Category: Road trip

#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

#60.2 Another Spirit of Speyside

The casks of Glen Moray

 

TL; DR: After the Cabrach, we drove straight to Elgin, for a last-minute tasting: Cask Origin Stories at Glen Moray! The distillery is an old acquaintance (fourth visit!), and as the previous three times, we had a great time with a range of delicious whiskies paired with a glass of what was in the cask before newmake or whisky. One for real whisky nerds! 

(missed Part 1?)

The tour at the Cabrach lasted less than we thought, so after a short stroll around the distillery under an overcast sky, we were on the road again. Since the afternoon unexpectedly opened up, as soon as we had some phone signal, we phoned a well known distillery to ask if they still had places for a tasting we’d spotted, but until that moment we thought we could not make it on time. The tasting was the Cask Origin Stories, at Glen Moray, in Elgin.

Glen Moray is an old acquaintance. At the start of our whisky journey, we mostly saw their entry level expressions at supermarkets, a brand among many, possibly anonymous. However, thanks to Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), it didn’t take long to mark the distillery as one of our first great “discoveries”. We found some of their single casks remarkable, and our second bottle ever from the SMWS was indeed a Glen Moray – St Bernard’s barrel, 35.232, finished in an ex-wine barrique, hidden in the elusive Spicy & Dry category. We were definitely sold after we visited the distillery during our first trip to Speyside in December 2019. There, we had two whisky flights: the travel retail version of the core range (Elgin Classic, NAS, the 12y and the 15y: all not chill-filtered and bottled at 48%) and the bottle-your-own drams. It was a wee while ago, so we don’t remember all the details, but Gianluigi still regrets not buying a delicious ex-Rye whiskey finished expression. We went back there in 2022, during the Speycation with the Edinburgh Whisky Group, for a full distillery tour and tasting, and again last year for a Star Wars themed tasting on May the fourth.

  • We managed to get here on time, yay!

One of the great things about Glen Moray, other than the variety of casks they like to experiment with, is that they always have three bottle-your-own expressions available at the distillery. But mostly, that two of the three are kept at a very reasonable price, conversely to most distilleries that like to charge extra for distillery exclusive bottlings. Last time we were there, two were nicely priced at £60, while the third, a more aged one, was £99 (still very affordable for a 20y malt!). This makes all the new visits interesting, and hence, once we realised we had enough time, buying the tickets for this event was a no-brainer!

  • The power of the wind on Teresa’s hair.

As we arrived at the distillery, we greeted our pal Iain, the brand ambassador and visitor centre manager. We met him during an online tasting organised by Justine (Kask Whisky), and since then we had many tastings with him (and we are also acquainted by a similar taste in music). After a nice chat, it was the time for the tasting to start, not with him, but with Fiona, who led us to the Glen Moray House. This is a lovely cottage to the right of the entrance, a multi-functional space that has been used as a tasting room as well. First, she showed us some old registers, reporting dates and type of casks filled: among the many “refill” and “sherry”, we spotted a few different wines, fortified or not.

  • A cosy tasting room.

We started the tasting with an unusual one, a Busnel Calvados (40%), followed by a vintage 2017 Glen Moray single malt finished in Calvados casks (56.9%). We moved on to the second pairing, a 10y Tawny Port from Cruz, with a 2008 (17y) single malt fully matured in a Tawny port cask (at the impressive abv of 60.2%!). These two drams were available as “bottle your own”, so it might be that at the time of writing (June ’25) they are still available at the distillery visitor centre. The third drink was a 15y Boal Madeira wine from Henriques & Henriques, followed by the Glen Moray House Exclusive whisky, a 13y Madeira matured whisky (57.8%). As the name suggests, this one is only available if you attend an event at the house. Finally, the last pairing was a single-vineyard Valdespino Inocente Fino sherry, and a peated, fully matured Fino cask whisky from 2015 (58.5%), this one available at the distillery.

  • From bottle…
  • …to glass.

