#68 Ardgowan distillery

A whisky cathedral in the west

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

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

Proud of bringing back whisky production in the area.

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

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

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

The old stables.

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

Yes, it’s meant to be open.

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

Shiny new equipment.

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

The best part of this whisky cathedral.

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

Interesting view of the still.

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

A very sherried lineup.

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

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

Ardgowan Distillery Tour

Price: £19.50 pp (November 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

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

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

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the modern building

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

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

#67 Bonnington distillery

A distillery next door

TL; DR: Back in October, and thanks to our pal Graham, we visited a distillery that is less than one km from our door: not the one you are probably thinking, rather Bonnington distillery. The manager Gregor welcomed and showed us around the premise. A very interesting project, and a surprisingly maritime single malt.

Our first contact with the distillery we’re talking about in this blog post was in April 2024, during the Biscuit Factory Beverage Festival (one of the many ‘drinks’ events in vibrant Leith), when other than the main festival, we attended a Bonnington & Crabbie tasting, in collaboration with Justine from Kask Whisky. There, we met their responsible for marketing, whom we shared contacts with, hoping for an informal tour of the Bonnington distillery. While we lost contact, our whisky pal Graham Fraser managed to keep in touch, got the details of the distillery manager, Gregor, and arranged a visit for early October this year. Persevere.

We run close to these casks almost every week!

Bonnington can be considered our “local” distillery, it’s really not even one km for our place, and it’s next to the Water of Leith Walk, so we often run just next to it. A few times we even smelled either the mash or the wash, which is nice but not a great incentive for a run, eheh! The distillery belongs to the Halewood Artisanal Spirits, together with a sister distillery in England (Bankhall), and our auld acquaintance Aber Falls, in north Wales. The company also owns the popular Whitley Neill gin, and Crabbie, famous for their green alcoholic ginger beer. John Crabbie is a whisky brand with strong ties to Leith, as the man who carried this name, including the now lost Yardheads distillery. For more of the history though, we’d suggest checking out Justine content, in particular her whisky history blogs on Substack. The group also included a smaller and experimental distillery located not too far away, in Granton, called Chain Pier. It was active only for a little while, from 2018 until January 2020, and so far only a handful of bottlings have been released, including by a few independent bottlers. Back to Bonnington distillery, the current site was chosen because it was the largest available in the EH6 postcode area, generally associated with Leith. The site has some history, as it was built as far back as the early 16^th century, including the Bonnington Manor House, while the area was also involved in the 1560 Siege of Leith. This delayed the operations by about 6 months, for the inevitable archaeological assessments. To note, there used to be an unrelated short-lived previous Bonnington distillery not too far away, near the Biscuit Factory.

You wouldn’t say we’re outside a distillery.

The land was bought in 2017 and construction works started the following year. The distillery was completed in 2019, their first mash in December. They didn’t fill their first cask until the 20^th of March 2020: a notable date, as it was the day before the first COVID-19 lockdown. Before starting, they went through the original purchase records to figure the original style of Crabbie’s whisky, finding out that it was a Highland style of whisky – they decided to reproduce it.

Back to the tour, Gregor started describing production in the courtyard, partly occupied by a few tanks, for draff (sent to anaerobic digestion) and pot ale, and two 30-ton malt silos. They employ 6 operators (out of 11 staff) and run 24/5 with four mashes a day, and each mash uses about 2 tons of malt. The output is about of 750,000 litres of pure alcohol per year, if they were to run 24/7 they could reach about 1.1 million lpa, but that’s not in the plans right now.

Ok, maybe these silos give it away…

The production water is sourced from a 120-meter-deep borehole, while the malt is sourced from either Beard or Crisp, with 3 deliveries every fortnight. When we visited, they’d just finished their peated run, which lasts a month and uses 190 tons of malt peated to 50 ppm. The mill is a modern AR2000, coloured bright red, which produces a grist with approximately the “usual” husk/grit/flour split (20%/70%/10%). They mash in a 2.5-ton semi-lauter mashtun with 3 waters at increasing temperature starting at around 63°C, obtaining a partially cloudy worth. They are equipped with 15 washbacks, 9 of which are in the next part of the building, past the stills, and they were added recently to increase capacity. They use MG+ yeast and, depending on the time of the week, fermentation can last either 150 or 80 hours. Gregor told us that the spirit obtained with the two fermentations is matured separately, and while the long distillation produces more stewed fruit notes, the short one enhances the biscuity notes: very interesting.

