#56.2 Dramming Down Under

The hidden still in Melbourne

TL; DR: From Sydney, we soon flew into Melbourne, where we were pleasantly surprised by the lively and interesting whisky scene. We checked out some bars, as well as local distilleries. We found out about one, Bakery Hill, at the last minute. The very welcoming staff gave us an in-depth tour of this very urban-style distillery. And they produce delicious whisky!

(missed Part 1?)

After the visit to Archie Rose, we paused our whisky activities for a couple of days. After the distillery tour, we went straight to Manly (north of the city) to check out the famous beach and relax. The day after, together with one of Gianluigi’s colleagues and his cousin, we went to visit the spectacular Blue Mountains, about an hour outside the city – definitely worth it. Finally, on a sunny Tuesday morning, we flew to Melbourne. Once arrived, we headed towards the rental car place where, after a long wait, we got our car and drove straight to a car park near the hotel in the CBD. While we wouldn’t use the car for the first day or two, having it would pay off a few days later. In the evening, we met with a Teresa’s former colleague and then explored the city’s whisky scene, starting with the Whisky Den – an incredible choice of whisky, including many Australian, in a super cozy venue: thumbs up from us!

We didn’t take pictures at the Whisky Den, so you get Melbourne skyline instead.

Right before taking off from Sydney, our pal Joe (from the Edinburgh Whisky Group) had given us some advice about distilleries and whisky bars to check out in the city. A suggestion was a distillery called Bakery Hill. Armed with hope but not expecting much, we sent them an email straight away to ask if we could visit the day after, the only option we had to accommodate a tour while in Melbourne. To our surprise, they replied confirming their availability for a tour, fantastic! So, the next morning we took a train from the Southern Cross station towards Kensington, North-west from the CBD. The building is a small warehouse, very well hidden in the urban context, so much so that, at first, we cluelessly walked almost a block past it.

Would you have guessed that the distillery was there?

We were welcomed by Pete, one of the distillers and owner’s son. In fact, the distillery was set up in 1999 by David Baker, a former chemistry teacher, who wanted to prove that it is possible to make a good whisky in places other than Scotland. The distillery was originally outside the city, and they first released whisky in 2003. They then moved to within the city boundaries, only a year before our visit, in 2023. Now the distillery is mostly run by David’s sons, Andrew and Pete. Except for a small space they carved out for a shop and a small office, the distillery has two main large areas, divided by a wall. The first one is occupied by the still, a space for tastings and events, and racked casks on the side. The space is also used for other activities, for example while we were there Andrew was preparing their upcoming first blended whisky release (their single malt vatted with Australian grain whisky from ex-bourbon casks, 46%). The rest of production is located in the adjacent area, again with casks racked on all sides.

This looks more like it.

About production, the unpeated malt they use is sourced from New South Wales. The peated malt is currently sourced from New Zealand, while until a few years ago they were getting it from Scotland. They use 320kg of malted barley per mash, which is processed manually in a very “traditional” way. Fermentation is kickstarted with brewer’s yeast and is quite long, 5 days. Funnily, the two washbacks are named after a children TV show called Bananas in Pyjamas, thus Banana 1 and Banana 2.

Banana 1 and Banana 2.

They currently have one 1,000-litre still where they run both distillations. However, a new 3,000 litre wash still was due to arrive soon (at the time of visiting). As for maturation, they use mainly American oak ex-bourbon casks, in particular from Brown Foreman, including Jack Daniel’s. They mostly bottle single cask whiskies (in 50cl bottles), and everything every whisky nerd wants to know is handwritten on the back label: distillation and bottling dates, cask number. The whisky is usually older than other local producers, the ones we tried were between the 5 and 8 years old.

Nice still at the back, us not looking so nice.

Their current Signature range includes five single malts: Classic (unpeated, 46%, ex-bourbon), Double Wood (unpeated, 46%, finished in 1^st fill French oak ex-red wine cask), Peated (46%, ex-bourbon), Classic Cask Strength (unpeated, 60%, ex-bourbon), and Peated Cask Strength (60%, ex-bourbon). In our tasting, we tried four of them in this order, except for the Classic Cask Strength. They were all very good, but the two peated expressions “knocked it out of the park” for us. They also do limited and seasonal releases, among the latter the Blunderbuss (after 5y in ex-bourbon, finished for 2y in Kalash Imperial Stout barrels) and the El Dorado (matured for 1.5y in Apera, i.e. “Australian sherry”, casks and finished for 3y in ex-bourbon). To note, they produce a gin too, the Oxford Traditional Gin (40%). Pete also told us that they started to work with some UK based independent bottlers to try get some of their whisky over here: Atom Brands already released one expression from them under That Boutique-y Whisky Company brand (the hilarious label was inspired by Breaking Bad series, given David Baker’s past as chemistry teacher).

Our favourite.

We loved the concept of this distillery: self-contained, doing things properly, and this ethos totally transpires in the quality of their drams. Bottles are pricey to be fully honest, even compared to some of their peers, but given the production size and the fact that they bottle one cask at the time, we can see why. Overall, one distillery we are super happy to have visited, and we’d definitely go back (in the unlikely case we’ll find ourselves in Melbourne, again)!

After the distillery we had a quick bite in a very nice café across the road, before getting on a bus towards Fitzroy and other areas in the north of Melbourne. In Fitzroy, we also paid a visit to the Elysian Whisky bar, on Brunswick Road: what a bar! We had a lovely chat with the owners (we were there kind of early, so the only ones), who suggested drams to try and guided us through them. One great thing of Australian whisky bars is that it is possible to order half-size drams (15ml, versus the 30ml full dram), which are a bit easier on the liver (and on the wallet), in particular for whisky curious people like us who always wants to try a few.

Aussie drams at the Elysian Whisky Bar.

