Category: Tour

#63.1 As north as you can get (on the mainland)

Pulteney: the old one in Wick

 

TL; DR: Another long weekend this summer, this time up to the Northmost North of the Northern Highlands. And we have a special guest, Edoardo again, Gianluigi’s brother and whisky enthusiast. First off, the oldest distillery in the area: Pulteney. A nice tour ending with a decent 4-dram tasting. 

It’s slightly windy at the Ruthven Barracks, but not cold at all. The night is very clear, and if it wasn’t for the midges we could have spent some time outside. Instead, we retread immediately inside Mr Vantastic, accompanied by the distant noise of vehicles driving on the A9. We arrived directly from Glasgow, the two of us and Edoardo, Gianluigi’s brother. He was supposed to land in Edinburgh around lunchtime, and the idea was to go visit Glasgow where he’d never been despite his many travels to Scotland. However, the flight was delayed by over 90 minutes (thanks Easyjet), plus another 40 to wait for the luggage, which meant that by the time him and Gianluigi parked the van in Glasgow, it was already late afternoon. On top of that, it started pouring rain, so not much sightseeing happened that day. Instead, the two brothers sheltered at the Pot Still, waiting for Teresa to come out of the office. After a spicy meal at the Rosa’s Thai, we left towards the destination for the long weekend: the Northern Highlands.

As we were saying, we stopped for the night at the Ruthven Barracks car park, near Kingussie. It is slightly uneven and there are no facilities, so it was ok for one night, but probably next time we’ll search for an alternative spot. The next day we had an early start anyway: the 3-hour drive was interrupted only by a 15-minute break in Aviemore for coffee and roll. We had an appointment at a very old and popular distillery, that somehow, we never came across during our trips: Pulteney, in Wick. It belongs to Inver House, together with Balblair, Speyburn (both visited), Knockdhu and Balmenach (both closed to visitors, so naye). The single malt, Old Pulteney, is famous for being a coastal dram and their basic expressions are very prevalent in supermarkets (Harbour and 12y, both 40%abv).

  • A long drive to get here, but totally worth it.

Pulteney distillery will turn 200 next year and is currently stretching the silent season to allow some renovations in time for the celebrations. In the mid-1880s Alfred Barnard approached it, and the Royal Bourgh of Wick, from the north, travelling along the rugged coast, on his way south after spending some time on Orkney. Instead, we arrived from the south, on the smooth A99: things must have changed quite a bit in the last 140 years. The distillery is in the southern part of the village, before the Wick River, and between the main road and the coast. We parked Mr Vantastic near the Pulteney community centre, just next door. You can tell the old from the new buildings around, as the former are all blackened by the Baudoinia fungus, digesting away the alcohol in the “angels’ share” (i.e. evaporating). We got in a few minutes earlier to check the shop before our tour started: the front part is very small, but in the back, they have a bigger lounge decorated with memorabilia, and a spacious but cosy tasting room. We chose the From the Source tour (£40.00pp), which has an improved tasting compared to A Taste of Old Pulteney (£20.00pp, 2 drams), but not as expensive as the Flagship Experience (£125.00pp!!!, 6 drams).

  • Reading about the history of the distillery before the tour.

Our guide was Tim, who used to work in Glasgow before going back to his native Wick during the pandemic, and it was a small tour: the three of us and another person. Tim started with the usual history of the distillery – founded in 1826, initially was only accessible by the sea, and it was acquired by John Dewar & Sons in 1924, which in turn joined the Distillery Company Limited (DCL, Diageo’s precursor) in 1925. After prohibition started in Wick in 1922, the distillery was closed in 1930 and reopened in 1951, four years after prohibition was abolished. The distillery than went to Hiram Walker’s (1954), Allied Distillers (1961) and finally to Inver House (1995). During the Hiram Walker period, Pulteney malt was a component of Ballantine’s blended Scotch.

  • A classic Porteus mill.

The malting floor, dismissed decades ago, was above the visitor centre, while the cooperage used to be in one of the visitor rooms. Nowadays they bring in malted barley from Inverness, in 30ton weekly batches. They have a bright red Porteus mill for grinding the malt, and water comes from Loch Hempriggs (to the south of Wick) in a stream system engineered by Telford, that we’d see later. Each mash is done with 5 tons of grist, in a copper-lidded mashtun, which was replaced about 20 years ago. They do four rounds of water at increasing temperatures (60° to 90°C), with the last two ready for the next mash. The (cloudy) mash is then pumped into one of the seven washbacks, while the draff is sent away for cattle feed. Fermentation lasts 60 hours normally, 100 for the batches going over the weekend, and is triggered by 25 kg of distiller’s yeast which is added to the 23,500 litres of wort. At the end of the process, they get an approximately 8.5% abv wash, which is then sent to the wash still.

  • The mashtun from above.

They have two stills: the wash still has the top clearly cut off (it was too tall for the building) and has a massive bulge in the middle, much bigger than usual; and the spirit still lyne arm is almost entangled – definitely a unique pair of stills. Each still is equipped with a stainless-steel squared worm tub condenser, with a 110m copper pipe inside, placed outside the still room. In the second distillation the foreshots usually last 16 minutes and the first cut is taken depending on the temperature, while the second is taken at 68%.

  • The most unusual wash still…
  • …and a slightly less unusual spirit still. Look at that lyne arm!

After the still room, we went back outside in the courtyard, and then into the filling store: they cask onsite but also fill tankers, in particular for the distillate that is sold to third parties, mostly for blends (still Ballantine’s? The Inver House blend is the Hanky Bannister though). After checking out the biomass boiler, we visited the warehouses: 10,000 casks are stored on their side in rows 3 high in a warehouse (but not dunnage, as the floor is concrete), while other 14,000 are in the other buildings, mostly racked. However, they are in the process of building another four warehouses, to accommodate for Pulteney production of about 1.2 million litres of alcohol per year. The mostly fill ex-bourbon casks from Jim Beam, but inside the warehouse we spotted other casks too, sherry in particular.

  • Terror in the warehouse.

