#65 Tiree distillery

One windy leg of the Hebridean Whisky Festival

TL; DR: This September we embarked in an odyssey to attend the Hebridean Whisky Festival. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach most of the distilleries we’d planned to visit due to a storm, but we still managed to visit the island of Tiree and its distillery. A tiny and craft operation, with already two releases under their belt: a single malt and a rye whisky.

In the last few years, especially since we got Mr. Vantastic, we travelled quite a bit throughout Scotland. However, while we have (roughly) been all over the country, there are mainly two places we haven’t been yet: the Outer Hebrides and Shetland, the latter despite our passion for the namesake crime TV show. This was supposed to change this year though, as together with our friends Justine, Karen and Chris, we decided to go on a campervan holiday to the Outer Hebrides, to attend the Hebridean Whisky Festival. The festival is structured similarly to the Islay and Campbeltown ones, with each distillery having a different open day. The challenge is, obviously, that most distilleries are located on different islands, some of which connected by ferry crossings lasting a few hours. The festival started on the first weekend of September in the inner islands, with Talisker, Torabhaig (both on Skye) and Raasay: as we already visited all three, and not long ago, we skipped this part (follow the links for our great February 2024 trip!). Then, after a break-day wisely set up by the organisation to allow people to travel, it was the Isle of Tiree distillery turn, our first visit.

The Tiree distillery day was on a Tuesday, so we booked a ferry leaving from Oban on the Monday. The weekend before, we decided to avoid whisky stuff for once, but rather climb the tallest mountain in Great Britain: Ben Nevis. We left Leith in the morning, and after a first quick break in Callander to pick up some delicious pies at Mohr Bakery, we arrived at the main visitor car park around 11am. We went up from the easy (but still steep) route: we had an initial doubt whether to go for a more challenging route, but we really didn’t want to be the eejits on the news that injured themselves on a path beyond their capabilities (we are decently fit, but still, we hike about half a dozen times a year, not on mountains). The path was a bit crowded, but the view quite spectacular, except on the top: a thick fog welcomed us.

Great view while climbing Ben Nevis…

…Not quite the same on top.

We still celebrated the achievement by opening a bottle of Scotch Malt Whisky Society Ben Nevis bought during the pandemic, high abv but delicious nonetheless. The descent was much faster, and afterwards we stayed at the Glen Nevis campsite, just next door. After a nice meal at the Glen Nevis restaurant (with a decent whisky selection too), we slept like rocks!

A celebratory dram.

The next day we slowly drove towards Oban, where we’d meet with our friends, just after a fantastic seafood lunch in Port Appin at the Pierhouse Hotel, an auld acquaintance from a few years back.

We met with the others at a car park near the Oyster Inn, 10 minutes away from Oban, as they allowed overnight stays for campervans. Meanwhile, the weather had turned rainy and windy, and rumours were that the next day ferries wouldn’t be able to sail, reinforced by an alert message from CalMac (the ferry’s company). Because of this (and the wind) we struggled to sleep that night, but fortunately, in the morning the ferry sailed: we were much relieved (for now…). It took about four hours to go from Oban to Tiree, and along the sail we spotted Nc’Nean distillery and Tobermory, on a day that turned sunny. As we got off the ferry and drove towards the only campsite, we realised that there isn’t a proper village. The biggest settlement is Scarinish, where the ferry pier is. Also, the island is very flat (the highest hill is 140 meters high, with a radar station (the ‘Golf Ball’) on top of it dominating the landscape. This makes it a paradise for surfers, and we found many of them at the campsite and around the island. After we checked in, we spent the rest of the day exploring the surroundings.

Tiree, surfers’ paradise.

The next morning we left the campsite, and after a stop to a very disappointing diner, we drove towards the distillery, in the south-west of the island. We parked the vans in a field nearby that we’d booked for the night via the Tiree Croft Camping Service. It was supposed to be 10 minutes on foot to the distillery, turned out to be about half hour…Fortunately we had plenty of time. The distillery is inside a small, blue warehouse. On the right, in a separate building past a courtyard, there is the visitor centre and bar. It’s very small but very cosy, and since it wasn’t raining (yet), we enjoyed a Tiree gin and tonic on the porch before going back to the distillery for the tour.

