#60.4 Another Spirit of Speyside

Another distillery visit in Dufftown: Glendullan

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

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

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

Not so charming outside.

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

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

All ready to start the visit.

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

Wooden washbacks.

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

Loving a still room with big windows.

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

A trio of wee, excellent drams.

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

Happy to be at the Whisky Fair…

…with whisky friends!

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

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

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

Price: £100.00 pp (+ SoS fee)

Duration: 2hr

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: not great

Highlights: the tasting was small but good

Recommended: only if you’re a massive Singleton fan

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.3 Another Spirit of Speyside

A workhorse in Buckie: Inchgower distillery

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

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

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

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

Cute distillery cottages.

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

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

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

Yes, we climbed those stairs…

…definitely worth it.

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

Hello, Bobby.

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

A good looking pair.

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

A great space for a tasting.

Nice to bump into whisky friends!

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

An icon of Speyside.

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

Independent Scotch tasting – a varied line-up.

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

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

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

Price: £100.00 pp + SoS transaction fee

Duration: 2hr

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

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

Value for money: not great

Highlights: the climb to the malt silos

Recommended: only if you’re a massive Inchgower fan

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.2 Another Spirit of Speyside

The casks of Glen Moray

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

(missed Part 1?)

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

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

We managed to get here on time, yay!

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

The power of the wind on Teresa’s hair.

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

A cosy tasting room.

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

From bottle…

…to glass.

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

The new kid on the block.

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

Not a bad spot for the night.

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

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

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

Price: £50.00 pp + SoS transaction fee

Duration: 1h30m-2h

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

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

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: very good

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

Recommended: absolutely

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

#60.1 Another Spirit of Speyside

Discovering the Cabrach

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

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

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

A typical cold spring day in Speyside…

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

Tidy, cute distillery, the Cabrach.

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

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

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

Pipes under the floor, that’s new.

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

Checking the fermentation.

The classic picture.

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

The experimental side of the distillery.

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

Much more whisky to come in this wee warehouse.

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

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

Cabrach Private Tour

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

Duration: 50min

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the community project and the experimental still

Recommended: yes

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

#59 Another Tuscan detour

In the land of Brunello

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

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

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

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

A spa village – Bagno Vignoni, very charming.

Maybe not charming, but still delicious bistecca fiorentina.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So much history…

…and yes, we’re that old.

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

This one was beautiful…

and this one, wow!

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

Beautiful sunset in Montalcino.

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

Sant’Antimo Abbey behind the olive trees.

Classic picture of busy Siena.

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

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

Fattoria dei Barbi wine tour and tasting

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

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

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the historical cellar

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

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

#58 A trip to the West

Hopping to Arran from Campbeltown

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

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

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

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

Pre-dinner refreshments.

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

Always beautiful.

Two guys and three stills.

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

Thanks Aly!

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

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

That looks promising.

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

Climbing Goatfell, that was hard!

…But totally worth it.

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

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

It’s not just all about whisky.

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

Until next time, slainte!

Springbank Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (April 2025)

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

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

Distillery exclusives: cage bottlings

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the whisky and the friendly staff

Recommended: yes!

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

Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Price: £45.00 pp (April 2025)

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

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!

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

Kilkerran Warehouse Tasting

Price: £40.00 pp (April 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 6 drams from the cask

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: great

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!!

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

#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/

#55.5 All drams great and small

A distillery in Northumbria

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

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

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

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

Sunny Whitby.

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

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

A glimpse of the museum.

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

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

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

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

The bottom of the washbacks, for once.

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

Stills with a view.

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

So nice outside too.

The cask owners wall.

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

A very drinkable blend.

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

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

Until next time, slainte!

Ad Gefrin Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the Northumbria history museum

Recommended: yes

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

#55.4 All drams great and small

A dram-y day at the Distillers Lounge, in Scarborough

TL; DR: On the (almost) final day of our trip we didn’t visit any whisky distillery, but a rum one. It is located inside the Distillers Lounge, in Scarborough, where we had a full-on English whisky tasting and a great meal, before turning our attention to rum. It was a very fun day, and we have to say the quality of English whisky is really improving!

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

On the Sunday morning, in spite of the very busy Saturday (two distillery tours, a brewery visit and the quiz), we woke up surprisingly rested. The morning was easy, we had breakfast in the van and a short stroll in Hunmanby, before gathering with the troop (except for some, who headed back home earlier) at the train station. Our destination was not far away: Scarborough, on the Yorkshire coast. In our understanding, Scarborough used to be a popular seaside destination for rich people to clear their lungs during the Industrial Revolution, in particular around the Victorian era. Nowadays, it doesn’t look as glorious, with a lot of closed up units on the high street, we guess one of the many victims of the massive deindustrialisation of the 80s and 90s.

Now, one could ask: “What were you doing there, then?”, which is a more than legit question, given the above. Well, it’s easy: because of the Distiller’s Lounge. This is a venue, conveniently located at walking distance from the train station, with a restaurant, a tasting bar and a spiced rum distillery.

A wee distillery in the Distillers Lounge window.