After dinner we visited another fantastic whisky bar, Whisky and Alement, where we had another great time chatting with the super knowledgeable staff, who ended up gifting us a pin for their 10y anniversary…which was four years before, ahah!

The only non-Aussie dram we had at Whisky and Alement.

A great distillery tour and two great whisky bars, what a whisky day that was. We did other stuff (including getting the worst coffee of the entire holiday, and finding an awesome record in a second-hand music store, Travels by the American band Defeater if you’re curious), but the three above were definitely the highlights of the day.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Melbourne (and surroundings) action! Until the next time, slainte!

Bakery Hill Distillery Tour

Price: AUD 35.00 pp (November 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: Classic single malt (46%), Double Wood single malt (46%), Peated single malt (46%), Peated cask strength single malt (60%)

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: good

Highlights: the history of the distillery and its urban style

Recommended: absolutely yes!

Link: https://bakeryhill.com/

#56.1 Dramming Down Under

An old “new distillery” in Sydney

TL; DR: A few months ago, we went on holiday in Australia. This, of course, was the perfect occasion to explore the Australian whisky scene. First off, we visited Archie Rose distillery, in Sydney. The tour was on their old site, now a bar and function venue, but all the equipment is still there. A bit of a touristy experience, but nice to visit nonetheless.

One of the few remaining perks of working in academia, in particular during these lean years, is the possibility to travel to meet colleagues and attend conferences. Gianluigi was particularly “lucky” in 2024, as the main conference he attended was in Sydney (Australia, not Sydney, Florida)! It was a first for Gianluigi, who never been down under before. Teresa, on the other hand, visited Australia about 10 years before but only briefly. So, all the planets aligned for an Australian holiday after Gianluigi’s conference. And what’s better than going on some whisky exploration, while on holiday?

Before the trip, we didn’t know much Australian whisky, for two main reasons. First, only a few expressions make it to Scotland. Second, some Australian bottlings (in particular from Tasmania) can be quite pricey, and it’s hard to try them before buying, making them risky purchases. So, we were really excited to go on this trip and uncover some new flavours and drams!

Not the greatest picture, but here we are!

Our trip started in Sydney, with Teresa landing on a sunny Sunday morning, a day after the conference ended. We didn’t want to spend many days in the city (Gianluigi had been there a week, Teresa already visited), and because our first distillery wasn’t open for tours on Mondays, it was Sunday or (probably) never. Fortunately, Teresa landed early, so after checking in at the hotel, shower and a coffee (one of several), we were on the bus on our way to Archie Rose distillery. The distillery is located at the end of the Cannery Rosebery, a former cannery warehouse in the Sydney’s centre-south (between the centre and the airport), now hosting independent cafes, restaurants, shops (including a liquor store) and a gym: a very nice place. We were early, as usual, so while waiting we had a bite and a(nother) coffee in one of the cafes. When the time came, we entered the “distillery” through a narrow corridor, with casks behind fences from both sides. The word distillery is in quote because, as we’ll find out soon, it isn’t in production anymore – their production site is now in an industrial area of the city. All the equipment is still there and ready for use (so mothballed?), but the venue is now only used as a bar and for functions, hosting “distillery” tours and tastings.

A bar, a warehouse, and much more.

The tour guide, Caleb, welcomed us and, when everyone arrived (we were a large group, about twenty), started the tour. First, he introduced the business, that does not only distil whisky, but also gin, rum and vodka. They run some experiments too, like the Archiemite, a liquor flavoured like the Vegemite (we decided that trying the latter was plenty, though). The distillery was founded in 2014 by Will Edwards, in Sydney. In 2018 they moved to the new site, which is operational since 2020, and as we anticipated, the old site was “mothballed”. The first part of the tour focused on gin, which they produce from wheat-based neutral grain spirit. They use one-shot distillation (the still is called Juniper Lopez) with a botanical basket. Each botanical is distilled in isolation, and then the different spirits are blended together: a peculiar approach for gin, given most producers distil the botanicals together (as far as we know).

Meet Juniper Lopez.

We soon moved to whisky (yay!): the grains, malted barley and malted rye, are mashed in their mashtun (spectacularly named Danzel Mashington!), before undergoing a 2-week fermentation. They had two stills (although the current distillery has many more), called Biggie and Small, with cut points in the second distillation depending on the grain type. One peculiarity of this distillery is that they use six varieties of malted barley, including (but not limited to): pale, peated pale, amber, chocolate, caramel, aromatic roasted, light and dark crystal. They used to mash them together in one mashbill, but they changed approach and now go for individual mashing, fermentation, distillation and maturation before blending the spirits together later on. This process is similar to what Canadians do with their blends, in our understanding.

A big malt variety, wow!

Cask-wise, they mostly use ex-bourbon, ex-rye, ex-apera (a sherry-like fortified wine produced in Australia, renamed to avoid issues with Sherry GI, which has to be produced in Southern Spain), and virgin oak for the rye whisky. Exceptions are river red-gum tree casks and those used to mature their own rum (obtained from different molasses type, hence “triple rum”).

And now meet Biggie and Small.

After the production tour, it was time for the tasting: we first tried 3 gins (see below), and then moved to whisky. First off, the Double Malt whisky, which is a blend of rye and single malts, bottled at 40% abv and made with cocktails in mind. Then, we tried both the Single malt and the Rye malt (both 46%): they were good, but both had some herbaceous/bitter notes that are not right up our street.

Once the tour was over, we decided to visit their bigger bar (just next to the distillery) for a flight of their other bottlings. We tried the AR x ST Ali Blasphemy Coffee whisky (40%), a very interesting experimental whisky liquor with coffee used to dilute the abv instead of water. Then, we tried the Heritage Red Gum Cask Single malt (46%, Limited Edition #11), and the Rum Cask Single malt (58%, Limited Edition #10), with the latter being the winner for us. Finally, we had the two Opera House bottlings, the Classical whisky (ex-bourbon and apera casks, all NSW pale malt, bottled at 46%, 5,000 bottles), and the Contemporary whisky (same casks, NSW pale malt, ancient black malt, amber malt, Chocolate malt, again 46%, 3,000 bottles). The classical was our second favourited, after the rum cask. Side note, lots of geeky details on the bottles, nice!