Waiting for the tour to start.

There, we were served a sample of newmake spirit as a welcome. Ian and Allan, the founders, started the tour talking about the history of distilling in Tiree. The historical records from 1768 report about 50 stills, however they decreased to only three legal stills by 1783, before the final clearance operated by the British government to depopulate the country. Finally, in 1802 distilling was temporarily banned, but between 1814 and 1882 a couple of short-lived distilleries were in operation, too unprofitable to resist. And here comes Tiree Distillery, operational from 2020, aiming to reconnect with the distilling heritage of the island.

A tiny distillery.

A very small operation, they bring in pre-milled malted barley (mostly Laureate) and rye from Crisp maltings, which they mash in batches of 100 kg with 400 litres of water into a wooden mashtun which used to be a sherry butt (that was a first for us!). They tried to grow local barley, which was possible but then the challenge was malting, requiring the malting to be shipped off the island and then back. They have four washbacks for the fermentation stage, two made of stainless steel and two of oak, former butts like the mashtun. Fermentation normally lasts 4 to 5 days, but it can go up to 2 weeks for experimental runs. The 6-7%abv wash is then distilled in one of the two wash stills, to get 23-25% low wines, distilled again in the spirit still. The stills are Portuguese Hoga stills with worm-tub condensers. A fourth still is used for the gin (they bring in neutral grain spirit). During the second distillation, the first cut point is 70-74%, made by smell and taste, while the lower one is around 63-64%, with the discarded feints and foreshots redistilled in the following batch. From each distillation they obtain about 60 litres of newmake spirit at 70% – it takes them two runs to fill a quarter cask.

Yes, the mashtun is the butt on the front.

And yes, the butt on the back is a washback.

The warehouse is in the same building for the moment, with casks mostly sourced from Speyside Cooperage, especially from Heaven Hills distillery in Kentucky. The plan is to have at some point a separate building for maturation. This would solve also the high evaporation they have at the moment, caused by the production heat. We shared a dram of their newest release (£8, £125 for the bottle), the second in total after their first Single Malt release last year (not on sale anymore, but it was sold for £200). This one is a single grain, with 75% rye and 25% barley, aged four years in virgin oak and ex-bourbon casks: one of the best Scottish ryes we tried so far. They also produced a high-corn mash spirit, which is still maturing in the warehouse.

Most of the casks filled so far.

Second Isle of Tiree distillery release, a rye whisky.

After leaving the distillery and walking back to the vans, we realised the field where we’d parked was too exposed to the wind, so we called the cooperative managing those fields and we were able to swap for another one slightly less exposed. Still no facilities, which left a sour taste as we had paid £15 for one night. At least this one was at a walking distance to one of the very few bar/restaurants on the island. The very cozy Alan Stevenson House is in Hynish, a settlement that used to serve the Skerryvore lighthouse. We walked there to grab a dram, before retiring in our campervans for dinner and for a final dram, all together inside Gladys, Karen and Chris’ campervan, the biggest of the three. When we left the bar, the Tiree Distillery dinner was about to start: we didn’t have tickets for the event (£65), which we regretted a bit because first, they were serving the first single malt release too, impossible to try elsewhere. Second, we didn’t know yet what would happen in the following days.

Hynish and its lighthouse’s signal tower.

The day after came with a bad surprise, as our ferry for Barra was cancelled (sad trombone). Instead, we got another one back to Oban, as the day after there was an early ferry from Mallaig to South Uist. If that went ahead, we would have had still time to attend all the other distillery visits of the holiday. That wasn’t the case: in the evening, when we were already in Mallaig, this ferry was also rerouted from Oban (d’oh!), but in the morning that was cancelled too. The last chance would have meant to travel to Uig, on Skye, but there were no spaces for vehicles and there was no assurance that the ferry would sail. So, after a regroup in Mallaig, we decided to drive back to Fort William and abandon the plan. From the campsite we booked we walked to the Ben Nevis distillery, where Hazel, the lead tour guide and whisky IG friend, gave us a warm welcome and some tasty drams. That was a nice consolation.

