#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/

#54 Another whisky year under our belt

What a 2024 it was!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr Vantastic and Teresa at Aberargie Distillery!

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

We fell in love with this place too – Tormore.

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

Happy, wee whisky group.

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

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

Dramming south of the border – Yorkshire.

Dramming further south of the border – Australia.

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

Working hard at the Fife Whisky Festival.

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

Trying to come up with decent tasting notes.

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

So, until the next year, slainte mhath!

#53 Dramathon and Glenlivet

On the run yet again

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

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

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

Welcome to “Space-side”.

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

A glimpse of one of the many videos.

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

A bit of history while walking to production.

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

One of the three still rooms.

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

Nice display in the dunnage warehouse.

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

Got there in the end – the tasting.

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

Got first, actually!

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

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

Guess who’s driving.

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

Until the next time, slainte!

Glenlivet Original Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

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

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

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the massive production site

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

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

#52 Rosebank Distillery

28 (+2) years later

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

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

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

No way we could miss it.

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

Old and new beautifully combined.

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

A big production area.

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

A shiny mashtun.

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

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

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

A mini Ian Mcleods’ tasting.

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

No better way to end the day.

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

Until the next time, slainte!

Rosebank Distillery Reawakening

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the history of the distillery

Recommended: for historical reasons

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

#51 Jackton Distillery

Driving West to East Kilbride

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

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

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

Late, but here we are!

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

Crappy picture of a modern mill.

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

A wall of washbacks on the way to the stills.

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

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

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

Wanna a Raer?

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

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

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

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

Jackton Distillery Tour

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: a tad pricey

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

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

#50 Falkirk distillery

Old stills for a new whisky

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

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

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

Things you can do on a Friday afternoon.

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

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

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

An old mashtun in a new distillery.

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

New washbacks, with an old mashtun on the back.

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

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

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

Lot of promising spirit here.

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

Take-home whisky tasting.

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

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

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

Private Falkirk Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2024)

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: whisky nerds

Value for money: good

Highlights: Zi was an excellent guide

Recommended: yes

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

#49 Blackness Bay

The craft distillery with a pirate twist

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

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

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

View of the castle from the beach.

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

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

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

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

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

Smelling what goes into rum.

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

A wee distillery…and a museum!

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

The smallest, cutest warehouse.

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

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

Blackness Bay Distillery

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: Colm and Sheena are great

Recommended: yes

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

#48.2 Islagain

In the Jack Russell’s den: Ardbeg

TL; DR: Among the Islay distilleries, we left a good one for last: Ardbeg! Together with our pals, we went there for a tour and a snack: we were not disappointed, the tour was good, and very relaxed. We even got a special gift!

(missed Part 1?)

After our Saturday celebrations, we had an “early” start on Sunday: we had booked a distillery tour at 10.30, and we had a 40-min drive from Bowmore to get there. It was a sunny day, so during our drive we enjoyed a great view of the island’s landmarks: peat bogs, the Laggan Bay, the Oa, Port Ellen maltings and village, the Kildalton coast…Our destination? Ardbeg! We arrived a few minutes early, just enough to browse the shop and take pictures in front of the distillery to mark an achievement: our 10^th on Islay, the 90^th Scottish one, 109 in total.

As we’re not that seasoned in our whisky journey, we haven’t experienced legendary Ardbeg drams like the Uigedail’s first batch (although, the current one is still pretty delicious) or the original 17yr old (we’re not very excited about the clumsy attempt at reviving it, as it’s silly expensive). However, in our early whisky days, Ardbeg 10 was one of the first serious drams we tried, and still a safe bet nowadays: there might be some batch variation, but in general it’s pretty solid. When we started exploring the range, we found other excellent expressions as well: Uigedail as we said, Corryvreckan and the more recent For Discussion are great, while An Oa and Wee Bestie are fine. While we don’t mind too much the silly marketing, we are a bit put off by the high prices of limited releases. But we reckon, if they sell, good for them: we’re happy to stick we the solid core range.

10th Islay distillery, yay!

Back to present, our tour guide was Becca, who took us to the pier and gave us a dram while explaining the history of the distillery: of course it was their flagship, Ardbeg 10 (bottled at 46%, matured in first fill and refill ex-bourbon casks). The distillery was founded by the MacDougall’s family in 1815, and saw some ups and downs, it was even closed for some periods. In recent times, after the LVMH/Glenmorangie acquisition (for £5.5m), they had to release younger whisky because of the lack of stock of the 10yr old. They used to have two malting floors, dismissed in 1981, which are now used as visitor centre, restaurant and warehouse.