Our favourite.

Overall a pleasant visit, although the tour felt a bit corporate and too scripted. However, it was really great to try their whiskies, as the experimentation with malt varieties makes them very interesting. In Scotland only few distilleries embrace such level of experimentation, so for us it was good to try something different.

Stay tuned for our next story, from another Australian state! Until the next time, slainte!

Archie Rose (former) Distillery Tour and Tasting

Price: 29.00AUD pp (November 2024)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Signature Dry gin (42%), Emerald Finger Lime gin (40%), Raw Honey gin (40%); Double malt whisky (40%, malted rye and barley), Single malt (46%), Rye malt (46%)

Target: tourists and whisky curious

Value for money: good

Highlights: the full-on experimentation approach

Recommended: if you have some time to spare in Sydney, why not?

Link: https://archierose.com.au/

#55.5 All drams great and small

A distillery in Northumbria

TL; DR: Our Yorkshire trip had officially ended on Monday morning, but on the way back from Hunmanby to Edinburgh, we and other pals we did a further tour: Ad Gefrin distillery, in Northumberland! Production is aligned with that of Scottish distilleries, but the Northumbria history museum makes the distillery very local. Including the restaurant and bar, it is a great visitor attraction.

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

For the last time, we woke up in sunny Yorkshire, inside our cosy campervan, Mr. Vantastic. The morning was fresh but not cold, we soon got dressed and went for breakfast at the Piebald Inn, where some of our pals were. It was time for our drive back to Leith, but not without a few stops on the long way home.

First, the coastal town of Whitby, a bit less than one hour drive from Hunmanby. A few people on the trip had recommended it to us, and it was indeed worthwhile. We didn’t have much time to explore the pretty town, so we just climbed the ‘199 Steps’ to get a scenic view of the harbour and the old town, before getting a quick lunch and a coffee. Soon after, we were back on the road towards our next destination: the final distillery of the trip.

Sunny Whitby.

The distillery is Ad Gefrin (meaning the Hill of the Goat…loved it!), in Northumberland, 20 minutes driving (14 miles) south from the Scottish border, in the town of Wooler. They started distilling in November 2022, and opened to public in March 2023. We’d heard of them a few years ago already, but didn’t manage to visit until now, so we were quite excited. We met at the distillery with other few people from the Edinburgh Whisky Group. We were a bit tight with time, the last ones to arrive, so we had just enough time to park and get a (another) coffee in the very nice bar and restaurant, before the tour started.

Our guide for the tour was Lesley, who showed us the museum on the first floor. This is a very fascinating aspect of the distillery, and a first for us: except some old distillery equipment (Glen Ord), company heritage (Aberfeldy) or copper mining (Penderyn Swansea) exhibitions, we never saw a distillery with a proper history museum.

A glimpse of the museum.

It hosts the collection of artefacts mostly from the Golden Age of Northumbria, when Gefrin was home of a Royal Palace, and it is possible to visit it for £10.00. Our knowledge of the troubled Britain history between the fall of the Roman empire and the arrival of William the Conqueror is foggy at best (and mostly due to The Last Kingdom TV show, ehm…), so for us it was quite interesting. It is linked to the Gefrin trust, which since 2002 is preserving and investigating the historical sites of Gefrin, first discovered in 1949. The whole project costed about £10m, and was partially funded by the local council. At the time of visit it had attracted over 70,000 visitors.

After a video and a few moments in the museum, it was time to check out production, literally behind a door from the exhibition. The distillery, which was set up in collaboration with Ben Murphy, the head distiller, now produces about 270,000 litres of pure alcohol per year. The water source is a borehole, while barley is sourced from four local farmers involved in the distillery business as well. These days, they mostly cultivate the Diablo variety for high yield, which is then sent to Simpsons for malting, in Berwick-upon-Tweed. They process about 25 tonnes of barley every three weeks, doing one mash per day. The malt is mostly unpeated, although before the winter holidays they run an 80% unpeated and 20% peated batch, with the peated barley at high phenols parts per million (ppm).

Grit, and how the distillery building looked like in the past.

The mashing-fermenting-distilling equipment is from Forsyths, in Rothes, Speyside. The mashing process starts with a run of 65°C water for about one hour, followed by a second run of water at 75°C: from the two they obtain about 5,000 litres of wort. The third water, at 85°C, is kept for the next mash. They currently have four washbacks, with plans to add another four. They use dried yeast, and fermentation lasts about 100 hours, resulting in a 8-9%abv wash.

The bottom of the washbacks, for once.

Similar to Scottish single malt distilleries, they have a pair of stills, a 5,000-litre wash still, from which they obtain about 2,800 litres of low wines, and a 3,500-litre spirit still. In the latter, they cut the head to 75% abv, and then the tails from 65% abv, obtaining 600 litres of newmake spirit. Casks are filled on site, at the standard strength of 63.5%abv, and the bottling plant is on site too. They also produce gin with a dedicated still (fortunately!).

Stills with a view.

After the tour of production we walked outside, to a nearby, very beautiful building. This used to be an old mill, now used for storage. We also checked out a warehouse hosting, among other things, about 200 privately owned barrels.

So nice outside too.

The cask owners wall.