All stainless steel here.

A man and the newly added washbacks.

They have two gas boilers to get the steam for distillation, the wash still is 10,500 litres, while the spirit still “only” 7,500. Distillation is fast, to match the same time as mashing and, thus, facilitating the pipeline. The wash is preheated to about 60°C by a heat exchanger used to very cleverly cool down the pot ale in about 25 minutes, saving one hour of distillation time and gas consumption. The wash still produces about 20%abv low wines, which are then mixed with the head and tail of the previous run, which are obtained discarding the liquid above 75% and 62/61.5% abv of the second distillation. From each run, they obtain 1,100-1,200l of newmake spirit, at about 72% abv, which translates into about 130-140 casks per week. These are stored in their warehouses in Kirkaldy, as there isn’t much capacity on site. Casks are stored mainly palletised, as they have limited dunnage space, and are sourced from the Speyside Cooperage, unless they want something more special. Interestingly, they also have a spare gin still, but it hasn’t been used since March 2021, probably to avoid competition with their other gin brands.

Classic picture.

A less classic one. Always nice to see the stills from beneath.

After that, we went to a meeting room underneath the offices, where Gregor gave us a few sips of their products. We tried the John Crabbie and Johnny Cree (both non-age statement, NAS, 40%), which are fully matured in virgin oak and ex-bourbon casks, respectively. The former is not bad at all, just a bit watery due to the low abv. Currently the non-age statement expressions of both brands (the second named after John Crabbie’s business partner) are produced at the distillery, while in the future the aim is also to produced the aged Crabbie (12y and 15y, currently sourced whisky). Then we tried a few Bonnington single malts, a range which is reserved for small batches or single casks: the peated Muscat cask (NAS, 51%) was very tasty, while the unpeated Muscat was good too (NAS, 47%). The other available we didn’t try was the PX casks (NAS, 47%). In general, their whisky has a striking maritime character, which makes sense as we’re not that far away from the Forth, but it is something not usually associated with Lowlands malts.

An interesting selection.

An interesting selection (continued).

After these drams it was time to go back home, so we first greeted Gregor, and once outside the distillery, our pal Graham. It was not our first time visiting a distillery with him, but the first in such an intimate tour: it was good that for once we weren’t the only ones asking for nerdy details, which Gregor patiently explained us with competence and knowledge. He said that, when he has time and if asked nicely, he likes showing people around. But he also said that random showups are a strong ‘nope’: it is still a production plant (something some whisky people don’t quite get…). As we walked home, we passed by the massive bonded warehouses built by the Pattison brothers just before their demise, and subsequently acquired by DCL. We are very happy that the whisky industry is returning to Leith, such a pivotal place for the history of our favourite drink.

Stay tuned for our next trip! Until then, slàinte!

Bonnington Distillery Bespoke Visit

Price: free (October 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: a few sips from currently bottled single malts (see description above)

Target: anyone

Value for money: well…it was free

Highlights: the location and the compact production

Recommended: yes, but do get in touch with them first!

Link: https://crabbiewhisky.com/bonnington-distillery/

#66.3 Something new, something old

Glenkinchie, or the sunny corner of Scotland

TL; DR: Back home, we thought we could fit another whisky experience before officially ending our holidays. The choice was easy, and on paper relatively close: Glenkinchie, a distillery we’d meant to (re)visit for a while after it became one of Diageo’s Four Corners of Scotland. Very interesting to taste whiskies generally not on our radar, but what made the experience even more special was to have a whisky friend as our guide!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

As we wrote in the last few posts, our holiday on the Outer Hebrides got literally blown away by high winds, which prevented the ferries to safely sail to destination. As a backup, we visited a new distillery, Toulvaddie, and revisited another one after a revamp, Glenturret, before driving back home, where we arrived, a bit sad, on a Saturday late afternoon.