Once inside the distillery, we first got into the mill room, where the Bobby mill is still going strong (btw, it’s one of the 17 currently working Bobby mills in Scotland, including Ardnahoe and Bruichladdich). The grist split is the usual, and once milled the barley is moved into the mashtun, where 18,000 litres of water at 65°C are added for the mashing.

One of the 17th Bobby mills in Scotland.

Their water source is the Loch Uigedail, located 3 miles away, which then goes into the Charlie’s dam, at the distillery. The second water (8,000 litres at 80-85°C) is then added to complete the mash, while 18,000 litres of the third water (90-95°C) are used as first water for the following mash. They used to do 22 mashes per week, now they cut back to 16. For fermentation, they have 12 washbacks, six original made of Oregon pine (Douglas Fir), plus the new ones. At this point in the tour, Becca gave us the second dram, a glass of Uigedail. Fermentation lasts 66 hours and, once fully fermented, the wash is split in two to fill up the two new wash stills for the first distillation.

We visited both the new and the old still room, the latter being quite tight and very traditional, with the two dismissed stills: apparently one reached its end of life as the new stillroom was built. There, Becca explained us the role of peat and she gifted us a small block! Teresa was not so keen, but Gianluigi was: now it’s on display in our kitchen! We moved on to the new stillroom and its two pairs of new shiny stills, shaped exactly like the old ones. It’s a very modern build, where everything is computerised, including a huge window that was open to get some fresh air. During the second distillation, the newmake spirit is collected after 10 minutes of foreshots, from an abv of 74%, for five hours down to 69%: the rest (feints) is put together with the foreshots and redistilled with the next batch of low wines from the first distillation. Here, Becca gave us the third dram, a Corryvreckan. The tour ended at the pier again, where everyone could finish their dram at their leisure…Except Gianluigi, who went back to the visitor centre to collect his driver drams pack (in a tube, quite distinctively). Other than the glass, they also gave us a five-pound voucher each to be used for merchandising or on the core-range bottlings (min £40).

The new still room…That’s big!

After the tour, we had a snack: unfortunately the restaurant was closed for a private event, but we could get some tasty food at the cart in the courtyard, and the weather (although windy) was good enough to eat outside. We then drove back to Bowmore, where we dropped our friends at their accommodation.

Such a lovely day.

Our intention was to go for a walk, but as it was starting to rain, we jumped back in the van instead and we visited a bit of Islay we hadn’t been before: the Rhinns. We drove to Portnahaven, where we had some seafood at the An Tigh Seinnse, a local pub. It was truly delicious, and we left the village very happy, also because we spotted seals in the bay. Overall, another good day on Islay.

The day after we just had a walk and a coffee in Bowmore, before driving first to Bunnahabhain (Gianluigi had to catch up the tour he’d missed on the Saturday) and then to Port Askaig for our ferry back to the mainland.

Seals spotting in Portnahaven.

Another nice wee holiday on Islay. While Bunnahabhain unfortunately dropped the ball, Ardbeg was great, with a very good tour that could fit both newbies and more seasoned whisky geeks (just a shame we didn’t get to see the warehouses). In our experience so far, we think Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Bruichladdich and Lagavulin offer the best “regular” distillery tours on the island (full disclosure: we haven’t done the regular tour at Kilchoman).

If we combine the two previous trips on Islay, overall we managed to “bag” nine distilleries, out of the ten currently working distilleries on the Island (plus Jura!), and we got to 10 with Ardbeg on this trip. As we are writing this post, we heard the news that the construction company building the 11^th one, Portintruan, filed for administration, and we are wondering if this is going to delay the project. Finally, there is a 12^th distillery in the pipeline: Laggan Bay, a collaboration between the Islay Boys and Ian McLeods (Glengoyne, Tamdhu and now Rosebank), but as far as we know works haven’t started yet. So, probably for a while we’ll be able to claim that we have visited all distilleries on Islay. Yay!

Stay tuned for some Lowland action! Until then, slainte!