Back at the visitor centre, it was time for the tasting with Gwen, another guide. First off, the Tacnbora, a blend of irish and Scottish malts and grain whisky, bottled at 42.7%abv, from Oloroso sherry, ex-Bourbon and American virgin oak barrels. It was sweet and drinkable, someone would call it a “breakfast” dram. It was followed by their Thirlings Dry Gin (43.4%) and Flýte Whisky Cream Liqueur (17%). It was a very enjoyable visit, and we liked the idea of this project: not just a distillery, but rather a wider hub for all types of visitors, with a restaurant/bar and the museum.

A very drinkable blend.

Overall, it was a very interesting trip, an eye-opener on what other whisky producers are doing in neighbouring countries. Production-wise, Ad Gefrin was the most akin to a typical Scottish distillery, following the same path that other English distilleries took, like White Peak, Cotswolds and the Lakes. On the contrary, it was exciting to see how the other distilleries we visited could take advantage of more relaxed rules. For example, both Spirit of Yorkshire and Ellers Farm use wash not produced on the same site as the distillery (for the second, even produced by another company), while also mixing column and pot distillation. Cooper King have only one still to run both distillations, something we never observed in Scottish distilleries so far.

However, the thing that most hit us was the amazing hospitality. That might be due to the need of making a name for themselves, which is not granted by a geographical denomination of their products, but still, in all places we felt welcomed and not took advantage of. We cannot recommend enough to get in touch with these distilleries.

Until next time, slainte!

Ad Gefrin Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Tacnbora (blended whisky, NAS, 42.7%, Batch 3); Thirlings Dry Gin (43.4%) and Flýte Whisky Cream Liqueur (17%)

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the Northumbria history museum

Recommended: yes

Link: https://adgefrin.co.uk/

#55.3 All drams great and small

An English malt with a Tasmanian twist and an eye for sustainability

TL; DR: From Ellers Farm, we went directly to another distillery: Cooper King. Inspired by Tasmanian craft distilleries, they produce other spirits other than single malt, with a very interesting set up. And, everything is done in the most sustainable way possible, kudos! After the visit, we went to Brew York, for a tour, dinner, and a quiz!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

After the visit at Ellers Farm, we jumped back on the minibus. Our next destination was only about half hour away driving north-west, approximately 13 km north from the city of York, in the village of Sutton-on-Forest. The distillery is called Cooper King, just outside the village. It was founded by Abbie and Chris, a couple who got the inspiration while travelling in Australia and visiting local distilleries. The distillery is named after Charles Cooper King, Chris’ great-great-grandfather. The main building is just a few meters from the gravel parking lot, and it harbours a bar/shop and production. There is also a nice wee garden outside, with wooden tables and benches, which we took advantage of after the tour. It was a nice sunny day!

Nice set up outside.

We were welcomed by Mark, tour guide and assistant distiller. Like others, he came on board as a crowdfunder. At some point (in our understanding) the two founders Abbie and Chris asked who among the crowdfunders wanted to be more involved, and Mark answered the call. We could clearly see his passion for the project. He explained that, in 2014, Abbie and Chris, once a biochemist and an architect, moved to Australia to travel, and started working as fruit pickers. Then, they went to Tasmania, and after getting in contact with Sullivan’s Cove and Lark, they decided to go back to England and produce a Tasmanian-style whisky. Back in Yorkshire, they bought the land thanks to a crowdfunding, as well as a 900-litre pot still (Neilson) straight from Australia.

Cooper King distillery in one shot.

Another principle they had in mind when setting up the distillery was sustainability. The electricity comes from renewable sources, of which 60% is produced on site with solar panels: this contributed to make them the first net-zero distillery in England. They also have a programme for planting trees and restoring woodland and wildflowers habitat for each bottle they sell. Moreover, they chose lighter bottles, and offer refills at the distillery, for a few quid less.

Ready for the tour.

Production-wise, they use Maris Otter barley malted in middle England. They pre-heat the small mashtun before mashing the malt. After that, the remaining draff goes out to local farmers to feed cows. Fermentation takes place in a 1750-litre plastic vessel (usually only half full to avoid foam accidents) and lasts seven days. Both distillations happen in the same still, which is different to what we saw in all the Scottish distilleries we visited so far. At first, Neilson the still was heated externally, but to make the process more efficient it was sent to Scotland for modifications and is now internally heated and insulated.

Inside Neilson.

The wash gets distilled to 25% abv, while the heart of the second distillation comes out on average at 75%, before getting diluted by filtered tap-water. Needless to say, everything in the distillery is very manual, except for the gin and vodka very modern cold-distillation machines (which take only about 10% of energy compared to a classic copper pot distillation).

Super-modern gin and vodka distillation.

They use a variety of casks from all over the world, and their main American cask supplier is the Garrison Brothers distillery, in Texas. Casks are kept in a safe container behind the distillery, while waiting to get a proper warehouse. They started distilling newmake spirit in 2018, and their first whisky was released in October 2023, about a year before our visit.

And Cooper King warehouse in one shot.

While we were outside checking out the casks, another member of staff set up the tasting in the main production room, which also serves as a tasting location. First, we went through five liquors and gins (see below), but as it’s not really our focus, we won’t spend many words on it. We were really interested in their whiskies. The first one was not exactly that: a newmake spirit, from the “Pilot Series” and bottled at 47%. It was followed by two single malts from their “Expedition Series”, Transatlantic (ex-bourbon and ex-wine casks, 48%), and Embers (charred ex-bourbon casks, 49%). Then, two single casks: first, an ex-Cognac matured single malt, bottled at the 53.2% natural cask strength; second, a dram first matured in virgin oak casks, then re-racked into an ex-Armagnac cask, again cask strength at 52.1%. The evaporation (or “angel share”) is higher compared to Scotland, about 4%, which combined with other specific conditions, might cause the abv to be lower for such young whisky. Overall, we could tell the degree of experimentation at this distillery is high.

The whisky part of the tasting, with our guide Mark.