It was time for the tasting, in a very cosy and wide room. We started with the classic Old Pulteney 12 (40%), mostly matured in refill ex-bourbon cask. It’s a very decent malt, possibly a bit thin. We can’t just help wonder how increasing the abv to 43% or 46%, and not chill-filtering it, would improve it. It was followed by the 15y and the 18y, both bottled at 46% (yay!), and both with a similar double-maturation (or finishing?) concept: they spend 13 and 14 years in ex-bourbon casks, and they are then re-racked into Oloroso sherry casks. They’re solid and tasty drams, benefiting from the saltiness of the spirit and the dark fruitness (is this a thing?) of the cask finish. Finally, our last dram was supposed to be the distillery exclusive (as it was advertised on the website, see below for the specs), but apparently they’d finished their “tasting stock” (whatever that means in corporate BS language, they still had many bottles in the shop), so instead they gave us the second expression of their Coastal Series, matured 5-6 years in ex-bourbon and then 5-6 years in Ruby Port seasoned cask. Not bad, but a tad too sweet.

  • Nice display for the tasting.

When Teresa and Edoardo finished their drams, we went back to the shop and quickly left. Overall, the distillery was super interesting, the tour was fine, the tasting was decent, and Tim was a knowledgeable guide. Being in such a remote place (about 5hr driving from the Central Belt) you’d think they could do something a bit more special, but it was along the lines of the Balblair tour we did back in 2023. So, unless we’ll be in the area for their 200th anniversary, we’ll hardly go back…Never say never, though.

Next up a much much nerdier experience, so stay tuned! Until then, slàinte!

Pulteney ‘From The Source’ Tour

Price: £40.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 4 drams, Old Pulteney 12 (40%), 15 (46%), 18 (46%) and Coastal Series Port cask matured (46%), plus a complimentary glencairn

Distillery exclusive: D.E. French Cask matured (NAS, 53%, £85.00); Distillery Hand Bottling ex-Sherry cask (13y, 2010-2024, 62.5%, £130.00); Distillery Hand Bottling ex-Bourbon cask (18y, 2006-2025, 58.4%, £150.00)

Highlights: the shape of the stills and the site in general

Target: whisky curious, the tasting was a bit too basic for the enthusiasts

Value for money: ok

Recommended: for Old Pulteney fans

Link: https://oldpulteney.com/visit-pulteney-distillery/

#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 SpeycationTM), 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 1st and refill ex-bourbon casks, with a touch of virgin American oak barrels. The Original starts its journey in 1st 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/

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

A rainy day in the south of Scotland

 

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

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

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

  • Hard to miss it.

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

  • Office…no, more of an art studio.

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

  • The spirit still…

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

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

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

  • The mashing & fermenting equipment is ready!

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

  • Always happy when in a distillery.

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

  • Some of the drams tried at the distillery shop.

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

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

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

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

#60.5 Another Spirit of Speyside

About to be re-awakened:
Dallas Dhu

 

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

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

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

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

  • Dallas Dhu distillery under a finally blue sky.

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

  • Not a bad spot for the night!

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

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

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

  • The drams we had under the stars.

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

  • The old malting floor.

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

  • A perfect mashtun.
  • A well maintained washback.

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

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

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

  • Filling store
  • A celebratory dram.

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

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

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

Price: £15.00 pp (+ SoS fees)

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

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

Target: whisky and history geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the whole distillery is absolutely stunning

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.4 Another Spirit of Speyside

Another distillery visit in Dufftown: Glendullan

 

TL; DR: A visit to another massive Diageo distillery, this time in the well-known village of Dufftown. Glendullan produces some very light spirit, in contrast to the very industrial-looking production plant from the 1960s-70s. A very good tour (followed by an again small tasting at the end), but the highlight of the day was definitely the Whisky Fair: a cosy mini-festival in the middle of Dufftown. Unmissable! 

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

The morning was cloudy, wet, under a dark and overcast sky. Because we had parked next to other vans, we quickly left and postponed breakfast for later, to avoid disturbing our neighbours. The night before, after dinner, we’d attended “Drams under the Stars”, a Murray&McDavid event at a bothy near Dufftown, but we will write about this in the next post, where it will become clear why. Back to our morning, we left the car park and went to Dufftown for a wee bite. Soon after we tried to check in at the Parkmore Campsite. The idea was to drop the van there and just walk back to Dufftown. Our spot was still occupied, so we drove instead: maybe for the best, as this saved us from being soaking wet, since in the meanwhile a heavy rain started.

  • Not so charming outside.

Our first event was the distillery visit at Glendullan. Similar to Inchgower, the event was called “Glendullan through the Decades”. The distillery is along the river Fiddich, and it is another one of the big producing plants owned by Diageo. We walked past it during our walk around the “9” distilleries of the village, back in December 2019. Their single malt is sold under the Singleton label (brand name originally assigned to Auchroisk, because it was too difficult to pronounce), together with the neighbouring Dufftown distillery (the only one in town we haven’t visited yet) and Glen Ord, in the Highlands. These three single malts, however, are destined to different markets: Glen Ord to Asia, Dufftown to UK and Europe, and Glendullan to America and travel retail.

As we got off the van we were “welcomed” by a very pungent smell, we found out later that it is a bio-energy plant located just next to the distillery. Fortunately, the staff let us in right away: they were Izac, coming for help from Dalwhinnie, Jackie, the distillery manager, and Kirsty, the apprentice (who we’d already met when she was a tour guide at Glen Grant). We sat at the table while the staff introduced themselves and the distillery. Glendullan was founded in 1897 and went under renovation in 1962, but only 10 years later a new site was built. The two sites ran together until the mid-80s, when the old one was shut off (the building is still there though), while in-house malting stopped even earlier, in 1970. At that point, they gave us the first dram: a Singleton Glendullan from the Diageo Special Release 2021 (19y, 54.6% abv) matured in bourbon cask but then finished in American oak casks, seasoned with Cognac (in our understanding different to casks used for Cognac maturation).

  • All ready to start the visit.

As we got into production, we could clearly see how the distillery was built for a big production – a typical 1960s-70s feeling to it, with a big window in the still room. They get the malt from Buckie, now mostly Lauriet variety, in 28ton deliveries. The mashtun, replaced in 2010, gets filled with 12.4ton of grits, which is milled by a Porteus mill with the usual husk/grit/flour ratio (20/70/10). They do three mashes per day, using one water only, but with continuous sparging, starting at 64°C. They aim for a clear wort, but not by filtering, just by letting it rest. Fermentation is carried out in one of the 10 washbacks, eight wooden and two stainless steel (which are outside), for 75 hours.

  • Wooden washbacks.

Finally, distillation happens in one of the three pairs of stills – 3.5-4 hours for the first run, while for the second distillation they usually start collecting the spirit after 30 minutes of foreshots, for again 3.5-4 hours. Apparently, they don’t have specific cut points, but the average abv of the distillate is about 68.7%, with a green and grassy character.