It was a great line-up, and Fiona did a great job to walk us through the drinks and the drams, in spite of an unusually ‘serious’ audience of northern European men (other than Fiona, Teresa was the only woman in the room). Drink-wise, we were not too keen on the Calvados, too sweet for our taste, but otherwise we liked them all, especially the Madeira! The drams were all very tasty, showcasing a range of flavours from fruitiness, savoury and smoke. The Port-finished dram and Glen Moray House Exclusive were the two we liked the most, while in the last one the peat was ‘turned to 11’, which masked a bit the savoury notes of the Fino cask…One for true peat lovers!

  • The new kid on the block.

Back at the visitor centre we tried some of the new releases: “spirit drink” finished in Maple syrup casks, one peated (11y) and one unpeated (8y, both £90). Obviously, it cannot be “single malt” because the SWA doesn’t allow such experimental casks (but who knows? maybe Diageo or Pernod Ricard will buy a maple syrup producer at some point…). They were both less sweet than expected, in particular the peated one: was more like a BBQ-y meaty thing.

  • Not a bad spot for the night.

We soon left the distillery to find a spot for the night, which we did next to Portgordon, on the sea. There we made ourself dinner and relaxed (and Gianluigi powered through his drams, since he had bottled them all in sample bottles). It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the waves, after such a nice day and cracking drams.

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

Glen Moray Cask Origin Stories tasting (Spirit of Speyside 2025)

Price: £50.00 pp + SoS transaction fee

Duration: 1h30m-2h

Tasting: 4 drams paired with the previous content of the cask (see above).

Distillery exclusives: bottle-your-own 2017 Port cask finish (59.4%), £60; 2005 Chianti cask finish (53%), £99; 2015 peated Fino Cask (58.5%), £60 (at some point the first two drams of the tasting)

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: very good

Highlights: a few of the drams were excellent…and Fiona was a great host!

Recommended: absolutely

Links: https://www.glenmoray.com/ 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/

#59 Another Tuscan detour

In the land of Brunello

 

TL; DR: While in Rome, do as the Romans do…while in Tuscany, go visit a winery. This time we went to Fattoria dei Barbi, in the land of Brunello di Montalcino. In this magnificent landscape, we learned about how Brunello is made during the visit of the historical cellar, and we tried some great wines.

One of the best things about our whisky journey is the renovated pleasure that now comes with eating or drinking in general. This is because of the continuous focus on aromas and flavours during whisky tastings, which slowly but constantly enhanced our senses of smell and taste. This didn’t happen in isolation though: during a 2018 trip in Thailand (no whisky stories there), we attended a cooking class which opened our minds in terms of spices use and flavour pairings. Over time, having a meal, a cup of coffee, or a pint, or even a walk in a meadow or in a wood have become much more pleasant experiences (and no worries, we don’t eat meadows…usually).

And here we come to wine: because of our Italian upbringing, many people assume we are good at the “wine thing” although, spoiler alert, we are definitely not. This is despite wine being homemade within our families, by Teresa’s grandfather and Gianluigi great-grandfather. Also, being brought up in Italy meant that wine was often on the table at dinner and during weekends. And, while we know the basics and we have our preferences (generally bold red wines that go well with meat, better if they spent some time in wood), we never went down this rabbit hole. Ironically, this started to come around (slowly) thanks to whisky: in 2021 we visited a winery in Tuscany because we learned that Glenallachie finished a whisky in casks from that winery: Grattamacco. As for fortified wines, we went to a few port houses in our 2022 holiday in Porto. We also indulged in some winery visits and tastings in Australia last year. Still not experts, but definitely more “flavour curious”.

Not a bad weather for a two-day trip.