After the tasting we had a few minutes to spend in the sunny patio, sipping on our leftover drinks, before getting back on the mini-bus. We headed towards York, precisely the Brew York Brewery. Despite the city location is not their main production facility anymore (that one is in York’s outskirts), it’s still a massive place. We did a production tour (£15, including four tastes) and then had dinner there (they do a range of Asian-inspired dishes, which were delicious, albeit heavy on spring onion). Unfortunately, the place was too noisy for the next scheduled activity, a whisky-based quiz, so we had to move to a quieter pub nearby. The quiz, organised by our whisky veteran pal Charlie, was great fun, and we went back to base all very happy.

What a great afternoon and evening we had! At that time, we had tried very few craft Australian whiskies (and even less Tasmanian ones), so the link between them and Cooper King was not evident to us. At the time of writing however (after a serendipitous trip to Australia…Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more), the connection is quite obvious: we spotted a very typical herbaceous note in Cooper King drams, the same we found in most whiskies down under. Overall, it’s a very interesting project, which we are very glad we got to know more of.

Next up, another Yorkshire whisky day, but not a distillery! Until next time, slainte!

Cooper King Distillery Bespoke Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 5 spirits (Dry Gin, 42%; Herb Gin, 40%; Smoked+Spice Dry Gin, 41%; Black Cardamom Vodka, 40%; Berry+Basil liqueur, 25%) and 4 drams: Transatlantic (48%, ex-bourbon and ex-wine, 1208 bottles), Embers (ex-bourbon, 49%, 938 bottles), ex-Cognac matured single cask (53.2%), virgin oak/ex-Armagnac cask (52.1%)

Target: whisky and spirit enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the distillery set up

Recommended: yes

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

#55.2 All drams great and small

Compares apples with malt: Ellers Farm

TL; DR: After a good night sleep, it was time for another couple of Yorkshire distilleries, starting from Ellers Farm. Initially only a vodka distillery, they soon moved into gin and other liquors and spirits. The plan is to release a single malt in 2025. A very different take on whisky distillation, even compared to other English distilleries.

(missed Part 1?)

Done with the distillery tour at the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery, we slowly walked back to the Pie Bald Inn, and to Mr Vantastic. After some rest, it was time for dinner: we were eager to try the renowned pies. They did not disappoint, the pies were very good, and portions quite big, so big that we both had some leftovers (which rarely happens with Gianluigi)!

We woke up feeling well rested and ready for the day ahead. For breakfast we had the leftovers from the night before, warmed up in a pan in the campervan – great smell afterwards. We needed a big breakfast, as the programme of the day was ambitious: two distillery visits and a brewery tour. To make things easier for everyone, Justine had booked a small coach for the day.

Tasted much better than it looks.

After about 50 minutes driving inland in the sunny Yorkshire countryside, we arrived at our first destination: Ellers Farm Distillery, in Stamford Bridge. This distillery might be popular because of a certain comedian coming on board, but more on that later. The site is an old farm, with one of the buildings now hosting the visitor centre and shop, a tasting room and some offices. We were welcomed by Ollie who, after a brief introduction, showed us around. The founder, Chris Fraser, started getting into drinks in 2014 after spotting an apple orchard whose fruits were not getting picked but instead left to rot on or under the trees. He started using the apples to make cider, followed by brandy and “calvados-style” spirits using a small still. He then came up with the idea to distill to high proof to make an apple vodka. So the Dutch Barn Vodka was born! The name comes from the type of barn that there used to be on the site before the conversion into a distillery – to us, despite the “Dutch” adjective, the building looked more of American style. Later on, the Y-gin (Y for Yorkshire) was added to the portfolio. Today, 20% of the (B Corp) company is owned by employees, and there are plans to reach net zero by 2040. In 2023, Ricky Gervais was asked to feature in an advertisement, but instead he came on board as co-owner.

A Dutch barn converted into a distillery.

Production takes place in the building on the other side of the courtyard. They use water coming from a 263-meter-deep borehole, and put the apples in a 8,000-litre fermenter with their own strain of yeast, to get a 12-15% abv “wash” (not sure if this is the name…). The distillation happens first in a column still (‘Magic Mike’, great name) made in Italy, but also in a pot still (see below) and two rectification stills (with 26 and 25 distillation plates) for a total of 70 distillations: apparently, the two parts combined would make it one of the tallest stills in Europe (please if you work at the distillery and thing we got this wrong let us know, our notes were a bit foggy). Within the stills, about 70% of the liquid is recirculating, while 30% comes out as vodka. To note, they also have another mini-still, ‘Crystal’ to reduce the level of methanol.

Success came right after their launch in 2022, with Waitrose being one of the first clients (for those not living in the UK, a very posh supermarket chain). When Asda (a bigger chain) also wanted to distribute their vodka, they increased production. At the time of our visit, they were about to launch in the American market, which meant further expansion from the current 1.3 millions of litres per year production.

Magic Mike, not easy to take a picture of.

Still in 2022, they started a collaboration with Theakston Brewery, producer of the popular (but unknown to us before this visit) Old Peculier beer, to make English single malt. The brewery provides the fermented wash: it is made with 100% malted barley (from Muntons maltster) and is fermented for 96 hours with two different yeasts, one at the bottom and one at the top of the vessel. They also let it reast for another 12 days, to get to 16 days in total. Once at the distillery, it goes first into an 8.5m-tall column still (‘Magic Mike’, great name) to get to 40%, and then in a 2,500-litre copper pot still (‘Granny Smith’, another brilliant name), described by Ollie as their distiller Jamie’s “brain child”.

This one was easier to take.

For every distillation run, they produce about 7 casks worth of newmake spirit, mostly filled at 63% after diluting from the original strength of 80%, with the borehole water. Their most prevalent casks are ex-bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill distillery, in the US. Some of the casks are kept in the production shed, but the majority rests in another building on site which we didn’t visit. The first cask was laid out in August 2022, and they aim to have their first malt ready in November this year (2025). In the meanwhile, to follow the journey of the spirit, they have setup the Evolution Collection: a set of 50cl bottle spirits, taken every six months from 0 to 24, and the final first single malt whisky, all bottled at 46% (the whole set for the not cheap, but not unreasonable either, price of £500).