Ardbeg Quintessential Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (August 2024)

Duration: 1hr 15min

Tasting: 3 drams, Ardbeg 10 (46% ex-bourbon casks), Uigedail (54.2%, ex-bourbon and Oloroso casks), Corryvreckan (57.1%, ex-bourbon and French oak)

Target: both casual and more seasoned drinkers

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the new still room

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.ardbeg.com/en-int/visitus.html

#48.1 Islagain

Nice drams with a sour aftertaste: Bunnahabhain

TL; DR: And we’re back to Islay for the second time this summer! After a quiet Friday afternoon, the next morning we had our first tasting, followed by a tour at one of our favourite distilleries: Bunnahabhain. The tasting was great as usual, but what happened afterwards was a major let down for us.

Driving to Islay is always a big trip: it takes about four hours to drive from Leith to the Kennacraig ferry terminal, and then the ferry trip is another couple of hours. However, once you’re on the island, you forget about all of this as the atmosphere in which you’re immersed is something else. Everything slows down and there is a sense of quiet and tranquillity. It’s a strange mix between feeling energised and relaxed, with the mind finally off the million thoughts of everyday life. Maybe this a feature of all remote places.

The excuse for this trip came when our friends Glaire and Clay asked us to join them on their trip to celebrate their friend’s birthday. That was a proposition too good to be true, so we happily accepted. On a Friday morning, we picked them up and started driving westward, first to Glasgow and then up along Loch Lomond, past Arrochar south-west, and along the Argyll’s lochs (as we write, we can almost visualise the trip). We had a wee stop for a coffee (well, and a wee) in Inveraray, at the George Hotel. We also enjoyed their morning rolls, unbelievably tasty. A pity we didn’t manage to meet our friend Ivan. The rest of the drive was uneventful, everything was on time, and we got safely to Bowmore where our friends had booked a small apartment. We parked our van not too far away and hanged out with them. In the evening, after dinner at the Lochside, we met their friends for a drink at the Duffie’s, just next door. It was a nice evening but we were very tired, so after a while we just went back to sleep.

A stroll in Bowmore.

The day after we were very excited: our first time back to Bunnahabhain, after our visit in spring 2022. Bunna is one of our favourite whiskies, and it rarely disappoints us: we both love the unpeated sherried stuff, and the peated one too (it’s actually one of the best peated malts in our opinion). So, the jolly party of three (Glaire skipped this one) left Bowmore on Mr Vantastic, and after a quick stop to check out the Ardnahoe shop, we got to our destination. The day was cloudy, a tad windy but not enough to keep the midges away, which in the minute we spent outside the visitor centre destroyed us!

Paps of Jura, we’ll see you another time.

Once safely inside, we met the guide for the tasting: Matthew, which after a brief introduction walked us to Warehouse 9, the former malting floor. We were 5 people in total, so quite an intimate tour – the first time it was 13 people and felt like a crowd in comparison. The tasting was fun, as usual, Matthew was a good entertainer and very knowledgeable, and let people draw the whisky from the cask (Gianluigi tried too).

Mastering (?) the valinch.

The first dram was an unpeated one, a 2007 ex-Muscat cask (16y), bottled at 53.7%. A very sweet and delicious dram. It was followed by a 2014 (9y) ex-Canasta sherry cask: this is a brand of cream sherry, which is a mix of Oloroso and PX. This dram was bottled at 58.4%, stronger at the palate as well. We moved on to the peated drams, first a 2011 vintage fully matured in a refill ex-Cognac cask (58.9%); the cask was used for a finish first, so the Cognac influence wasn’t too strong. It was followed by a 2013 (10y) ex-Bordeaux red wine cask (57.9%), re-casked into this only after two years, in 2015. The last one was truly stunning, a real dirty belter of a dram.

Two friends pretending not to enjoy the moment.

However, here is where things went wrong. Back at the visitor centre, we were told that we could participate in the tour because we’d drunk before at the tasting, and they could allow inebriated people in production. While we could see where this rule comes from (after all, we both did the 2-hour Scottish Training for Alcohol Retailers and Servers training, so we can see the logic), we really didn’t expect this to happen: it wasn’t written anywhere and in other distilleries (including Deanston, of the same company) we’d visited production after a tasting. There, they mentioned the T&C, which is always an “out-of-jail” card, but later that day we verified and that was not true (at the time, more on this later). We asked if we could have a refund, and here is the annoying part: they told us they couldn’t issue any! Thus, to avoid losing £40 we decided for Teresa to go on the tour on her own (she was the driver that day, so she’d not drunk at the tasting), while Gianluigi would come back on the Monday to catch up, just before the ferry back to the mainland. The following tour description is a summary of both our tours, which were given by the same guide. They were probably in training, as both tours only covered the basics, but as we said in other occasions, you need to start somewhere.