So, what’s better than improving our wine knowledge by visiting a winery in Tuscany? The occasion came in April this year (2025), for Teresa’s mother birthday: together with her sisters, she organised a two-day trip to Val d’Orcia, one of those places that look like a classic Tuscany postcard (wait, it is a Tuscany postcard!) – smooth rolling hills, small medieval towns on top of them, vineyards and meadows (again, not eaten). We left Florence early, and by mid-morning we were in Pienza: a town famous for its pecorino cheese (one of many), and contrary to others, purposedly (re)built by Pope Pius II in 1462, to reflect the ideals of the Renaissance. We then visited the charming Bagno Vignoni (a village famous for a very old spa), before stopping for lunch nearby, where we (meaning Teresa and Gianluigi) shared a very tasty 1.2kg “Bistecca Fiorentina”.

  • A spa village – Bagno Vignoni, very charming.
  • Maybe not charming, but still delicious bistecca fiorentina.

In the afternoon, we drove towards Montalcino, the hometown of the renowned Brunello of Montalcino wine. Until a while ago we never heard of a Brunello cask finished whisky, but the independent bottler Ferg & Harris recently close this gap.

Back to wine, the winery we chose was Fattoria dei Barbi – the tour was quite cheap, only €10 for the winery visit, while for the tasting we could pick (beforehand) between a few options: we chose a basic tasting (€25, four wines from the basic range) and an upgraded one (€35, focused on Brunello). The winery is very pretty, hidden from the main road and surrounded by woodland and, obviously, vineyards.

  • Just about avoided photo-bombing at the start of the tour.

The tour started in the shop, from which we could access the historical cellar, a series of connected rooms full of big barrels for fermentation and maturation. Interestingly, these barrels had a ‘tappo colmatore’ on top, a Leonardo Da Vinci invention, a lid to verify the level of liquid in the barrel and to allow the release of gas that might generate during maturation.

  • A new discovery for us – the ‘tappo colmatore’.

While moving from one room to the next one, our guide covered the history of the Colombini’s family, owners of the estate for centuries. Originally a farm, wine making became prevalent in the 1800s thanks to Pio Colombini, one of the producers who started bottling Brunello instead of selling casks to grocers (‘vinai’). His son Giovanni expanded the business and made it one of the first to sell Brunello overseas. But what makes a wine a Brunello? The rules were set in the 1980s, but in a nutshell, it needs to be 100% ‘Sangiovese grosso’ grapes, and the wine needs to age at least 5 years, of which at least two in oak barrels (mostly French oak) and at least 4 months in the bottle (the remaining time is usually spent in big wooden vats, with the above mentioned ‘tappo colmatore’). Similarly, for the Brunello Riserva the years are six, with 6 months spent in bottle (the rest is similar).

  • No, these are not the hogsheads we’re used to.

We didn’t get too geeky on the tour, so we don’t have many technical details to share, but listening to family stories while admiring the old cellar was a great experience. The wine cellar was spectacular, with bottles of all vintages (including our birth years, sob). Some you could buy, but you needed to enquire, and they might decide not to sell anyway. However, the guide admitted that many of those might probably be well past their best, and now they are just collectible items.

  • So much history…
  • …and yes, we’re that old.

The tour came to an end, and we went to the next building, the bar and tasting room. The basic flight showcased a wide range of products: we started with a white wine, Vermentino dei Barbi (vintage 2023), then moved to a “table wine” called Brusco dei Barbi (2020, 90% Sangiovese and the remainder a variety of grapes). The third wine was their Rosso di Montalcino (2023, 100% Sangiovese grape but not a Brunello). The crescendo ended with their main product, the Brunello di Montalcino (2019, blue label), honestly another level compared to the previous three. The other flight was focused on Brunello, and it took where the previous one left off with the Brunello di Montalcino, followed by another Brunello, single vineyard, called Vigna dei Fiori (2020, white label) which was great, and finally with the Brunello Riserva (2019, red label), truly stunning. We loved the combination of oak and fruitiness in those last three wines.

  • This one was beautiful…
  • and this one, wow!

After the winery, we drove to Montalcino, the village, another beautiful “Tuscany-postcard” village, where we had a walk under a light rain and a gloomy sky, before a half pint in a local Circolo Arci (and from this, you can tell we’ve been living in Scotland for a long time) and the walk back to the flat booked for the night.