Because we were officially still on holidays, Sunday was open to some extra whisky activity. We didn’t let this go, and we decided to revisit a distillery we’d first visited a long time ago and that meanwhile had undergone some substantial changes: Glenkinchie distillery. When we visited the first time, renovations were under way, as the distillery was due to become one of the Johnny Walker’s Four Corners of Scotland, together with Clynelish (Highlands), Cardhu (Speyside) and Caol Ila (Islay). In the meantime, we didn’t get much acquainted with this whisky: the basic 12y is ok but not the most flavoursome, other expressions released by Diageo at higher abv are usually very expensive (like the 27y 2023 Special Release or the 16y Four Corners of Scotland). It is also hard to find it from independent bottlers, with the exception of a recent release from Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, a tasty sherry bomb!

Glenkinchie is one of the closest distilleries to Edinburgh, but it’s not the easiest to reach: located in Peastonbank, near Pencaitland, it’s about 15 miles from the city centre. On the website, in the tours’ description, they advertise an external company offering return trips from St Andrews Square (only certain days of the week) for £35 per person, which for a couple (or any group bigger than one really) is borderline extortionate: probably it comes cheaper to just get a taxi. During the week there is a bus that brings you there, the East Coast Bus service 123 from Haddington (here the timetable, while here you can check the route, just remember to select “long loop”). On a Sunday, however, the closest bus stop is in Pencaitland, via service 113. However, we realised that there was a path from Pencaitland to the distillery, off the roads and mainly in the woods, and the weather forecasts were looking decent…

Ok, we didn’t get lost in the woods.

So there we were: on a sunny Sunday morning, waiting for the 113 bus in a very quiet Regent Rd (near Calton Hill). In Pencaitland, after just over one hour ride, we got off at the stop near the park, to wait for the new cafe and convenience store The Granny Shop to open: there we got coffee and delicious morning rolls. The walk to the distillery (about 2 miles) took slightly less than 40 minutes, and past the village we easily found the path in the woods. At the end of it, a gravel path set up by the distillery, ending directly in the backyard, near the warehouses. As we approached the distillery, we also saw a sign from the Winton pub (also in Pencaitland), saying they’d pick you up for free, if you then went there (for a meal, we guess?).

Yes, that’s the right place.

Finally, we were there at opening time, 10am: we were welcomed by our friend John, who recently started working there as a senior tour guide. He’s part of the Edinburgh Whisky Group, and we’ve been together to tastings and one recent day trip to Glasgow distillery. After a quick catch-up and some pleasantries, it was time to start the tour! We first delved into the history of the distillery, highlighted by panels on the wall with parallel timelines for Glenkinchie and Johnnie Walker. Founded as Milton in 1825, Glenkinchie was registered in 1837 only. Unfortunately a big change saw it turned into a sawmill in 1853 by a local farmer (!!!), only to be reconverted into a distillery in the 1890s. Nowadays its capacity is around 2.5 million litres per year, 90% of which going into Johnnie Walker. Being in East Lothian, the sunniest part of Scotland, Diageo considers it the “garden distillery”, so they aim for a floral character: this is remarked by a well curated garden in front of the new visitor centre. The maltings used to run on coal but were decommissioned in 1968. The building now hosts, among the other things, a not-so-miniature model of a distillery: originally built for the 1920 London Exhibition, it’s very accurate in showing all the steps of whisky production. Apparently it used to work, even after it was reassembled at Glenkinchie, but because of various reasons (including HMRC), it was decommissioned.

This model used to work, incredible!

Moving on to the real production, six malt bins feed the Porteus mill (acquired second-hand in the 1960s) almost twice a day when in operation (we visited towards the end of the silent season, which was extended this year to allow some extra repairs). Each batch takes one ton of barley in the full lauter mashtun, and 44,000 litres of water: 33,000 litres for the first run at 64°C; 11,000 litres for the second run at 74°C; finally the third and last run of 33,000 litres at 84°C is used as first water for the next batch, after going through a heat exchanger. Before the silent season the total mashes per week were 13, to leave some space for cleaning, but they are planning on a five-day production going forward. To note, the production water is taken from the Kinchie burn, and sent back there after a passage through cooling ponds, part of a regenerative project.

Chatting away in the fermentation room.

