting.

A few days later, at home, we tried the drams: overall we found them quite solid, particularly compared to other young distilleries. The newmake spirit was very fruity with notes of pear juice (which we often find in newmake spirit), and a very nice mouthcoating. The George Stewart was very tropical, with bananas, banana bread and honey notes. Overall pleasant, but you could tell it’s very young and the finish was a bit short. Finally, the sherry firkin was obviously a very cask-forward dram, with leather, trifle, pine forest, nuts, Xmas spices, chocolate, oak, and sour cherry. We wouldn’t have said it was that young though.

The spirit we tried is very promising, quite tasty overall. The tour was nice, again Zi was a great and very knowledgeable host…He answered so many questions! However, it felt a bit strange that this year they prolonged the silent season for over two months (at the time of the visit, now we don’t know). Hopefully, things will be on track soon!

Stay tuned for more Central belt action, and until then, slainte!

Private Falkirk Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2024)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: newmake spirit (63.5%), George Stewart single malt (3.5-4yr, 46%)

Target: whisky nerds

Value for money: good

Highlights: Zi was an excellent guide

Recommended: yes

Link: : https://www.falkirkdistillery.com/

#49 Blackness Bay

The craft distillery with a pirate twist

TL; DR: On a lazy mid-September Saturday afternoon, we did a last-minute trip to a distillery we’d only recently found out about: Blackness Bay, near the famous castle.It was a very fun tour, one of a kind, and the distillery is a little gem.

The resurgence of the scotch whisky industry, started towards the end of the 90s after the downturn of the 80s, led to a high number of distilleries being built. It was, and in some extent it still is, a boom of new distilleries in almost every part of Scotland, including the most remote ones like the Shetland islands.

Among the whisky regions, as defined by the SWA, one that saw the biggest increase in the number of distilleries is the Lowlands. Until a few years ago only two malt distilleries were constantly producing, Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie, with a third one seeing periods of alternate fortune, Bladnoch. Nowadays, both Edinburgh and Glasgow could theoretically claim the “region” status as both have more than three malt distilleries each (Bonnington, Holyrood, Port of Leith, and the nearby Glenkinchie the first; Auchentoshan, Glasgow, and Clydeside the latter). Similarly, Fife went from one grain distillery only (Cameronbridge) to one grain and six malt distilleries currently producing, or about to (Kingsbarn, Inchdairnie, Lindores Abbey, Daftmill, Aberargie, Eden Mill). The Central Belt, stretching between Edinburgh and Glasgow, where a lot of the Scottish industrial production is concentrated, is no exception: a lot of new distilleries came online decades after the closure of St Magdalene (1983) and Rosebank (1993, now rebuilt). In this and the next few posts we’ll talk about some of these new distilleries in this area, all visited in September 2024.

View of the castle from the beach.

The first one is by far the smallest one of the bunch, as a matter of fact one of the smallest in Scotland: Blackness Bay distillery. It is quite a novelty, as they started producing whisky only about a year ago (October 2023), while also making rum. Being that new, it doesn’t feature in the SWA map yet nor in the malt whisky yearbook. The distillery is in the middle of the Blackness village, home to the famous Blackness Castle is (we still have to watch Outlander, btw), but not much else. Despite being relatively close to Edinburgh, reaching it by public transports is a nightmare, so we just drove there (Teresa got the short straw that day). We arrived at destination a bit early, just enough time for a stroll along the beach to get some of the refreshing sea breeze.

We could hear Colm tuning his bagpipe…the tour was about to start.

The distillery, a long and low building, is part of a complex including a pub, the Lobster Pot, a big stone house, and a large garden in the middle of the three. The two founders, Colm and Sheena, acquired the whole complex about 15 years ago. More recently they stopped managing the pub/restaurant, so they decided to set up this small distillery, in the shed that used to be a bakery and brewery for the pub. It took two years for the project to complete.

It was the wrong door…Now the tour is really about to start.

Sheena was the one who gathered us, about a dozen people, in the pub’s courtyard. We could already hear Colm playing the bagpipe, that accompanied us in the short walk from the pub backyard to the distillery. That was unexpected! Then, he welcomed us and started telling a very peculiar version of the history of Blackness, all the way from the Roman settlements, the castle, and whisky in Scotland. It was genuinely funny and entertaining, and we all had a good laugh. This happened inside the distillery building, a cozy area with a bar and the shop. While Colm gave us his introduction, we had a sip of their products, starting with the Blackness Bay Flowers of Scotland Pink Rum, then the Jacobite Spice Rum, the White Rum, the 6-month-old oak-aged malt spirit: this is called Virgin Mary, a hint to the future realises of scotch whisky that will be called “Mary Queen of Scotch”, name that caused some dispute with the trademark office.

Smelling what goes into rum.

We soon moved to the production area, located in the same building, all in a big space. They get pre-milled barley from Crisp, in Alloa, so they don’t have a mill (it would be hard to fit one in there). So they proceed directly to mashing, with local tap water first warmed up to 70°C in the kettle, before sparging (done by hand) Fermentation lasts 6 to 7 days, and the wash is then distilled in the wash still, Lucifer, and re-distilled in the spirit still, Lilith. From the second distillation they take a cut from 80%abv to about 63%, in our understanding. Rum production is similar, with molasses brought in, fermented for longer (10 days) and distilled in the same pair of stills twice, or three times for the ones with botanicals, after cleaning the equipment. At this point, we got some new make spirit to try, which tasted very caramelly, with a good mouthfeel a not too much burn despite its high abv.

A wee distillery…and a museum!

We then moved next door to check out the small warehouse where casks are kept: mostly ex-bourbon barrels, some ex-Islay to introduce some smoky element, and some hogshead and quarter casks. At this point the tour was mostly ended, with people slowly moving towards the Lobster Pot pub, while we had a chit-chat with Colm and Sheena. Unfortunately, we didn’t book the tour with the dinner included, so after finding out that there was no free table at the pub, we went back to our van and left.

The smallest, cutest warehouse.

A very interesting visit overall, they are a lovely couple, and their tour was definitely an experience. Their spirit is nice too, but of course we need another couple of years before trying their scotch whisky, so we’ll patiently wait. In the meanwhile, we might pop in again at the Lobster Pot, possibly with a booked table, to enjoy what looked like a very nice pub!

In two weeks, another Central Belt distillery, this time a bit more far away. Until then, slainte!

Blackness Bay Distillery

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2024), £10.00 pp for drivers

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Flowers of Scotland Pink Rum (43%), Jacobite Spiced Rum (43%), White Rum (43%), Virgin Mary aged spirit (50%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: Colm and Sheena are great

Recommended: yes

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

#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!