  • Beautiful sunset in Montalcino.

The next day, we spent some time at the Sant’Antimo Abbey, before driving to Siena for a stroll in this beautiful (albeit quite touristy) city, and lunch. From there, we went back to Florence.

  • Sant’Antimo Abbey behind the olive trees.
  • Classic picture of busy Siena.

And so, this is our latest “malternative” exploration, again in the esoteric world of wine. Overall, the visit was not as good as the one at Grattamacco of a few years back (maybe because this one was less intimate), but it was still very interesting and informative. The trio of Brunello’s was great though, something really worth to dig into for all the flavour-driven people.

We should say ‘salute’, but we keep our tradition instead, so, until next time, slainte!

Fattoria dei Barbi wine tour and tasting

Price: €10.00 pp (April 25) + €20.00/€35.00 for the tasting

Duration: 1hr (+ tasting at your own pace)

Tasting: the regular one, Vermentino, Brusco dei Barbi, Rosso di Montalcino, and Brunello di Montalcino; the advanced one, Brunello di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino Vigna del Fiore, and Brunello di Montalcino Riserva (vintage may change)

Target: everyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the historical cellar

Recommended: we haven’t visited any other local wineries, but we had a good time

Link: https://www.fattoriadeibarbi.it/

#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/

#56.3 Dramming Down Under

The still in the Melbourne hills

 

TL; DR: Our third distillery visit of this trip, second in Victoria, was just outside Melbourne: Kinglake Distillery! A crafty distillery well hidden in the hills to the north-east of Melbourne, not too far from the Yarra Valley. We had a great time with Sam, one of the two owners, who showcased some very flavoursome single malts. 

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

Our second full day in Melbourne was a busy one, with not one but two distillery visits. The first one was outside the city, so right after breakfast, we picked up our rented car and started driving, destination Kinglake, to the north-east of Melbourne. Years ago the area made the news as it was heavily affected by the 2009 massive bush fires. Once left Melbourne’s central business district, we drove eastward, on the busy highway going to Sydney. We soon left the highway, to get into the Yarra Valley, a well renowned wine region.

Because our first visit was after midday, we had enough time to visit one of the local wineries. Not knowing much about Australian wines (and not much about wine in general), we chose one of the oldest (and largest) producers: Yering Station. It is a big place indeed, other than the vineyard and the tasting room, they also have a bar and a fine dining restaurant. We went straight to the shop and tasting room, and chose a small tasting for us to share at the bar, which included five wines all coming from the estate for $20 (there is a cheaper tasting, $15, but with wines from their other estates or vineyards). It was a short but fun activity for wine newbies like us, and we liked the fruitiness and freshness of the products, in particular the red ones. We ended up buying a young and lively Pinot Noir with (2023 Yering Station), which we found perfect as an “aperitivo” for the coming days. Fun fact: if you buy a bottle priced over $35, the tasting is free. Some producers in the old continent should take note. Back to the car, we went to the next village to grab a sandwich before moving on.

  • Not dramming, still enjoying.

The Kinglake distillery is well hidden in the hills: as a matter of fact, it broke the record for the longest dirt road driven to get to a distillery, before held by Nc’Nean: for a moment we thought the small MG car couldn’t cope, but fortunately it did. The weather was sunny and mostly dry, so we were raising clouds of dust while driving. The landscape was quite pleasant: a mix of woodland and farmed fields, with many green fields around the distillery and a pond. From the website it’s not possible to book tours or tastings (except for one very exclusive experience), but both Sam and Chantal, the two owners and distillers, replied emails quickly and they made themselves available on the dates we suggested. As we arrived, we were welcomed by Sam, who had a Queens of the Stone Age t-shirt on. That put us in a great mood right away.

  • Not the easiest drive, but we got there.