The old visitor centre.

The distillery, whose name means the Mouth of the River, was founded in 1881, originally doing peated malt, but turned to unpeated later: nowadays they do both. Their flagship malt, the Bunnahabhain 12, was first released in 1979, almost a hundred years after founding. What is really hard to wrap our head around, is that until the 60s there was no road to the distillery, so everything that went there and back was by boat, quite incredible! They have one of the iconic Porteus mills since 1964, which grinds the barley usually sourced from Simpson, on the mainland. In the resulting grist, the husk/grit/flour split is 20/70/10, as usual. It is then sent to a big mashtun (full leuter and covered by a copper lid), 8.6 tonnes at the time, where it is mashed with the usual three waters at increasing temperatures, to maximise the sugar extraction in their cloudy wort. The draff, discard from mashing, is used for their biomass plant, as opposed to many distilleries that sell or give it to farmers to feed cows.

The mashtun is bigger than it looks.

Currently, they do 23 mashes per week, which are then moved to ferment into one of the six Oregon pine washbacks for 52 hours to reach about 8%abv. They have only one pair of stills, and during the second distillation they take a cut from 74% to 64%, discarding and redistilling the head (above the first cut point) and the tails (after the second one). After a quick nip to the warehouse and a look at the pier, we walked back to the visitor centre for the two-dram tasting. Surprisingly, there wasn’t their flagship 12-year old, but a dram each of the two non-age statement expressions: Stiuireadair (unpeated), and Toiteach A Dhà (peated). Meh.

An old fashioned still room.
Teresa unable to take a selfie with the still room in the background…
…while Gianluigi doing a better job.

A bit deflated, we left the distillery and drove back to Bowmore, where we had a quick meal before driving to the birthday party. There, we met some very nice people and had lot of fun, playing garden games and having delicious food. In the evening, we had a final couple of drams at our friends’ flat, before retiring in the campervan.

Honestly, this was one of the most disappointing distillery visits we had recently, which made us sad as Bunnahabhain is one of our favourite whiskies. We excused the increase in £10 for the Warehouse 9 tasting compared to 2022, although for four drams it is has became quite steep. Someone could argue that they are expensive drams, they are indeed, but the reason is that they are almost insanely priced: the 20cl bottle of the whiskies we tried ranged between £45 and £60, which is £145 to £195 for a full 70cl bottle, out of touch. Also, the choice to replace the Bunnahabhain 12 with the Stiuireadair (maybe the only bad Bunna we ever tried) in the tasting after the tour is quite a strange and cheap move. Would you imagine going to Lagavulin/Caol Ila/Ardbeg/Bruichladdich, paying for the basic tour and not getting a dram of their flagship 16/12/10/Classic Laddie? Yep, not even the Evil Empire does that.

Back to a calmer atmosphere in Bowmore.

But of course, what we really did not like was the way we were treated, and the lack of flexibility or willingness to try to fix a problem that wasn’t our fault in the first place. It’s true the staff gave Gianluigi and Clay “reparation” drams while Teresa was doing the tour, but at the same time we felt we were treated like we had done something wrong, which wasn’t true at all. At that time, it wasn’t written anywhere that we couldn’t do the tour after the warehouse tasting. Fortunately they recently changed the website (we wonder whether it wasn’t just us having this problem). Since the reservations were made under the same name/email, it would have costed the staff 5 minutes to touch base via email before. But what really made them unprofessional was that someone could have just told us before the tasting, when we checked in (and said we’d booked both tasting and tour). We would have both got drivers drams. We later complained via email, and they promised a refund for the tours (refund still not received, at the time of writing over a month later).

To wrap up this rant: will we still drink Bunnahabhain? Definitely, it’s too delicious to let go. Will we still buy from the distillery? Maybe, there are many indies out there with great Bunnas. Will we go back for another tasting or visit? Probably not for a very long time.

Stay tuned for some happier action the next day, a visit to the only Islay distillery we hadn’t visited yet…Can you guess which one? Until then, slainte!