A sip of vodka in front of the still.

After the visit of the production area (and a sip of the Dutch Barn Vodka) we went back to the visitor centre for the tasting: the 3-dram lineup started with the newmake spirit, followed by the 6- and 12-month spirits. The three samples were very interesting and very promising, all three at 46% and characterised by notes of grilled pineapple and other tropical fruits. The second dram had notes of banana and, surprisingly, of burnt (in a good way), while we got apple pie but some herbal ones too from the last one. As the tasting was turning to an end, Ollie took out the “liqueurs cart” with several gins, coffee liqueurs and others to try. Some of them were definitely very nice, although it’s not really our scene, but perfect for those friends or family members who like lower abv and sweet drinks.

A cosy tasting room.

This visit was really good, we could feel the enthusiasm around this project, and how much thought is put in every aspect of production. Also, this was probably one of the most generous tours we have done so far, which is not a given these days, in particular given the silly prices of whisky experiences (at the time of writing, the Spirit of Speyside 2025 program was just out, with many companies really taking the proverbial piss). The one from Ellers Farm is definitely a single malt release we’re going to keep an eye on!

Stay tuned with us for the rest of our Yorkshire boozy day! Until the next time, slainte!

Ellers Farm Distillery Bespoke Tour

Price: £10.00 pp (October 2024)

Tasting: newmake spirit “The Bairn” (46%), 6 months-old spirit (46%), 12 months-old spirit (46%)

Target: whisky and spirits enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the staff enthusiasm and friendliness, and also a paradise for those interested in different types of distillation

Recommended: yes!

Link: https://www.ellersfarmdistillery.com/

#55.1 All drams great and small

The Top of the Wold and the Spirit of Yorkshire

TL; DR: This year the jolly gang of the Edinburgh Whisky Group chose a controversial destination for the annual trip: Yorkshire, in England! Plenty of distilleries and other destinations, starting from one of the most celebrated English whisky distilleries: the Spirit of Yorkshire! The tour(s) and tasting exceeded our expectations: this distillery is a strongly suggested destination for whisky lovers!

With the start of the autumn (or fall, for those of you on the other side of the pond), it was time again for the Edinburgh Whisky Group annual trip. Our first destination was Campbeltown, in 2021: plenty of whisky activities, all at walking distance from each other, just perfect. The trips that followed, Speyside in 2022 and Northern Highlands in 2023, were logistically harder to organise for Justine, as they required getting a coach, and playing Tetris with the various distilleries’ availability. One thing Justine had to face, despite her huge effort and the number of distilleries in those areas, was the unwillingness of many to accommodate a large group (with exceptions, such as Glen Moray and Glenallachie), open their doors for the ones usually closed to visitors (again some exceptions, like Dornoch), or just arrange something different for us…In some cases even replying to emails seemed to be too big of an effort!

For the 2024 trip, Justine had a great idea up her sleeves: going south of the border, to England! Specifically, to Yorkshire. English whisky has seen a renaissance in the past decade, going from one distillery (The English distillery, in East Anglia), to a few tenths, as testified by the ever changing map maintained by Cooper King (a caveat though, some of them are gin distilleries possibly laying cask of newmake spirit, so take this number with a pinch of salt…Nevertheless, 55 is quite impressive!). We had already “drammed around” England, with visits to the Lakes Distillery (March ’22), Copper Rivet (October ’22), White Peaks, and Cotswolds (both July ’23), with White Peaks being the most impressive, in terms of location, quality of the whisky and, last but not least, company ethos. Because we’d enjoyed these ‘tasters’, we were quite curious of this deep dive in the English whisky scene, so when October came, we were really excited!

On the road again.

We left Leith on the Thursday night, sleeping half-way between there and the “base camp” of our trip, the Piebald Inn, in Hunmamby. This is a quite famous hotel and restaurant, in particular for the number (and quality) of their pies…Although Gianluigi was a bit disappointed when he learned that the Quarter Horse or the Chestnut Horse pies were not really made with horsemeat, d’oh! We got there in the morning, just in time for the group meet-up. For our first day, we had a brewery and a distillery tour: Wold Top Brewery and Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery, both owned by the Mellor family.

First stop – Wold Top Brewery.

We started from the brewery, called Wold Top because Wolds are the hills where the brewery is located (it’s not a typo!). We got there by taxi, and as we settled in the brewery visitor centre and bar, they offered us a half pint (with a pint glass to keep), nice welcome! Sam, our guide, put on a well-made video about the brewery history. It was founded in 2003 by Tom and Gill Mellor on their farm, and it’s currently run by their daughter Kate and her husband Alex. Knowing that this part of Yorkshire is ideal to grow brewers’ and distillers’ barley, and realising that the farm sits on a great water source, they decided to cut the middleman and start producing their own beer, farm-to-glass. At first the biggest issue was distribution (they started with farmers markets), because of the remoteness of the area. In 2008 they installed their own bottling plant, and in 2012 and 2016 they expanded with new kits and started doing contract brews as well. For a while, the location could also be hired as a wedding venue, but that stopped a few years ago. In 2016, they also started distilling, but we’ll talk more about that later. For the beer, they mainly use Lauriet barley, which is sent to Muntons for malting. The barley is malted to eight different “colours”, but sometimes they also use wheat and, more rarely, corn. They use over 40 varieties of hops from all over the world.