Feeling better after all these setbacks.

While we’re happy that we visited Tiree distillery and to learn about their crafty setup, we were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t make it to the other islands. The distilleries personnel were very understanding and all of our tastings and tours were refunded, and it was the same for the ferry tickets. Unfortunately, when storms happen there’s nothing anyone can do, we just hope to be able to go back soon (and be a bit luckier with the weather).

Stay tuned to learn more about our “plan B”, in a couple of weeks. Until then, slàinte!

Tiree Distillery Open Day Tour

Price: free* (September 2025)

Duration: 45min

Tasting: 15ml of newmake spirit (63.5%)

Distillery Exclusive: on the day, the Tiree Single Grain Rye Whisky (45%, £125)

Target: anyone

Value for money: of course very good, as it was free

Highlights: the cosy setup

Recommended: if you’re already on the island, definitely

*the regular whisky tour is £20, but according to the website there are no tours scheduled in the next 6 months

Link: https://www.tyreegin.com/

#64 Eden Mill distillery

Born again in Guardbridge

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

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

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

So beautiful up the hill…

…Just a tad windy.

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

The new distillery.

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

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

…But it was time for the tour!

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

The old…

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

…And the new.

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

A few casks on site.

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

Charming Fife coast at St. Monans.

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

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

Eden Mill Behind The Scenes Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (August 2025)

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: anyone

Value for money: good

Highlights: the new distillery

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

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

#60.5 Another Spirit of Speyside

About to be re-awakened:
Dallas Dhu

TL; DR: On our final day at the Spirit of Speyside, we visited a gem about to be re-awakened: Dallas Dhu! Closed in 1983, it became a museum, but thanks to Murray McDavid, it will restart production in the coming years. A few days before we also attended the Drams under the Star event, organised by the same folks, another must-do of the festival.

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

And finally, it was Sunday, the final day at the Spirit of Speyside 2025 festival. We took the morning very slow: a shower at the campsite, a small breakfast and some tidy-up of the campervan. The weather was slightly better than the night before, but still not great, so we didn’t risk a hike. Instead, after a quick stop at Glenallachie, we slowly drove to the location of our final event, the village of Forres. At noon, we got into the White Hart Restaurant, just off High St – Gianluigi had discovered the place on a work trip in the area. While the lower floor looks like a pretty standard pub, the upper floor is a restaurant serving fantastic Latvian dishes and beers: a hidden treasure!

At 1pm, we were at Dallas Dhu distillery, on the outskirt of the village. While we drove Mr Vantastic into the large adjacent parking lot, we admired how beautiful the distillery is, and how you couldn’t mistake it for anything else. We will learn later that Charles Doig himself was involved in the building drawing. We were warmly welcomed by Dean from Murray McDavid, the independent bottler which recently took over the distillery.

Dallas Dhu distillery under a finally blue sky.

A little detour here: we’d already met Dean on the Friday evening, after the David Stirk tasting in Dufftown, at the Drams Under the Stars tasting. It was obviously organised by Murray McDavid, and it was quite convenient for us, as for an extra fiver we could reserve a spot for either a tent or a campervan (£50.00pp w/o camping, £55pp with camping, plus the usual SoS fees).

Not a bad spot for the night!

The event was just outside Dufftown, about 5 minutes driving, near an abandoned and ruined bothy. They set up a big bonfire in the middle of a clearing and set benches with canopies. At the bothy, a gazebo was placed with a pop-up bar underneath. We arrived when it was still light, and at first it was hard to decide where to sit: we found spots with either the wind blowing in our back, or with the very same wind blowing smoke in our face. However, as drams were poured, we and most people just stood up by the fire and enjoyed the evening. We were pleasantly surprised by the informal, chilled out atmosphere, where everybody could enjoy the drams in their own time, with Dean serving them and chatting to each small group of people (about whisky or not).