The distillery is totally off the grid, and at that time it consisted of two buildings, but in our understanding, they are building a new bar and tasting room (and their own house too). The first building we visited is split in two areas – one hosting a bar, a small tasting room, and the office, while the other production and some racked casks. The other building is mostly used as a warehouse, but it also hosts the mill. They started distilling in 2018, with a very specific plan in mind: first, trying to stick to ex-bourbon casks, in contrast with other Australian distilleries that focus on ex-wine casks to build on the country wine-producing heritage. Second, releasing small-batch bottlings rather than single casks, to achieve a house style and a consistency that is harder to get with single casks only, while trying to keep prices lower. A very sensible plan, if you ask us.

  • A bit of production, a bit of warehouse.
  • Not the classic Porteus.

Production-wise, we found their process very interesting. One of the reasons they decided to start here is the source of water, Chryser Creek, which is on the distillery property and is so clean that it needs no treatment. The mashbill consists of four malted barley varieties: distiller’s malt (Atlas La Trobe, similar to Maris Otter), Vienna Schooner, chocolate malt (only 4%, to keep balance), all sourced in New South Wales, and 25% of heavily peated malt from Scotland (Simpson malting). They mash everything together, unlike Archie Rose, for example, who mash and mature every malt variety separately. Once mashing is done in the 18,000-litre mashtun, they ferment the wort with M1 yeast in open top washbacks, not common! The open top is to allow natural yeast present in the air to contribute to the fermentation, a technique that is mostly used in rum production. Finally, both distillations happen in a single 2,500-litre still, taking a low cut deep into the feints.

  • Open top fermenters.
  • THE still.

They fill casks on site, mainly in ex-bourbon barrels from Kentucky, sometimes resized in smaller casks by a local cooperage (quarter/octave-ish). Before we started the tour, Sam gave us a taste of the O’Gradys, one of their main expressions: ex-bourbon matured indeed, bottled at 46%abv (that batch, almost exactly 3y old). The second taste, later on, was of the Doubled Wood, starting in ex-bourbon but finished in Portuguese ex-Tawny Port barriques, made of French oak (again 46%, 3y). The third one, In the Blood, was a small batch of whisky finished in River Red Gum wood, and bottled at higher abv (60%, 3y), while for the last one, Full Noise, we went back to whisky fully matured in ex-bourbon cask, but at 61% (again, 3y of age…The batch we bought though was 60%). Other than these drams they also release some limited editions, like The Bog Monster (unfortunately not tried and sold out, but sounding amazing from the description!). The drams we tried were all flavoursome, very vibrant, slightly funky, with herbaceous notes in some. We liked in particular the two fully ex-bourbon matured expressions, very creamy and fresh, showcasing how different climates can have a massive influence on the whisky (more on this next week).

  • Firey but good!

As we left the distillery, and before driving back to Melbourne, we stopped for a walk at the Wombelano Falls, just a few minutes driving away and even more hidden in the hills (so much so that at some point we thought we had taken the wrong turn). It’s not a long walk from the car park to the waterfall observation point, but still a very pleasant and quiet one. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any wildlife, only another couple who were leaving the trail to get closer to the falls in what looked like a not very safe part of the forest. We didn’t hear anything in the news the next day, so we assume everything was alright for them. Once we got back to the car park, we left to get back to Melbourne in time, for our second distillery visit of the day. Great day so far, we only wished we had more time to explore the area.

Stay tuned for more on that! Until the next time, slainte!

Kinglake Distillery Tour

Price: free (November 2024)

Duration: 1hr 15min

Tasting: 4 single malts, O’Grady Stand (ex-bourbon casks, including resized, 46%abv, 3y); Doubled Wood (Portuguese ex-Tawny Port barriques finish, 46%, 3y); In the Blood (River Red Gum wood finish, 60%, 3y); Full Noise (ex-bourbon barrels, 61%, 3y)

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: NA

Highlights: the unique process and the wonderful location

Recommended: for whisky enthusiasts absolutely, worth the trip from the city and beyond

Link: https://kinglakedistillery.com.au/