After the video, we moved to the production area next door, also used as an extension for their events (and indeed, decorations from the October Fest were still hanging around). In this location they produce both the beer and the fermented wash for the distillery. After checking out the modern malt mill, we climbed a stair to get on top of a catwalk and check out the mushtuns, including the kettle to boil the beer (one of the main differences between making beer and whisky, beside the addition of hops), where the beer wash is boiled for 75 minutes. Next to the catwalk, the stainless steel washbacks for fermentation. The beer is kept in conditioning tanks for 2 to 4 weeks before going straight into casks (i.e. unfiltered), then chilled, filtered and finally put into kegs or bottles. We headed back to the (cosy) bar for another half pint, while our pal Stephen (after asking permission to the staff) served us a dram of a Filey Bay single malt finished in a Wold Top beer barrel (Ex-IPA finish, Whisky Exchange exclusive bottled for the 2024 Whisky Show, 51.5%) – a preview of what was about to come.

Going up to the top of the Wold.

Oh yes, the wort fermets here before going to the distillery down the hill.

We headed back to Hunmamby (again by taxi), to the Spirit of Yorkshire distillery. The building is in a small industrial estate, and other than distilling they also have a shop and a bar/café (The Pot Still) overlooking the still room. We had tables booked for lunch, and after the (nice) meal, we started the tour with our guide Justina. She gave us a welcome dram (the Flagship) while telling us the history of the distillery, which was built in 2016 and opened to visitors in 2017, with many options for tours and tastings.

Second stop – Spirit of Yorkshire distillery.

The fermented wash comes twice a week from the brewery on a tractor, 20,000 litres in total. For the whisky, they usually use Concerto barley in spring, and Vessel in winter. Fermentation lasts 75 to 95 hours, and the yeast is added twice, at different temperatures (two types of yeast, we missed which varieties though). The first pot still holds 5,000 litres, which are reduced to 1,700 after the first distillation. The second pot still is 3,500 litres, and after 10-15 minutes of foreshots, they collect 500 litres of spirit for about 1-1.5 hours, with cuts between 77-76% and 69% abv. Here is the novelty, they also have a small column still, which they use for 6 months a year in tandem with the pot still. For the column still, the 400 litres cut is taken between 86 and 85%. This system, as for many other new distilleries, was suggested by the late Dr Jim Swan, and because we are in England, and the grain used is barley, they can call it single malt whisky. The newmake spirits from the column and pot stills are put into casks separately, and then blended before bottling to get the required flavour profile: their flagship product is 50/50 column and pot still whisky, and it is fractionally married aiming for consistency; everything else they produce is made in small batches.

No pictures in the distillery – this one if from the cafe window.

The full capacity would be 450,000 litres of alcohol per year, but their usual production is between 12 casks per week (about 82,000 litres) which are stored in a bonded warehouse off site, but near the farm. Casks are then moved back to the distillery for bottling, in their new automated bottling line, able to make 600 bottles per hour. Everything is non-chill filtered and no colouring is added.

Well, we were allowed this one :).

After the very comprehensive tour, for the tasting we went back to the cafe, which they closed for the occasion. We explored their current range of single malts and variety of cask they use, including two expressions from beer casks (full tasting description below). At the shop they offered us another nip of things we might want to try (peated and Moscatel cask finish for us, to complete their range). Happy, we then headed back to the Pie Bald Inn.

Awesome tasting!

It was a great visit, we learned how things can be done differently compared to Scotch whisky, and still obtain a great result in such a short time (first release was in 2019 only) – the distillery is not even 10 years old! The array of whiskies we tried was very interesting, showcasing a great variety of flavours.

Stay tuned with us for more English whisky action! Until the next time, slainte!

Wold Top Brewery Tour + Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery Tour

Price: £12.50 pp + £30.00 (October 2024, our experience was a combination of the Brewery and Distillery tour, £25.00, and the Distillery tour & Deep Dive tasting, £30.00)

Duration: 1hr 30min + 2hrs

Tasting: 2 half pints of choice at the brewery and 6 Filey Bay drams at the distillery: the Flagship (46%, NAS, £55); IPA finish Batch 2 (46%, 6-7 months finish in a barrel that hold an IPA for 7-8 months, £65), STR Batch 4 (46%, finished for 7-8 months, £65); Porter Cask (50%, similar to their flagship, but finished for over a year in barrel that held Rip Curl porter for 14 months, sold out); Yorkshire Special Release 2024 (55%, matured in STR, then re-casked in ex-Madeira, ex-Sherry and finally virgin oak casks, £95); and a single cask bottled for the whisky marked (49.9% cask strength!, fully matured in ex-PX casks, distilled in December 2018, bottled in 2024)

Distillery exclusive: the Yorkshire Special Release 2024 (see above)

Target: beer and whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the whisky and the welcoming staff

Recommended: absolutely

Link: https://www.woldtopbrewery.co.uk/, https://www.spiritofyorkshire.com/

#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!

#53 Dramathon and Glenlivet

On the run yet again

TL; DR: After last year debacle due to storm Babet, this year we finally managed to run the Wee Dram, the Dramathon 10k. And while we were in Speyside, we stopped by Glenlivet distillery and visited production for the first time. The tour was a bit impersonal and very scripted, but nice to check it out anyway. Fortunately, we also went to Glenallachie, where our whisky friend Sue treated us like VIPs!

Like for the last three years, in 2024 too the second half of October meant Dramathon for us! After running it in 2021 (Wee Dram, 10k, for Teresa and the Half Dram, half marathon, for Gianluigi), and again in 2022 (Half Dram for both), last year we decided to take it easy and run the Wee Dram only, with a special guest: Gianluigi’s brother, Edo. Unfortunately, storm Babet got in the way, and although the Speyside area was not hit too badly, a red-alert flood risk in Aberlour resulted in the event’s cancellation (btw, we never received a refund from the B&B, as according to the despicable owner a red alert from the Met Office was not enough to cancel the reservation for an apartment about 150 meters from the river).