Fermentation is carried out in one of the 6 wooden washbacks (Douglas fir), for about 72 hours to obtain about 8% wash, using distiller’s yeast. Each batch of wash is used to feed two distillation cycles. The wash still (the biggest on the mainland) is charged with about 20,000 litres, to obtain low wines at 23%. The second distillation’s cuts are 75% and 65%, and are done manually, with the leftover foreshots and feints redistilled with the next batch. Both stills work with steam obtained by burning gas, and they have wormtub condensers: it is almost counterintuitive how such floral spirit is obtained with such big stills and wormtubs, usually associated with more robust whisky characters. The other leftovers of the process, pot ale and draff, are sold to local farmers. Finally, the newmake spirit is filled into tankers and sent to Leven (where Cameronbridge is) for cask filling, although they still have about 3-4,000 casks on site in a few warehouses (one is accessible by doing another experience, The Spirit of Warehouse No. 4).

Not a selfie, for once.

After this very nerdy tour, we were ready for the tasting. First, our tour included a cask sample of choice between four available: two Glenkinchie expressions (2008 American oak first fill ex-bourbon barrel, 58.4%, and 2015 ex-red wine cask, 59.8%), a 2008 Caol Ila (58.7%) and a 2007 Cameronbridge (63.1%), both ex-bourbon barrels. This happened in a narrow corridor with a few other casks as well: it is what remains of their previous warehouse located in what now is the shop and visitor centre. We chose the two Glenkinchie-s, the 2008 in particular was truly an exceptional dram: oily, floral, buttery, with hints of riped fruit and tropical notes – yes, please!

Glenkinchie straight from the cask, yay!

Next, we had a full-flight vertical tasting of the Glenkinchie range, in a tasting room above the entrance and with a great view of the garden: the classic 12y, the Distillers Edition, the Distillery Exclusive, the bottle-your-own (from an ex red wine cask) and finally the Johnnie Walker 18y. This was supposed to be the last dram, but John suggested to start the tasting with it, since it was the only dram bottled at 40%: a very good advice. The tasting was very interesting, and provided some different takes on the Glenkinchie: the ones we liked the most were the Distillers Edition (Amontillado sherry casks really elevate this dram) and the Distillery Exclusive, fresh and fizzy. We confirmed that the standard 12y is a bit bland, while the bottle-your-own was a wine-bomb (we’re not against that like some other whisky fans, but we reckon it is not for all palates…probably growing up in Italy gave us enhanced tannins tolerance).

A cosy tasting room.

After the tasting, we grabbed a coffee and a tasty bite at the distillery cafe, and we slowly walked back to Pencaitland to grab a bus back to the city centre. We went to Diggers to finish up the afternoon with a few drams, before going back to Leith to, this time for real, end our “holidays”.

We usually don’t comment too much on the tour guides, because we know that for many it’s just a job, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, having someone knowledgeable and passionate like John really elevated the experience to a different level of detail and appreciation, and his guide through the tasting was great.

Thank you, John!

For the current times we think it’s borderline but still a decent value proposition at £65 for a 2hr tour, with 6 drams, of which 2 bottled at cask strength, and the 15ml pours are good for us: we’re not there to get pished! Prices in the shop are the usual for Diageo: good for the standard range (including the Distillers Edition), high for the Distillery Exclusive, and nonsensical the bottle-your-own (and the various special releases). There are other experiences available that are not distillery tours, so we might go back at some point: asking for John, first!

Well, that’s it for now. Until next time, slàinte!

Glenkinchie Flavour & Cask Experience

Price: £65.00 pp (September 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: Glenkinchie 12 (43%), Distillers Edition (43%, NAS, Amontillado finish), Distillery Exclusive (NAS, 48%, Re-charred and American oak apple brandy casks), Bottle-your-own (12y, 48.4%, American oak California red wine cask), Johnnie Walker 18y (40%), one cask sample of choice (see above for the selection)

Target: whisky fans and geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the sample from the cask and the bar overlooking the garden

Recommended: yes, but ask for John!

Link: https://www.malts.com/en-gb/glenkinchie/visit

#64 Eden Mill distillery

Born again in Guardbridge

TL; DR: Another blog post with a special guest, this time our friend Isotta. She arrived a day before the Whisky Fringe, and before that we visited the rebuilt Eden Mill distillery, just outside St. Andrews. The new building is stunning, and the process has radically changed compared to the original configuration. The tour ended with a dram to go, as the visitor centre was still WIP then.