  • Loving a still room with big windows.

There is no filling store at the distillery, as all the spirit is filled into tankers and sent to be put in casks elsewhere, mostly (80-90%) in ex-bourbon barrels, the remaining in sherry casks. However, there is a small warehouse with the capacity for about 4,000 casks, which we didn’t visit. Instead, we headed back to the office to continue with the tasting. The second dram was a 1989 cask sample from a (if we recall correctly) hogshead (34y, 52.3%), followed by a 1993 sample again from a very active hogshead (31y, diluted to 49.8%) and finally a 2003 matured in a PX cask, very dark and chocolaty (21y, 56.0%). Fortunately, this time the measures were a bit more generous, around 15ml each (maybe some a bit more, even), but four drams for a £100 tour and tasting is still quite stingy. To their credit, these drams were truly delicious, and we could see how some effort was put into coming up with this line-up. The contrast with the more meaty and heavy spirit from Inchgower was quite obvious, as Glendullan was light and delicate to our palate, even the one in the PX cask. In general, the tour was another good one, it was great to get to know the staff, get a glimpse of their knowledge, and witness their enthusiasm for making whisky!

  • A trio of wee, excellent drams.

Once we left the distillery, we drove again to the campsite, this time we left the van there and, after a quick meal, we left on foot to get back to Dufftown. The waterproof gear ready to be deployed, too. We thought it would take more, but thanks to a shortcut into the woods (from which we had a great view of Glendullan distillery) it only took 25 minutes to walk to the Mortlach Memorial Hall, where the Whisky Fair was about to start (ticket was £30pp + SoS fees, including a glass and a voucher for a hot beverage and some food). This was our second year to this event, a sort of small festival, with the money collected for charity. As we arrived, we spotted the van of our pals Megan and Woody of Woodrow’s of Edinburgh parked in front of the hall: some un-pishy drams were about to be tasted! Overall, it’s a great and cosy event, and it was great to catch up with so many whisky pals, in particular with Sue and Gordon, who are among the organisers.

  • Happy to be at the Whisky Fair…
  • …with whisky friends!

After the fair, we slowly walked back to the campsite, definitely very happy. Unfortunately our evening was much colder than prevented, and we could barely cook dinner on a disposable grill: two massive super greasy but delicious burgers (form Hellbent, some rugby connections as well). We soon went to bed, tired but happy.

Stay tuned our final Spirit of Speyside post! Until next week, slainte!

Glendullan Through the Decades Distillery Tour (Spirit of Speyside 2025)

Price: £100.00 pp (+ SoS fee)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 4 drams, Glendullan 19y (54.6%), Diageo Special Release 2021; cask sample 1989 (34y, 52.3%, refill cask); and 1993 (31y, 49.8%, hogshead cask-very active), cask samples 2003 (21, 56.0%, Pedro Ximenez sherry cask)

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: not great

Highlights: the tasting was small but good

Recommended: only if you’re a massive Singleton fan

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.3 Another Spirit of Speyside

A workhorse in Buckie: Inchgower distillery

 

TL; DR: Another festival day, with a morning visit to another Diageo’s workhorse, Inchgower in Buckie. The distillery tour was good but, with only four tiny drams at the end, we cannot say it was good value for money. We then continued the day with a relaxing walk in Spey Bay and an independent bottlers’ tasting in Dufftown. 

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

On the seafront near Portgordon, where we slept, the morning was cosy and sunny. We felt quite rested, thanks to the quietness of the place: only a few dog walkers showed up while we had a small breakfast and got ready for the day. Disappointingly, we didn’t spot any seals…Hopefully next time. Anyway, we were soon on our way to Buckie, another village on the Moray coast, on a hunt for a coffee and a scone. It took us some time to find a place open early, but then we landed at Pozzi on High Street.

The reason why we needed something open early was that we had to be at Inchgower distillery at 10 am, for our first whisky activity (or “experience”, if you want more exclusivity). The distillery is just outside Buckie, on the A98, the road that stretches from Fochabers all the way to Fraserburgh. The distillery sits on a big complex, with a lot of warehouses around (we’ll learn later that they can hold up to 36,000 casks). As we drove to the visitors parking lot, we noticed the numerous houses (some of which still owned by Diageo) originally built for the workers: it was obvious which one was the distillery manager’s. We also noticed the stonework, quite dark, possibly because of the Baudoinia fungus, that digests the alcohol in the air.

  • Cute distillery cottages.

We were really tight with time, so when we entered the offices, most of the other visitors were already seated around a large table, including our pals John and Jeeves. The staff offered us a coffee, which is always a nice touch. We said “office” and not “visitor centre” because this distillery doesn’t have one, as it is generally closed to the public. They are owned by Diageo, and needless to say, they are one of their hidden workhorses, and other than their Flora and Fauna release, we only know it thanks to independent bottlers.

As the last people came in, we started our visit with the distillery manager, Gary, who introduced himself. He is fairly new, as he came in a couple of years ago when the distillery was reopened, after some years of refurbishment. The distillery was founded in 1871, using the equipment from another one, Tochineal distillery. The first notable event we were told of is the acquisition of the distillery by Buckie council in 1936 after the founders, Alexander Wilson & Co, went bankrupt. It was then bought by Arthur Bell & Sons in 1938, and in 1966 it doubled capacity. Guinness took over Bell’s in 1985, and eventually the company became Diageo.

After this introduction, Gary and his team walked us outside, and because it was a decent day (cloudy but not rainy, yet), we climbed the malt bins stairs to have almost an aerial visual of the big distillery. The three silos can contain up to 60 tons of malt, enough for nine days of production.

  • Yes, we climbed those stairs…
  • …definitely worth it.

We then moved inside the production building, where we saw a Bobby mill, according to them one of the oldest around (although they couldn’t tell us a precise date). The malt currently used is Diablo, for a fully unpeated production. The 8.36 tons leuter mashtun is one of those big stainless-steel ones, where mashing is done with the usual three waters at increasing temperature, for about 7-7.5 hours. Fermentation, activated by liquid distiller’s yeast, usually lasts about 46-48 hours, but can range from 40 to 100 (they work five days, so the longer ones are the ones going over the weekend). All this happens in wooden washbacks that can contain 37,000 litres.

  • Hello, Bobby.