Because the race was cancelled, we could pass our tickets to this year for free. Or, we should have to – Edo unfortunately half read the email and thought it was automatic. It was not, and it was too late when we realised it, so the organiser could not sneak him into the race last minute because of insurance. Hey ho, these things can happen, so Edo ran on his own, since the path was open to the public during the race.

Welcome to “Space-side”.

But let’s get back to the day before the race: we picked Edo up at the airport, back to Scotland after the successful trip to Islay in July, and drove straight to Speyside. We only stopped at the KJ’s Bothy Bakery, near Grantown-on-Spey, to have lunch with a few tasty treats (the focaccia was greasy-ly awesome). For the afternoon, we had booked the Glenlivet Distillery Original Tour, their basic one. Among the open distilleries in Speyside, it was the only one we hadn’t fully visited yet, except for a tasting in summer 2021 (when production was still off limits because of Covid). The single-cask tasting was great, although prices of their bottlings were already quite high (and they were all 50cl bottles!). As the distillery is such a Juggernaut, with a production of 21 million litre of pure alcohol per year, we were very curious to check out the production site.

A glimpse of one of the many videos.

Our guide Emma met us in a space just below the (very nice and cosy) distillery shop and bar. After some basic information (Glenlivet means “the valley of the river Livet”), we got an introduction about the history of the distillery, and all the people that made that possible. It was George Smith that decided to get a distilling licence back in 1823 (the first one in Scotland), and to protect from the illicit distillers, he also got a pair of Innes guns, which are now on display at the distillery. Production started in 1824, marking 2024 as their 200^th anniversary: quite impressive. This introduction was almost repeated in the next room, where we watched a series of videos: some very informative, while others very marketing oriented. We then followed Emma in another room, where production was explained. We were a bit puzzled at that point, as we started to suspect that there wouldn’t be a visit to production (it was almost mid-way through the visit).

A bit of history while walking to production.

Fortunately, we were wrong, and we soon moved to the production area. The distillery saw two fairly recent expansions, in 2009 and 2018, but we only got to see a part of that. We didn’t either get to see the mill room, where they have a Bulher mill with three sets of rollers to crush the malted barley (all sourced within 70 miles from the distillery) to grist. Mashing happens in one of the massive 13.5 tons mashtuns, with the usual three waters at increasing temperature (65°C, 82°C and 92°C). The sugary wort is then moved to one of the 60,000-litre washbacks, made of either stainless steel or Oregon pine, where it ferments for 56 hours with distillers’ yeast. Then, the fermented wash is sent to one of the 14 wash stills, where it undergoes the first distillation. From the second distillation in the spirit stills, they take a cut between 74% and 62% abv. They have 28 stills in total, spread across three still rooms, and to achieve such massive production, the distillery works 24/7.

One of the three still rooms.

We followed Emma in a dunnage warehouse near the car park. They have also racked ones on site, less romantic but more efficient to manage casks. In the warehouse, we saw the usual exhibitions to explain maturation, but we could also smell the whisky maturing in different cask types, which was nice.

Nice display in the dunnage warehouse.

Finally, it was time for the tasting, which was a bit rushed since we were slightly late. We got three drams: the flagship Glenlivet 12 (40%), a 14y from 1^st fill American oak which was bottled to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the distillery (48%, the best of the bunch), and finally a double matured 16y, Distillery exclusive (nice, but not as the 14y in our opinion). Back at the visitor centre, we didn’t stay long as we drove straight to Dufftown to the register for the race. The day ended at the Parkmore campsite, where we had dinner and went to bed early.

Got there in the end – the tasting.

In the morning the weather was quite nice, so after breakfast we slowly walked to the Glenfiddich car park, where the bus would pick us up to go to the starting line, in Aberlour. Edo got a public bus instead, and we met him at the starting line. The race went quick (it’s only 10k after all), and although at the awards Gianluigi was announced as second in his age category (40-49… although he was still 39 at the time and wants to remark this!), it turned out a few days later that he actually got first, second total. He picked up his prize, a bottle of Glen Moray Sherry cask, weeks later at Royal Mile Whiskies, and he happily shared with his colleagues at his work Xmas party.

Got first, actually!

After the race, we went to Dufftown CoOp to buy some meat to grill, as we’d decided that the weather was perfect for a barbecue! By the time we had dinner it got quite chilly, so we sheltered inside Mr Vantastic, while enjoying some Springbank tasting packs. A great way to end the day!

As opposed to the sunny Saturday, Sunday was rainy and miserable. After breakfast, we went to the Glenallachie distillery under a heavy rain, to try some drams at the new distillery bar! Our friend Sue, who works there as a tour guide, gave us great recommendations, and we had a great time. She also kindly offered Teresa some coffee, as she was on driving duties (*sad trumpet*…but we got some drams for her to enjoy home).

Guess who’s driving.

That was another successful Dramathon weekend under our belt! Probably next year we’ll skip it, as there are other whisky events we’d like to attend in the same period, one up in the Highlands in particular. Good we could finally visit Glenlivet production. The tour was not memorable, mostly because visiting only part of the site, we didn’t fully appreciate how big it really is. Anyway, at least we got to try different expressions, definitely tasty.

Until the next time, slainte!

Glenlivet Original Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 drams, Glenlivet 12 (40%), 200^th Celebration 14y (48%, 1^st fill ex-American oak, £75), Distillery exclusive 16y (48%, 1^st fill American oak finished in refill European oak, £95), and a complimentary wee glass

Distillery Exclusive: Glenlivet 16y (see above), Fill-your-own (12y, £55; 15y, £70; 18y, £140, all cask strength), various 50cl single cask bottlings from Glenlivet and other Chivas Brothers distilleries

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the massive production site

Recommended: if we could choose a basic tour in the area, it wouldn’t be this one

Link: https://www.theglenlivet.com/en-gb/

#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/