It’s always nice to have friends and family over…And when they don’t mind a dram or two, even better! That was the case for Gianluigi’s youngest brother, Edoardo, who came with us on a few trips already, on Islay & Jura, Speyside and recently, in the Northern Highlands. Another great trip was Gianluigi’s weekend in Campbeltown with his pal Roberto, back in April. Although we’re comfortable in our bubble of whisky enthusiasm, visiting a distillery, or more generally discussing about whisky with people who like it but are not nerds is often refreshing and helps gain new perspectives.

Another good friend who enjoys her drams is Isotta: like Edoardo, she’s a teacher, so she can only come over for holidays in summer. This one wasn’t the first time we did something related to whisky with her: a few years ago, we went to a very boozy dinner at the Vaults. Two years ago, we opted for a classic warehouse tasting at Deanston. This year we planned something different: we met in Fife and spent one night in Falkland, a very cute wee village at the bottom of the Lomond Hills. We had a good meal at the Covenanter Hotel, the only pub currently operating in town, ended with a flight of the new and local independent bottler Saltire Rare Malts. In the morning, we woke up early and climbed the West Lomond Hill after a nice walk, although the strong wind on the summit make it less enjoyable. Back to Mr. Vantastic, we drove 35 minutes to reach our destination: the newly built Eden Mill distillery.

So beautiful up the hill…

…Just a tad windy.

We reached it quickly in time for the tour, despite Google sending us to the wrong entrance. The site is near the mouth of the river Eden, in a village called Guardbridge, to the north of St. Andrews, near Leuchars. Before the modern redevelopment, the whole area was a paper mill, but before that, it’s here that the Haig family produced whisky until around 1860. Today the site is mostly occupied by the University of St. Andrews, including a biomass plant, part of ongoing research into alternative fuels and carbon capture. The old distillery used to be on the same site, in a building which now hosts university offices.

The new distillery.

We did the Behind the Scenes tour, the only experience available at the time as the visitor centre was not ready yet (August 2025). It included a tour of the distillery, a whiff of the newmake spirit and a 5cl of their blended malt Guardbridge, which has Eden Mill malt from the old distillery in it (and it looks like it’s mostly from ex-bourbon casks). They now (September 2025) have new experiences, a couple for gin lovers, and various for whisky enthusiasts, ranging from £26 to £150pp. We were welcomed inside a bothy (both a small office and a pop-up shop), by Finlay and Jude: the former was our guide for the day, the latter the driver who took us inside an Eden Mill branded van to the courtyard of the distillery, on the other side of the complex (the same side Google had erroneously sent us before).

A cute little bothy, we could stay here the whole afternoon…

…But it was time for the tour!

The distillery’s goal with the new set‑up is a fruitier, more floral spirit than before, and that intention is reflected in the production choices. For comparison, they kept the old 900-litre still, which is dwarfed by the new ones. The theoretical capacity could reach up to 1 million litres of alcohol per annum, but Finlay told us this is unlikely. At first, they were running 3 distillations a week to catch up with the casks they sold before, but it is now only one per week. One distillation, however, can fill up to 68 casks at 68.5%, which means that in about a month and a half they can produce the same amount of whisky that was produced in the old distillery between 2014 and 2018 (about 420 casks).

The old…

The barley variety is Laureate and is grown in Fife, sourced within a 50-mile radius to keep things local. Mashing is done with three runs of water at increasing temperature, and the draff is sent to local farmers. Fermentation is run in one of the six stainless 15,000-litre washbacks and is longer than before, around 72 hours, using Type M distillers’ yeast supplied by Kerry via a local distributor. The extra time is to let fruity esters develop, to get the fruitier spirit they’re aiming for. The new stills are steam‑heated via a gas-fired boiler, with a 15,000-litre onion‑shaped wash still and an 11,500-litre spirit still with a pronounced boiler bulb to enhance reflux. In the second distillation, the cuts are between 72% and 63.5%abv.

…And the new.