They have two wash stills and two spirit stills, and from the latter they take a large spirit’s cut (the “heart”) from 72% to 55%. As usual, they discard the foreshots (or “head”) coming before, and the feints (or “tail”) coming after, and they mix it together with the low wines from the first distillation, to eventually redistill it. The newmake spirit is usually around 65-68% abv, and it is filled in tankers and sent to one of Diageo’s “casking” facilities.

  • A good looking pair.

After production, we visited one of the warehouses, located in front of the row of houses for the tasting. The drams were on top of four casks lined up in front of us. We obviously started with the Flora and Fauna 14y (43%), as it is their flagship dram. The other three were cask samples: a 15y (vintage 2009, 56.6%) from an ex-bourbon cask, a more interesting version of the 14y we could say. The other two were a 35y (from 1989, 44.1%) from a refill cask, and a 28y (from 1996, 53.7%) from a sherry cask, which was obvious by looking at the colour. It was a good showcase of the distillery’s malt, where we could appreciate the heavy and meaty character of this whisky, which worked well with both cask types. At that point the tour was finished, we went back to the offices to pick up our bags and our gifts (one Cardhu branded highball glass and one cookie stamp each…no comment) and leave.

  • A great space for a tasting.
  • Nice to bump into whisky friends!

We had a few hours before the next event, so we drove to Spey Bay to check out the Scottish Dolphin Centre (spoiler: zero spotted dolphins). There, we had a nice walk around the mouth of the river Spey, and a tasty soup at the cafè/visitor centre.

  • An icon of Speyside.

After that, we drove to Dufftown, as our next event was starting soon. It was the Independent Scotch tasting, hosted by David Stirk (for £30pp + Spirit of Speyside fee), at the Whisky Capital Inn: a great whisky bar and restaurant (and hotel as well) right in the centre of the small town. The tasting went through a bit of history as well, so we started with an old blend. It made sense, as if you think of it, blenders used to be the original “indy bottlers”. The blend was an Italian import D&L Deluxe Special Reserve (not telling much), bottled at 40% by a company called Block Grey & Block. Then, we moved on to a Berry Bros & Rudd Glen Elgin (2008, 53.4%, hogshead), followed by a Stirk Brothers Linkwood (2010, 13y, 50.0%) and a James Eadie Strathmill (2011, 13y, 55.6%, finished for 20 months in a 1st fill Malaga hogshead). Finally, a Little Brown Dog Highland Park (2014, 10y, 60.1%, from a random barrique), for the usual peated ending. Overall an interesting line-up, showcasing different cask types. After the tasting, we stayed at the Whisky Capital Inn for a delicious venison burger, before heading off.

  • Independent Scotch tasting – a varied line-up.

Another good whisky day, with some good drams and some great banter! Unfortunately, the Inchgower tour, while very interesting and hosted by enthusiastic and passionate staff, was not good value for money: for £100, we expected at least 6 drams instead of four (although well aged, definitely better than the Johnny Walker that was served in previous Diageo’s Spirit of Speyside tours). What was even more awkward was the size of the drams: when Teresa filled her driver’s pack, we realised some of the drams filled less than a half of a 20ml sample bottle. Not very well played from Diageo.

Anyway, stay tuned for more Spirit of Speyside action! Until next week, slainte!

Inchgower Through the Decades Distillery Tour (Spirit of Speyside 2025)

Price: £100.00 pp + SoS transaction fee

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 4 drams, Inchgower “Flora and Fauna” 14y (43%); cask samples 2009 (15, 56.6%, ex-bourbon cask; cask sample 1989 (35y, 44.1%, refill cask); and 1996 (28y, 53.7%, sherry cask)

Target: whisky geeks (and people trying to visit as many distilleries as possible)

Value for money: not great

Highlights: the climb to the malt silos

Recommended: only if you’re a massive Inchgower fan

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.1 Another Spirit of Speyside

Discovering the Cabrach

 

TL; DR: And…We’re back in Speyside, to celebrate whisky at the Spirit of Speyside! This year we started off with a new distillery, located in the very remote namesake area: the Cabrach! A beautiful project by great people in a stunning area, definitely one to look out for when they’ll release a single malt, in a few years. 

Like the past two years (2023 and 2024), the time came for the Spirit of Speyside festival: a great opportunity to visit distilleries usually closed to public. Tickets went on sale in early February. It was the usual scrum, and at the check out the tickets for two events disappeared from our cart: the visits to Cabrach and Aultmore distilleries. We also missed out on Dalmunach and Braeval, but for another reason: Chivas Brothers used the very cheeky (not to say “shitty”) approach to couple each of them with another distillery tour (respectively Aberlour and Glenlivet, that we already visited twice, both) and put the price at an insane £200. Silly. But anyway, thanks to our friend Lenka, we understood that Cabrach could organise extra tours – she put us in contact with Euan, the distiller, and the tour happened indeed!

We left on Thursday morning, looked like we had a cloudy day ahead. Gianluigi was back from a conference in Rome the night before, so we didn’t have much time to prepare. However, Mr Vantastic is born ready, so in the morning we showered and quickly left Leith, direction Speyside. On the way, we stopped only for a coffee and a delicious bacon roll at the Glamis Corner Shop (in Glamis, recommended!), after we realised that Flour (in Meigle) was not open yet. The rest of the drive was uneventful, we left the main road to Aberdeen near Fettercairn (we crossed the village), and we stopped for a sandwich just before arriving at the Cabrach. We also had a quite hilarious small accident, but you’ll have to ask Teresa about that.

  • A typical cold spring day in Speyside…

Our tour was scheduled at 1pm, we arrived a bit early, so we parked at the Cabrach community hall, and we walked to the distillery. The landscape is very relaxing, some crops, hills and woodlands. Definitely a place to consider if you want to escape chaos. At the distillery, John, one of the operators, welcomed us and alerted Euan, who introduced himself and started the tour. He’d previously worked at the Dornoch Distillery, with the Thompson Bros, and before that at the Scotch Whisky Experience (hence the connection with our friend Lenka).

  • Tidy, cute distillery, the Cabrach.