Picturesque set up for a tasting…

…A pity it was just a tad cold.

The first dram was The Bothy, specifically bottled (in 20cl bottles) for the event: a young sherried Speyside single malt (46% abv). The other drams were a 15y Blair Athol (54.2%, finished in Koval ex-bourbon casks), a 14y Glen Garioch (51.6%, ex-PX cask finish), a 10y Caol Ila (53.1%, ex-Amarone and PX Sherry cask finish) and finally the MMcD Spirit of Speyside 2025 release (Dailuaine, 7y, ex-Oloroso cask, 57.8%). Overall, a great, chilled out event that we’d definitely like to repeat.

The drams we had under the stars.

Back at Dallas Dhu: the Saturday was their open day, so the staff were understandably a bit tired on the Sunday. Nevertheless, Dean gave us a great and very detailed tour, which lasted longer than the scheduled time. The distillery was founded in 1898 by Alexander Edward and started production in 1899, originally as Dallasmore (later changed to Dallas Dhu to avoid confusion with other brands). It closed during WWI, and again in 1930 for 6 years. In 1939 it was partially destroyed by a fire, and it resumed production only in 1947, until 1983 when it was closed. In-house malting was stopped before then, in 1958, although the current steeping tank was only fitted in the 1950s, around the time also electricity was fitted in. The distillery was finally sold to Historic Environment Scotland in 1986, which turned it into a museum. Because this happened shortly after ceasing production, the distillery is incredibly well preserved, and it looks like it could resume production anytime (which it couldn’t, of course). In recent years, Murray McDavid bought it. This was after an initial attempt to buy Parkmore, which failed because of the non-availability of the nearby warehouses. They are now in the process of finalising the deal with Diageo (which still owns the Dallas Dhu brand), and to get ready to restart production (although works haven’t started yet).

The old malting floor.

As we walked through the building, from the malting floor to the mill room (one of the last Bobby mills ever produced, apparently), and then to the copper-lidded mashtun, the washback and still room, we could see how everything is really in a great state.

A perfect mashtun.

A well maintained washback.

The six 14,000-litre wooden washbacks have been constantly filled and emptied with water to preserve the wood, and in the still rom an ancient fire-engine found also home (probably it will be moved), next to the massive boiler. The distillery has only two stills, but at full regime it can produce about 800,000 litres of alcohol per year, similar size as Glen Scotia, to give you an idea.

That’s a big boiler.

An old fire engine, never seen before!

And all in a charming still room.

The tour finished in the shop, where we had a dram Murray McDavid created for the occasion: a 14y blended scotch named “A New Era”. We were told that among the components there are Port Dundas and Cameronbridge as grain whiskies, and Glenrothes, Glengoyne, Tamdhu and a tad of Bunnahabhain for the malts. It’s a pleasant dram, a bit thin as it is bottled at 40%. After that, we could get sips of other bottlings available for purchase – so good to find places where ‘try before you buy’ is actually possible!

Filling store

A celebratory dram.

Overall an excellent afternoon at Dallas Dhu; the enthusiasm of Dean and the rest of the team for this new beginning was contagious. This was definitely a great ending to another great Spirit of Speyside, and we cannot wait for this beauty of a distillery to officially reopen.

And after this, we’ll take a couple of weeks off! Until next post, slainte!

A New Era: The Dallas Dhu Distillery Tour (Spirit of Speyside 2025)

Price: £15.00 pp (+ SoS fees)

Duration: 1hr 10min (45min on paper)

Tasting: 1 dram, A New Era blended scotch whisky (14y, 40%)

Target: whisky and history geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the whole distillery is absolutely stunning

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.4 Another Spirit of Speyside

Another distillery visit in Dufftown: Glendullan

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

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

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

Not so charming outside.

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

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

All ready to start the visit.

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

Wooden washbacks.