Bunnahabhain Warehouse Tour

Price: £50.00 pp (August 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 4 drams (25ml, all natural colour and unchillfiltered), 2007, 16y, ex-Muscat cask, 53.7% (70/20cl bottles for £195/£60); 2014, 9y, ex-Canasta sherry cask, 58.4% (£145/£45); 2011 Moine (peated) fully matured in a refill ex-Cognac cask, 58.9% (£155/£55); 2013, 10y, Moine ex-Bordeaux red wine cask, 57.9% (£145/£50), and a copita to take home

Distillery Exclusive: see above

Target: whisky nerds

Value for money: a tad pricey

Highlights: Warehouse 9 is always special

Recommended: yes

Link: https://bunnahabhain.com/

Bunnahabhain Production Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (August 2024)

Duration: 1hr (almost)

Tasting: 2 drams (20ml), Bunnahabhain Stiuireadair (46.3%), Toiteach A Dhà (46.3%)

Distillery Exclusive: see box above

Target: casual drinkers and tourists

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the still room

Recommended: if you’re looking for a basic distillery tour, there are better options on the island

Link: https://bunnahabhain.com/

#47 A dip in the south

A trip to Crafty distillery

TL; DR: Since our first trip to Dumfries and Galloway, there is a new kid on the block down there: Crafty distillery. Previously producing gin and vodka, now they added whisky (well, newmake for the time being) to their portfolio. As the name suggests, their operation is quite small and…”crafty” indeed, very interesting.

Part of the fun of having a campervan is to have the freedom to decide on a trip at the very last minute, without worrying about accommodation (which in Scotland can be quite tricky, both in terms of availability and price). As usual, the idea for the trip came from a newly available whisky distillery tour, this time in Newton Stewart, in Galloway. We’d already been in the area, in 2022 for Teresa birthday’s trip, when we visited Bladnoch (and later Annandale and the Lakes distilleries). However, back then we didn’t hike nor enjoy much the beautiful landscape (also, it was March…and rainy). This time instead, we planned a few non-whisky activities too.

We left early on the Saturday morning, leaving a quiet and still traffic-free Leith. The first stop of the trip, just to grab a coffee and a bite, was Kilmarnock, the town that gave birth to John Walker and its 200 years old legacy. We found a nice spot on the high street (the Courtyard Artisan Bakery, delicious rolls!!), after which we had a short walk to snoop around…after all, this stop wasn’t exactly random. And it paid off, we found what we were looking for: JW original shop building!

It took a while but…
we found it! John Walker shop.

Back in the van, we drove towards Glen Trool, where we’d planned to hike around the namesake Loch before going to our scheduled tour in Newton Stewart. We drove south, towards Ayr, and then in Maybole we turned slightly eastward on a narrow road (between the A713 and A714). Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad choice (thanks Google!), as the road was interrupted with no previous signage before. So, we had to detour on even narrower roads, through North Balloch, Glengennet and Barr, to rejoin the A714 in Pinmore. It was an adventure, but it meant we were way too late to attempt a hike, so we drove directly to Newton Stewart instead, for a bite before the tour at Crafty distillery. Nothing really inspired us among the options we could find online, so we decided to park at the distillery, which is just outside the village, walk back and choose a place on the fly. However, we were in luck: that day the distillery had a special guest in the courtyard, Triko’s Deli (from Thornhill) with their delicious bagels: lunch was sorted! We still walked to the village for a coffee and to move our legs.

Despite the raod diversions, here we are!

Back at the distillery, it was time for the tour. The distillery is an all-in-one building, with the production just behind the shop. Given the limited space, there are no warehouses on site, but they send their casks to mature a few miles south to Whiskybroker’s warehouses, in Creetown. The tour was very small, six people including us, plus Nicky, the distillery manager, who showed us around.

A very small distillery.