The distillery is community owned, by the Cabrach Trust. This was set up by Grant Gordon in 2013, with the objective to revive the area and preserve its cultural heritage. At the turn of the 20th century about 1,200 people lived there, while now not even 100. WWI played an important role in the depopulation, but these trends are common to rural areas throughout Europe. Whisky was a part of Cabrach cultural heritage, as the area was famous for its illicitly distilled whisky. Now they hope to bring back people and interest, and the distillery is only a part of a bigger project: a cafè and a museum should be added in the coming years, together with a visitor centre. All of these will be fitted in the unused buildings on the site – the distillery only takes part of the original square farm built in 1849. The only intervention they had to do is to increase the height of the roof, but with wood, as the buildings are B-listed. They are also planning to use the barley grown in the big field in front of the distillery as main source for their malt, so to become (almost) a grain-to-glass distillery. At the moment they only use it for the 20% of their production (the variety was Lauriet first, now Firefox, bur Bere is in the cards as well). The malt is lightly peated (12 phenols part per million) by the Glen Esk maltings.

  • Space for future museum, cafe and visitor centre…Exciting!

The production area is very self-contained, on one of the sides of the square: only the mill (a modern AR2000) and the boiler are located in another building, with pipes going underneath. The malt silos can hold 17 tons each, but now they are only filled to 13 tons. The mill returns a grist with the very common 20/70/10 split of husks/grit/flour, but they’re looking to increase the latter. They use three waters for their mashing (in a half-ton mashtun), at increasing temperatures (65, 75 and 85°C), aiming for a clear wort.

  • Pipes under the floor, that’s new.

Fermentation is at least 160 hours, but it can go for up to a week in one of the four wooden washbacks. They allowed us to climb a ladder to have a peek inside one, nice! Distillation is where things get very interesting: first, they have two stills (wash- and spirit still) with worm tubs outside the building. Cuts are still in the experimental phase, but they were taking a large one (a spread of about 15% abv between the two, if we recall correctly).

  • Checking the fermentation.
  • The classic picture.

However, they have a third “special” still, commissioned to imitate the illicit stills that were so popular in the area. In our understanding it can be used as wash still, a spirit still or independently to run both distillations. Very intriguing project, which saw the collaboration with Alan Winchester, former distiller at Glenlivet and expert on illicit distilling.

  • The experimental side of the distillery.

Finally, we visited the filling station and the cute, very small dunnage warehouse, with a capacity of only a few dozen casks. There, Euan gave us a nip of the newmake spirit to try: very oily, lots of caramel and hazelnut.

  • Much more whisky to come in this wee warehouse.

The tour ended there, and we thanked Euan for showing us around, and the flexibility he and the management showed, when they realised that many people were left out at the ticket sale (such flexibility is not easy to find in the whisky hospitality sector, unfortunately). So kudos to the Cabrach, we’re looking forward to their whisky!

Stay tuned for more Spirit of Speyside action! Until the next week, slainte!

Cabrach Private Tour

Price: £30.00 pp (May 2025) + £4.80 fee (per transaction) [now the tour is £25 pp, offered every Friday]

Duration: 50min

Tasting: a sip of the newmake spirit (70%) [the current tour offers a dram of the Feering “Early Harvest” Blended malt, NAS, 46%]

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the community project and the experimental still

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.thecabrach.com/

#58 A trip to the West

Hopping to Arran from Campbeltown

 

TL; DR: I (Gianluigi) went away on a weekend to the West of Scotland with Roberto, one of my best pals. It was a great day in Campbeltown, where we paid a visit to Springbank, before indulging in a couple of warehouse tastings. Then we went to Arran, where we climbed Goatfell and visited the island (but not the distilleries). 

The year 2024 was full of great whisky experiences and travels: from Raasay to Speyside, from Islay (twice) to the Central Belt, and further down to Yorkshire…And a bit more down to Australia. It was also the year when one of us, namely Gianluigi, turned 40, which we celebrated with some great drams. One of his best pals Roberto turned 40 as well. Not only pals and uni mates, they also played together in bands for almost 10 years: hand and glove.

To celebrate us getting old (from now on is Gianluigi writing), Roberto decided to come to Scotland for a weekend, and I had the task to choose some whisky experiences to do together. We had to aim for something opened over the weekend, at least on the Saturday. Because of this, we excluded the Ardnamurchan peninsula, and also Skye and the North Highlands, a bit out of reach. Speyside could have been nice if more distilleries had options catered to whisky geeks (excluding Glen Moray and Glenallachie, but Teresa and I visited them a number of times already). After some thinking, the answer became obvious: Campbeltown! Easy (ish) to reach, many options to choose from on the Saturday. Teresa and I were there last year, but for the Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting, which is always different. We haven’t stepped into Springbank or another of the distilleries since 2021, so it really fit.

When the time came, I picked up Roberto at the airport on a cloudy day, and we started driving westwards. With a slight detour, I could show him some of the monuments: the Kelpies, the Stirling Castle, the Wallace monument, Deanston distillery (we didn’t stop though). By then, it had turned into a very nice and sunny day. We drove up north to Callander, and approached Loch Lomond from the north, with glimpses of Highlands along the way. Once in Tarbet, we continued to Arrochar and had our first stop for a refreshment under the sun at the Fyne Ales Brewery. Dinner was booked at the George Hotel, in Inveraray, so we could chat with our pal Ivan, always a pleasure. We both had a proper venison burger for dinner, delicious! We then drove another couple of hours to find the spot we had chosen to sleep, just past Tarbert in the Kintyre peninsula.

  • Pre-dinner refreshments.

The day after was an early start: we had to be in Campbeltown by 9, so to have enough time to drop Mr Vantastic at the hotel (there are no campsites in town, so we took the comfortable way) and have a quick breakfast with a bacon roll and a coffee. Our first whisky activity of the day was before 10 (probably the only one in the whisky hospitality): the Springbank Tour. When we got at the distillery, around 9.40, there was already a line to get into the shop…Cage bottles we assumed? Our tour guide Finlay said they are used now to people queueing, eager to make a few bucks on auction sites. Hey ho. The tour started a few minutes earlier, as all the participants were already there: it was a nice tour, very informative, and Finlay only made it better with some jokes here and there. It wasn’t the first distillery Roberto had visited, as in previous trips we’d visited Lindores Abbey and Highland Park together, but it was the best one to showcase whisky making. He was particularly excited to see the malting floor in use (although not a unique feature in Scotland),as  he’d never seen the barley being malted before.

  • Always beautiful.
  • Two guys and three stills.