Three external water tanks help with cooling and process resilience. Casks are filled on site and then moved off site for insurance reasons. Long-term storage is palletised, with one of the warehouses in Glenrothes. The cask make‑up is mostly ex‑bourbon with sherry casks used more for finishing, roughly a 70/30 split for now. However, the first two casks were Scottish virgin oak. Worth noting that they’re collaborating with the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and they’re releasing a small number of casks for private sale. They also produce gin from neutral grain spirit distilled with botanicals. There are three gins in the range, leaning on locally sourced botanicals in line with the whisky’s local‑first ethos.

A few casks on site.

At the end of the tour there was no tasting, because “the bothy” didn’t have the required license to serve alcohol, so we got our sample of Guardbridge Blended malt to go. The other expressions on sale were an ex-Bourbon and a Sherry matured single malts, and a range of limited releases (in fancy boxes), some of which single casks. For a proper tasting, Finlay and Jude suggested us their shops in St Andrews or Edinburgh, near the Johnny Walker Experience, but we passed on that occasion. We were quite happy anyway: we were impressed with the new distillery, and what they are doing seems very promising. We were not massive fans of their previous releases (at least, the few we tried), but judging from the newmake spirit, the direction of travel is very good.

Charming Fife coast at St. Monans.

After the distillery, we kept driving along the Fife coast, on the East Neuk: the weather was decent, so we enjoyed the wee coastal villages, in particular St. Monans, where we stopped for tea and cake. Thankfully we drove back to Leith when the Oasis crowd were already settling at Murrayfield, so we didn’t find much traffic. To close off a good whisky weekend, the day after we went to the Whisky Fringe festival. A first for Isotta, who really enjoyed it. As always, it was a joyful and great whisky experience.

Stay tuned for our attempt to attend the Hebridean Whisky festival, in a couple of weeks! Until then, slàinte!

Eden Mill Behind The Scenes Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (August 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 5cl miniature of Guardbrige Blended Malt (46%)

Target: anyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the new distillery

Recommended: yes, but this tour is not available anymore, follow the link for more alternatives

Link: https://www.edenmill.com/

#62 The EWG trips are back

Glasgow is hot!

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

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

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

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

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

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

The spirits range.

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

the 1770 Glasgow range.

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

A nice setup behind us.

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

Getting ready for a delicious dram.

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

Nice to be back at Jackton distillery.

Not everybody copes well with the heat.

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

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

The Glasgow Distillery Experience

Price: £45.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

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

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the variety and quality of single malts

Recommended: definitely

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

Jackton Distillery Tour

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

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

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

A rainy day in the south of Scotland

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

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

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

Hard to miss it.

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

Office…no, more of an art studio.

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

The spirit still…

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

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

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

The mashing & fermenting equipment is ready!

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

Always happy when in a distillery.

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

Some of the drams tried at the distillery shop.

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

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

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

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

#57 Fife Whisky Festival and Independent Spirits Festival

A tale of two festivals

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

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

Ready? Ready!

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

Busy dramming session in Cupar.

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

Keeping warm with Lady of the Glen drams.

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

Round two of the March festivals.

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

Hanging out with whisky enthusiasts…

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

…more whisky enthusiasts…

…and more!

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

Until next time, slainte!

Links

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

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

#54 Another whisky year under our belt

What a 2024 it was!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr Vantastic and Teresa at Aberargie Distillery!

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

We fell in love with this place too – Tormore.

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

Happy, wee whisky group.

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

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

Dramming south of the border – Yorkshire.

Dramming further south of the border – Australia.

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

Working hard at the Fife Whisky Festival.

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

Trying to come up with decent tasting notes.

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

So, until the next year, slainte mhath!

#52 Rosebank Distillery

28 (+2) years later

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

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

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

No way we could miss it.

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

Old and new beautifully combined.

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

A big production area.

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

A shiny mashtun.

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

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

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

A mini Ian Mcleods’ tasting.

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

No better way to end the day.

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

Until the next time, slainte!

Rosebank Distillery Reawakening

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the history of the distillery

Recommended: for historical reasons

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

#51 Jackton Distillery

Driving West to East Kilbride

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

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

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

Late, but here we are!

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

Crappy picture of a modern mill.

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

A wall of washbacks on the way to the stills.

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

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

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

Wanna a Raer?

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

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

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

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

Jackton Distillery Tour

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: a tad pricey

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

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