The whisky tasting bar is managed by Whiskyside, a small company run by Matt, promoting and selling English whiskies. As you can guess, the plan was a full-on English single malt whisky tasting. The location was a room underneath the main bar, looking a lot like a cellar. There, the biggest collection of English whiskies we ever saw was on display. It included pretty much everything you could think of, from limited releases and from independent bottlers. We even spotted a Bimber bottled by the guys behind Whisky Facile, an Italian whisky review website and blog.

Don’t look at us, look at the shelves – an impressive collection.

The tasting started with a first for us, a Henstone single malt, from a distillery in the Shropshire (near the Welsh border) established in 2017. A young expression, but quite round despite the age, matured in ex-oloroso sherry casks. The second dram was an old acquaintance, the Cotswolds (visited in Summer 2023) Founder’s Choice, a small batch release (in this case 2,500 bottles), fully matured in STR casks (former wine casks, shaved, toasted and recharred). It comes from the Cotswold’s small batches of the same cask type, ranging from ex-bourbon to ex-sherry, ex-peated whisky, etc. A very nice dram, very drinkable, but it didn’t impress us, contrary to the one that followed. This was from Adnams, a brewery and distillery in Southwold, which we had tried one or twice before. This expression was a 9-year old bottled for Whiskyside, bottled at 55%, part of their Explorers Series. The combination of casks is quite unusual: matured in second-fill French oak casks, and then finished in ex-Sauternes barriques (for two years), a finish that we generally struggle to appreciate. This one, however, smashed all our prejudice on Sauternes casks, as it was delicious, full of sweet, cream and chocolaty notes: tiramisù in a glass. What was weird is that we came across the same tasting notes independently, before sharing them.

We were really impressed by this.

The fourth dram marked the introduction of peat. First off, a 5y single malt finished in ex-PX casks (from Bodega Navarro, previously in ex-bourbon hogsheads). In our understanding this one was from the English distillery, but bottled in 2019 by Sacred Spirits (or Sacred Gin), after the second maturation in London (don’t know why it is important, but it is stressed on both the label and the website). It was a decent dram, but again we were blown off by the final one: a lightly peated Wireworks (from White Peak distillery, one of our favourite tours in 2023) matured in ex-Amarone red wine casks, bottled at 54.1% and made in a small batch of 662 bottles. Grilled berries notes, an excellent dram. Overall, it was an impressive tasting, it showed how good English whisky can be, even at young age.

Another cracking dram.

Great lineup!

After the tasting, we moved back upstairs for the meal, which included two courses for slightly less than 30 quid. When we saw the price, weeks before (one of the necessary evils of these group holidays is that we have to choose our meals weeks in advance), we were not so convinced. Truth be told, it was a fantastic meal, in particular the lamb was one of the best we ever had since we moved to the UK.

No, we didn’t take pictures of the meal.

After this tasty lunch, we went back to the cellar, this time for another tasting: a rum one, with mainly tots from the local Siren Distillers company, run by Jamie and Anna. The distillery is in the Distiller’s Lounge itself, right upstairs, with the still in the window. (Update March 2025: we learned from posts on social media that the collaboration between the Distillers Lounge and Siren Distillers ceased, so they moved to a different location).

Their main activity is to source rum, and then redistill or infuse it with their spices of choice. From their range, we tried the Golden rum (40%, blend of 5y Caribbean rums, infused with honey, orange peel and vanilla), the Dark rum (40%, blend of Caribbean rums, including a 10y Jamaican one, and again infused with honey, orange peel and vanilla), and a preview sample of their Spiced rum (38%, redistilled with a number of spices), respectively paired with candied ginger, dried pineapple and dark chocolate.

Ready for round 2 – a rum tasting.

We also tried the Botanical rum from Rum Runner (40%, distilled at Twisted Roots Distillery, aged in ex-red wine French oak cask), and a spicy (yes, spiced, but also SPICY) rum, the Hell Smoked Rum (40%, barrel-aged in peated ex-Islay Whisky casks with fresh chili peppers and cacao nibs). It was an interesting tasting, although we are not really into spiced rum, so we didn’t (and still don’t) have much basis for comparisons.

The malternative lineup.

After the train back to Hunmanby, we had a last pint at the Piebald Inn (to Gianluigi’s disappointment, the kitchen was already closed) before retiring to the van. Overall, it was a very fun day, and we were particularly impressed with the English whiskies we tried. One popular Glaswegian whisky youtuber said (more than once) that there is nothing like good English whisky to keep Scottish producers on their toes…True or not, we can definitely say that the quality of these malts is good in general, fantastic at times! And hospitality-wise, many Scottish producers should take example from their neighbours.

It was the last “official” day of the All Drams Great and Small tour, but we saved one last whisky experience for the following day. Until then, slainte!

The Distiller’s Lounge
Link: https://www.jspubcompany.co.uk/distillers-lounge/

Whiskyside
Link: https://whiskyside.co.uk/

Siren Distillers
Link: https://www.sirendistillersltd.com/

#55.3 All drams great and small

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

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

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

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

Nice set up outside.

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

Cooper King distillery in one shot.

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

Ready for the tour.

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

Inside Neilson.

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

Super-modern gin and vodka distillation.

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

And Cooper King warehouse in one shot.

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

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

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

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

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

Cooper King Distillery Bespoke Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

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

Target: whisky and spirit enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the distillery set up

Recommended: yes

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