The tour went a bit long, so we took our drams as driver samples, and we ran to our next appointment: the Cadenhead’s Warehouse tasting. It was only the two of us for the morning session at 11, and our guide was an old acquaintance: Aly! It couldn’t have been better! He walked us through some of the drams, most really stunning, including an incredible Glen Moray from a bourbon barrel, and a peated Bunnahabhain from a refill butt, probably a Fino or a Manzanilla. Fortunately, we had empty sample bottles with us, that we used to store most of our drams…It was going to be a long day! As the tasting ended, an extra half hour late, Aly walked us to the Cadenhead’s tasting room, where we had the seventh drams (again put into sample bottles) and a delicious mushroom soup.

  • Thanks Aly!

We went for a walk around the harbour, as it was again a magnificent day, but we felt that one soup was not enough, so we complemented the lunch with a jacked potato and a plate of nachos at the Bluebell Cafè. During the walk, we also went past Glen Scotia distillery – I felt a bit bad that we could not make it to such a great distillery, but unfortunately the timing of the tours was not good for us. 

It finally came the time for our last event of the day: the Kilkerran Warehouse tasting. It was the first time for me as well, so I was very curious. We were not alone this time, as a group of Dutch men were attending the tasting too. We started with a triple distilled whisky, then a couple of ex-bourbon cask expressions (the first one a 19y!), followed by a sherry and a Port wine matured couple, to finish with, predictably, a heavily peated one. That was quite a great exploration of Kilkerran, which is definitely one of my favourite ones. A good thing is that only half bottles are on sale, which if you ask me, is a more than enough quantity to enjoy such drams. After the tasting, we had an extra dram at the Washback bar (couldn’t leave without sipping a Longrow 18, another favourite!) and then we went to properly check in to the hotel. Soon though, we walked back to the Ardshiel Hotel for dinner, where we had a yummy fish and chips. 

  • That looks promising.

In the morning, we woke up surprisingly well (thanks, sample bottles!), and after a shower and a massive full Scottish breakfast at the hotel, we left. I didn’t want to make the weekend only about whisky, I had something else in mind for the day. We drove along the east coast of Kintyre, to reach the little pier of Claonaig. From there, we sailed to on the Isle of Arran! It’s been a while since Teresa and I were there, our first and only time was in November 2019…Remember the time before the pandemic? We haven’t been back since, reason why Teresa was particularly jealous of this trip! The ferry cross was only about half hour, before arriving at the pier in Lochranza. As we were there, we couldn’t avoid a quick stop at the distillery…Could we? We stopped only for coffee and a (delicious) scone however, and a quick snoop of the shop. After that, we drove to the parking lot near Brodick, for the challenge of the day: climb Goatfell, the highest peak of the island. And it was a challenge indeed, in particular the last bit. It took us almost 2 hours through the almost 6km of the shortest path. Once at the top, we celebrated with a micro dram of a Cadenhead’s Arran whisky Teresa had gifted me a while ago, truly delicious.

  • Climbing Goatfell, that was hard!
  • …But totally worth it.

On our way back, we decided to take the longer path through Glen Rosa…We thought it would have been slightly longer, but it ended up being almost 11 km! During the walk we crossed path with many runners on a 2-day ultra marathon, we felt a bit sorry for them, as THAT was definitely a challenge. Once at the parking lot, we put our feet in the sea for a brief moment (in my case, very brief, as it was freezing), before getting some food at a nearby golf club restaurant. We drove west to find a spot, so we could enjoy the sunset with a final dram, before falling asleep to the sound of the sea…So poetic.

The Monday was warm and sunny, we visited the south of Arran. We started with Machrie Moor, the neolithic site with stone circles and standing stones, where we felt a bit like inside Age of Empires 1 (IYKYK). Then we drove along the coast, aiming for a coffee at Lagg distillery, but we found out it is closed on Mondays. We kept driving and stopped at the Forest of the Falls, to enjoy a coffee and a cake under the warm sun. We then walked along the beach near Kildonan Castle, and we finally drove to Brodick to catch our ferry to Troon, from which we slowly drove back to Leith.

  • It’s not just all about whisky.

What a great weekend that was, we were both super happy at the end of it! For Roberto, Saturday was the first time spending such a whisky-focused day, and although he’s not a geek like us, he loved it. Other than the great appreciation for Springbank distillery, he liked the comparison between the two warehouse tastings. He realised how much independent bottlers can offers, while conversely it was also great to follow the “journey” of Kilkerran in different casks and at different ages. It’s always interesting to see things through the eyes of someone not so focused on whisky like us, it brought some different perspectives. We should do that more often!

Until next time, slainte!

Springbank Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (April 2025)

Duration: 1hr (more like 1hr 15min)

Tasting: 1 dram (choice between Springbank 10, Hazelburn 10 and Longrow) and a 5cl to take home

Distillery exclusives: cage bottlings

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the whisky and the friendly staff

Recommended: yes!

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/

Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Price: £45.00 pp (April 2025)

Duration: 1hr (more like 1hr 3omin)

Tasting: 6 drams from the cask + 1 dram at the Cadenhead’s Tasting Room

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/product/cadenheads-warehouse-tasting/

Kilkerran Warehouse Tasting

Price: £40.00 pp (April 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 6 drams from the cask

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: great

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!!

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/product/kilkerran-warehouse-tasting/

#56.5 Dramming Down Under

A hidden gem in Southern Australia: Fleurieu

 

TL; DR: The drive on the Great Ocean Road was really great, plenty of beautiful landscapes and some nice wildlife. Before getting to Adelaide though, we did one last stop in Goolwa, to visit Fleurieu distillery. Another craft family business, we learned how they went from brewing to distilling, and had a taste of their amazing malts. 

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

This post starts with us on the road again, specifically on the Great Ocean Road, which stretches from Melbourne to Warrnambool. We did a few stops along the way: Lorne, for breakfast at a nice café and art gallery called QDOS, the Kennett River Koala Walk (where, despite the name, we almost didn’t see a koala on a tree), the stunning Cape Otway lighthouse, the famous 12 Apostoles, and past Port Campbell, for a quick swim in the Southern Ocean before stopping in Portland for the night.

  • Looking for koalas, unsuccessfully.

The next day the weather was not great, so we kept driving along the coast and visited a few other villages (Beachport, Robe, Meningie) before crossing the river Murray at Wellington, with the small boat watched by a flock of resting pelicans. Pelicans were not the first encounter of the day, as during the drive an emu and a kangaroo crossed the road! After the very short crossing, we drove through Langhorne Creek and Currency Creek wine regions (not stopping this time), straight to Goolwa, just about one hour away from Adelaide, on the Fleurieu Peninsula. This is a nice wee town, next to the estuary of the Murray river.