The distillery was founded in 2017, and at first they made gin (Hills&Harbour, quite popular) and vodka (24 Seven), plus a gin liqueur. Contrary to other small and craft gin brands, they do everything from scratch, and don’t buy the neutral grain spirit to be redistilled. They have a column still for that purpose, from which, approximately once every 10 days, they distil a wash obtained from 100% wheat, getting a ~95%abv spirit. For the vodka, the wash is filtered and reduced, while for the gin it is redistilled with 11 botanicals from the coast and the forests around (hence, the name). Back to whisky, they get malted barley from Bairds in 15ton batches. As whisky production was a recent addition, the equipment is not placed in a way to follow the production stages – for example, the two stills are not next to each other. They do 2 mashes per week in a half-ton semi-lauter mashtun, starting with water at 63.5°C. The wort is recirculated in the mashtun to allow filtration by the grist bed, so to get a clear wort. The second water is sparged, in a process similar to brewing. The wort is then moved in one of the two iStill washbacks, each one with a 2,000-litre capacity. Fermentation is quite long, seven days, and it is activated using three types of yeast: distillers, German wheat beer and Champaign. The washbacks are equipped with a cooling jacket to stabilise the fermentation temperature, which made sense given the small building, easy to warm up. They have two stills, a 1,000-litre wash still and a 250-litre spirit still, both with tube-and-shells condensers. The second distillation starts with a 10-minute foreshots run (the head), followed by a spirit cut between 77% and 69% abv, giving about 120 litres of spirit. It is then reduced to 63.5% and put into casks. Every fermentation provides wash for two distillations, from which they get about 250 litres of newmake spirit at filling strength. Other than the usual cask types, they use small American barrels, 110-litre only, provided by the Texas Whitmeyer distillery (now closed?).

The shop and bar (no pictures allowed in the production area, sorry!)

After the production tour, we moved back into the bar/shop for the 3-dram tasting. First, the newmake spirit (63.5%), followed by two aged spirits: a 7-month old from an ex-PX octave cask (~62%), and a 6-month old from an experimental 5-litre Madeira cask…This reminded us of the approach Ardnamurchan had at the beginning, to mature spirit in smaller casks to have a rough idea of how it would be later. As a matter of fact, Nicky worked there before moving to the south of Scotland! The samples were good, of course very cask-forward, but still quite promising.

After the distillery, it was time to catch up our hike at Loch Trool. It was just a 30-minute drive from the distillery, so in less than an hour we were already on the path that loops around the Loch. Despite the car park being almost full, the path was not at all busy, so it ended up being a quiet walk. After the first bit, mostly inside a forest, the path opened up and the view on the loch was quite spectacular. It only rained for a few minutes, luckily so, as we were in the middle of the almost 11k walk when it happened!

A beautiful loch…
…full of history. Stone remembering the Glen Trool battle.

For the night, we’d found a great place to stay: Kirroughtree, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. It is a leisure centre, with different trails, a mountain bike hire shop, and a café/gift shop. However, it is possible to spend the night there (for £7.00/vehicle), and from the morning there are public toilets open with showers (well, £3 for a cold shower was not ideal, but better than nothing!). If it sounds simple, it’s because it is: almost everything can be paid by card, at any time. We wonder why other places cannot have something like this (yes, we have mainly Islay in mind, but Dornoch and elsewhere too). We’re sure there are difficulties that we cannot think of in managing a night parking, but to be honest it doesn’t look impossible.

Midges destroyed our plan to sip our drams outside.

Unfortunately, there were also some midges, not too many but enough for us to spend the evening inside the van, sipping the leftover drams from Crafty. In the morning, we went for a short run on the hill (Teresa wasn’t too happy about that) before a nice (and cold) shower and a good breakfast (Teresa was much happier then), once the cafè opened. One the way back, we did one further stop at the A.D. Rattray shop, in Maybole, because…why not.

It was a nice trip, we really enjoyed the beauty of this part of Scotland, not as popular as other ones but still fantastic, while visiting a nice wee distillery at the same time. Crafty looks on a good trajectory spirit-wise, so we are looking forward to trying their single malt once ready.

Next week it’s going to be a pause weekend, but then we’ll be back on Islay! Until then, slainte!

Crafty Whisky Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp + £2 booking fee (July 2024)

Duration: 1hr 15min

Tasting: 3 drams newmake spirit (63.5%), 7-month old from an ex-PX octave cask (~62%), and a 6-month old from an experimental 5-litre Madeira cask, plus a glencairn to take home

Target: everyone, but probably mostly suited for whisky curious

Value for money: good

Highlights: a nice place to chill out even if you’re not a whisky fan

Recommended: yes if you’re a whisky curious

Link: https://craftydistillery.com/

Other points of interest in the area

Loch Trool trail: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/galloway/loch-trool.shtml

Kirroughtree, Galloway Forest Park’s getaway centre: https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/forest-parks/galloway-forest-park/kirroughtree

Whiskybroker, Creetown: https://www.whiskybroker.co.uk/?age_consent=1

A.D. Rattray shop, Maybole: https://www.adrattray.com/