  • Between train tracks and the river: Fleurieu distillery.

The next morning we went for a run (the only one we did together in Australia), first along the river and then to the beach, and back to the motel. We were excited, because we had an appointment at a distillery, the last one of our holiday: Fleurieu. The distillery is on the riverside, in a listed building next to the train tracks (reasons why they cannot expand). We learned about them while visiting Melbourne’s whisky bars, and when we realised that they were almost on our itinerary, we contacted them and asked if we could visit. Gareth, one of the founders and head distiller, very kindly agreed and gave us an appointment for half hour before the bar would open to the public – nice gesture! Before the distillery, Gareth and his wife Angela were running the Steam Exchange brewery, founded in 2004, and located in the same building they are still using. However, after the boom of craft brewing, they decided to move to whisky, to differentiate themselves from the crowd. They started planning this change back in 2013, and for a while they produced both whisky and beer. They later phased out beer, which is now produced by another company on commission, using their recipes.

  • Distillery, warehouse and bar.

As Gareth welcomed us, he delved into the features of their whisky production. They start from local aqueduct water, which goes through a 10,000 carbon filter to clean it before mashing. The mashtuns used to be manual (they have two small ones), but then they added a mechanic stirring system. They aim for a clear wort, which is then passed down to one of the shallow fermenters, together with brewer’s yeast (some of their brewers’ heritage remains). In between these stages, they use a portable heat exchanger, to recover the heat lost from taking down the wash temperature to allow yeast to do its job under the best conditions. Fermentation lasts at least 8 days, once again a very long one! They use the “double drop” fermentation technique, which allows for a second fermentation – this is a brewing technique we are not too familiar with, definitely first time we heard about it in a distilling context.

  • Where the mashing happens.
  • One of the fermenters – 8 days before the wash goes into the stills!

The fermented wash is then transferred into the 3,600-litre wash still, and then to the 1,200-litre spirit still, both coming from Tasmania. To charge the spirit still, they use 600 litres of low wines from the previous wash still run, 300 litres of tails from the previous distillation and 300 litres of water. The first distillation is mostly run at night, to save energy; similarly, the second usually starts around 5am, and by 8am they are ready to take the cuts, done according to taste. Just before their silent season (December to January, when the weather is too hot), they produce some peated spirit, while they make unpeated spirit during the rest of the year.

  • Look who’s here.
  • A better view of the stills.

The cask filling strength is very similar to most Scottish distilleries, 63.4%abv, and in contrast to most of the other Australian distilleries but, again, similarly to Scotland, the abv goes down in this corner of the world. That’s because of the humid climate, influenced by the Southern Ocean. They fill many types of casks: ex-bourbon, Apera, Australian tawny, and of various sizes (we noticed a number of smaller size casks around). One practice that showed us their care for details: if they see that a cask is too active, they rerack the spirit (or whisky) into a less active cask, to slow the maturation process and allow a mellower maturation. This is because climate is still hotter than places like Scotland or Ireland, thus some casks might give too much too quickly.

  • Wee casks.

Finally, it was time to try some drams. We started with “Never a dull moment”: this is a vatting of Apera casks named after women in their families. Yes, every cask has a name, including some American oak casks named after United States presidents (until the 60s, then it became too controversial). This expression is a small batch (1,320 bottles, bottled at 47.6%abv). Small batches is what they mostly do, sometimes taking only part of certain casks. Another thing denoting their attention to detail, if you ask us. Moreover, despite some lower abvs, none of their whiskies are chill filtered or artificially coloured.

Anyway, moving on, the second dram was “Tapestry” (850 bottles at 45.2%), a mix of ex-bourbon and Apera casks. We then tried their first release, dating a few years back, in 2017: a Port cask whisky matured (600 bottles, 52%). Finally, we tried two editions of their blended malt collaboration with another craft distillery, Black Gate, from New South Wales. The bottling is called From Country to Coast, we tried Edition 4 (460 bottles, 48%, already tried back in Melbourne) and Edition 5 (240 bottles, 46%). We liked Edition 4 the most, but unfortunately it was not available to buy (which probably saved us a second bottle purchase, after Tapestry).

  • We liked this one…
  • …and this one.

We loved the whisky we tried at Fleurieu, definitely among the best of the holiday, and Gareth’s friendliness wa the cherry on the top. We also loved the attention to detail they put in everything they do, just a shame finding their whisky here in Scotland is so hard (the only bottling we found is this one, hefty!).

After leaving the distillery, we had some food and drove to Adelaide. We stopped briefly to say hi to a fellow barfly who was on shift in a liquor store that day. It’s always great to chat to whisky nerds during our trips!

Adelaide is a lovely city, a shame we stayed for only a day and a half. After that, we visited the Barossa and Eden Valleys (while we were there…amazing wines!), before the long drive back to Melbourne through the stunning Grampians National Park. There, we got a flight to Uluru, where we spent a few days before heading back home: definitely one of the highlights of our holiday (despite no whiskies there…we won’t put too many pictures here).

  • Uluru, breathtaking.

In general, the whisky scene in mainland Australia (we left Tasmania for another time) really surprised us, we had some amazing drams down under! But what we loved the most is the ethos and how people really care about what they’re doing there.

Stay tuned for some festival action, this time in Scotland, coming in a couple of weeks! Until next time, slainte!

Fleurieu Distillery Tour

Price: free (November 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: Never a Dull Moment (vat of Apera casks, 47.6%), Tapestry (ex-bourbon and Apera casks, 45.2%), First release 3yr Port Cask (52%), From Country to Coast Edition 4 and 5 (blended malt, 48% and 46%)

Target: everyone, but whisky geeks especially

Value for money: NA

Highlights: the drams were really good

Recommended: a must visit if you are in the area!

Link: https://fleurieudistillery.com.au

#56.4 Dramming Down Under

Back to the city:
Starward distillery



 

TL; DR: After driving back to Melbourne, we visited another distillery: Starward. It is one of the few Australian whiskies we’d tried before the trip, and the distillery is modern and dynamic. The tour was very informative, and they had a great range of drams to try at the bar. A nice visit! 

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

The drive back from Kinglake was uneventful, although as we approached Melbourne roads were busy, which we didn’t expect on a Thursday early afternoon. Despite the traffic, we got back to our hotel in time to park the car, refresh ourselves at the hotel, and grab a cab to get to our next destination in Port Melbourne, south-west from the central business district: Starward, one of the most well-known distilleries in Victoria and Australia. Despite being in what looked like a mostly business area, it can be reached by bus (although we didn’t have enough time that day). From the outside the distillery looks like an industrial warehouse, its presence is only given away by some advertisement panels at the front, where the predominant colour is an electric purple-ish blue.

  • Refreshed and ready for round two.

Inside the building, the blue is still the main colour: the space is very wide, with the shop right after the entrance, as well as one of the old stills. On the left side there is a long bar, showcasing two bottle-your-own casks: the price tag betrayed the Diageo’s involvement in the distillery ($250.00). The distillery production is past the hospitality area, which has both low tables and barrels used for tastings. In the 5-10 minutes before the tour started, we mostly checked out the shop, and the many expressions available for purchase.

Pricey bottle-your-own.

Our guide for the day was Felix, who was very knowledgeable and promptly replied to all our questions. The first thing he asked us, though, was to leave our phones in a locker, for ‘safety’ and to avoid taking picture of production: a very weird company policy. Because of that, we don’t have any pictures of production, and we couldn’t take notes on our phones as we usually do. Instead, the day after we recorded everything in agent Cooper-style vocal messages while driving, to be used by our future selves rather than Diane.

The distillery was founded in the 2000s by David Vitale, who used to be a brewer: because of this, he was keen to maintain some brewing elements in his whisky. Thus, the malted barley they use is a pale ale malt from New South Wales. The malt is then mashed with water coming from Melbourne city aqueduct and, once done, put into one of the stainless steel washbacks. Here fermentation is kickstarted with a (secret) yeast recipe composed by mostly brewer and some distiller yeasts. It usually lasts five days, but it can go ahead to up to eight, continuing the trend of long fermentations we observed in this trip.

  • The only part of production we could see from the bar.

The spirit is double distilled in a pair of stills from the Italian maker Frilli (like Raasay and Teeling). The spirit still has a cooling jacket, to help regulate the temperature when the weather is too hot (it’d be harder to regulate the temperature of the entire massive open space). The spirit cut point is high, and for the newmake spirit they don’t use anything below the mid-sixties (64-67%), with the rest recycled as feints and mixed with the foreshots. The newmake spirit is then diluted to 55% before casks are filled. It is a lower abv compared to many distilleries, in particular in Scotland – this is because the climate causes the abv to increase while maturing, similarly to other distilleries in Australia, but also in other temperate areas like Kentucky.

  • As we could not take pictures in the production area, you’ve got one of an old still.

Regarding the cask choice, they aimed for a distinctive Australian signature, thus they mature their core whiskies in ex-red wine casks, mostly French oak, but they also use some American oak barrique. The reason why they did not choose Australian fortified wines casks was that there are not enough to maintain a core range (they didn’t say, but probably another reason is that wine casks are cheaper, as reflected in the fair price of the entry expressions). So, they still use fortified wine casks, together with a variety of other casks, but mostly for small batches or single cask bottlings.

  • Not the greatest picture, but it gives an idea of the space.

After the tour of production, it was time for the tasting: Starward was one of the few Australian whiskies we’d tried before this trip. Specifically, we’d tried the Fortis, thanks to our subscription to Whisky Me. The tasting started with a blended whisky, the Two-Fold (they have another one, Honeycomb). For this blend of wheat and malted barley, they source the wheat newmake spirit from elsewhere, and they mature it on site. It’s a very basic offering, mostly marketed as a cocktail component, but we found it punchy above its weight, considering it is bottled at 40%, and unexpectedly oily. The second dram was the Nova, matured in ex-red wine casks (French oak) and bottled at 41%. It was our least favourite. Finally, we tried the 100 Proof (name coming from its abv of 50%, so American proof), matured in American oak ex-Pinot Noir casks: this one was delicious, with creamy and red fruits notes, and not too tannic (although, compared to the average single malt drinker, our tolerance for tannins is probably much higher…We “blame” our Italian upbringing).

  • Our favourite of the tasting.

By the time the tasting ended their kitchen was closed, but we decided to stay at the bar anyway to try more expressions – not only bottlings available to purchase, but also curiosities and the odd ones. Here, we found the highest abv whisky we ever tried: 73.45%, first fill American oak red wine. Almost like chewing wood, but some water tamed it, and it was delicious. We also tried some of their peated cask finished whiskies, but not the Lagavulin edition whose price carried a premium: $199, compared to the $149 for another undisclosed Islay distillery, we’ll leave you to guess which (just remember who partially owns Starward…). The dram was good, but it didn’t blow our socks off. Another we tried was the Yering Station Pinot Noir finish (the same winery we’d visited that same morning). This one was tasty, but with a similar profile to the 100 Proof. We also tried the Munich malt whisky, the Botryties matured (Australian “sauternes”), the Shiraz octave cask finish, and finally, the one we liked the most: one matured in a single American oak barrel, previously holding red wine. Really delicious, a shame it wasn’t on sale.

  • Our curiosity was satistied…
  • …More than satisfied.

Tasting those drams made us realise how, to our palate, Starward works best with American oak wine barrels. Overall, the quality of whisky was surprisingly good, and it was a very interesting tour (in spite of the awkward phone policy), and Felix a great guide. It was a shame we couldn’t do their Masterclass and Barrel Tasting ($160.00pp), but is runs only once a week on a Saturday, and it clashed with the rest of our plans.

After the drams, we needed some food: so we got a table at a nearby restaurant, the Railway Club Hotel, where we had one of the best beef steaks ever! After dinner, we took it easy and enjoyed a 40-minute walk back to our hotel.

  • On the road, the Great Ocean Road.

The next day we finally left Melbourne, driving towards Adelaide on the Great Ocean Road. In spite of the short stay, we had fun in the city, and we were pleasantly surprised by the great whisky scene! Definitely a lot of stuff to do for whisky geek visiting. We won’t bother you much with the rest of our non-whisky holiday (well…maybe a pic or two), but the drive was amazing and we spotted some very cool animals!

This was not the last whisky story of our holidays, stay tuned for the last one! Until next time, slainte!

Starward Distillery Tour

Price: AUD 60.00 pp (November 2024)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 3 drams, Two-Fold blended whisky (40%), Nova Single Malt (41%), 100 Proof (50%)

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the variety of expressions available at the bar

Recommended: if you’re in Melbourne, why not?

Link: https://starward.com.au/