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

Loving a still room with big windows.

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

A trio of wee, excellent drams.

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

Happy to be at the Whisky Fair…

…with whisky friends!

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

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

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

Price: £100.00 pp (+ SoS fee)

Duration: 2hr

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: not great

Highlights: the tasting was small but good

Recommended: only if you’re a massive Singleton fan

Link: https://www.spiritofspeyside.com

#60.3 Another Spirit of Speyside

A workhorse in Buckie: Inchgower distillery

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

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

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

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

Cute distillery cottages.

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

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

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

Yes, we climbed those stairs…

…definitely worth it.

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

Hello, Bobby.

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

A good looking pair.

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

A great space for a tasting.

Nice to bump into whisky friends!

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

An icon of Speyside.

After that, we drove to Dufftown, as our next event was starting soon. It was the Independent Scotch tasting, hosted by David Stirk (for £30pp + Spirit of Speyside fee), at the Whisky Capital Inn: a great whisky bar and restaurant (and hotel as well) right in the centre of the small town. The tasting went through a bit of history as well, so we started with an old blend. It made sense, as if you think of it, blenders used to be the original “indy bottlers”. The blend was an Italian import D&L Deluxe Special Reserve (not telling much), bottled at 40% by a company called Block Grey & Block. Then, we moved on to a Berry Bros & Rudd Glen Elgin (2008, 53.4%, hogshead), followed by a Stirk Brothers Linkwood (2010, 13y, 50.0%) and a James Eadie Strathmill (2011, 13y, 55.6%, finished for 20 months in a 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/

#57 Fife Whisky Festival and Independent Spirits Festival

A tale of two festivals

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

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

Ready? Ready!

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

Busy dramming session in Cupar.

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

Keeping warm with Lady of the Glen drams.

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

Round two of the March festivals.

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

Hanging out with whisky enthusiasts…

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

…more whisky enthusiasts…

…and more!

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

Until next time, slainte!

Links

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

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

#54 Another whisky year under our belt

What a 2024 it was!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr Vantastic and Teresa at Aberargie Distillery!

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

We fell in love with this place too – Tormore.

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

Happy, wee whisky group.

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

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

Dramming south of the border – Yorkshire.

Dramming further south of the border – Australia.

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

Working hard at the Fife Whisky Festival.

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

Trying to come up with decent tasting notes.

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

So, until the next year, slainte mhath!

#44.3 Spirited in Speyside

From Ben Rinnes to Tomintoul

TL; DR: Another sunny day in Speyside, so we finally did what we’d wanted to do for a long time: climb Ben Rinnes! In the afternoon we visited Tomintoul, attending a Spirit of Speyside tour and (quite generous) tasting. We were not very familiar with this malt, which turned out to be a very solid and sweet Speysider!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

We woke up well rested, under the trees and with birds chirping all around us. We had breakfast in our van: coffee, yogurt, fruits, and we indulged in a couple of cookies as well. Again, it was a magnificent sunny day, so we could go ahead with our plan: go for a walk before starting our whisky activities.

We’d decided to climb Ben Rinnes, the hill in the middle of Speyside, whose slopes provide water to many distilleries around it. It was not a long walk, less than 8km, but it was quite steep, a 550-metre ascent in total from the parking lot to the top of the hill. We started early, around 8.30am, when not many others were hiking (we only met about 4-5 people while going up). The climb started quite uphill right away, and the ascent was interrupted by a couple of short plateaus, before the last climb of more than 300 metres.

Finally a good day to climb Ben Rinnes.

Once on top, though, we got rewarded, as the view is quite amazing. As were going up, on our left, we spotted a distillery very close to the top – we guessed Benrinnes but we were wrong, it was Allt a’Bhainne. Others could be seen (well, mostly the vapours) once on the top. Our plans to have a snack at the top were ruined by the strong wind, so we quickly started descending back to the parking lot. We bumped into a lot of people, probably because of the time, although the sky was clouded when we got to the van. On the Walk Highlands website the hike (back and forth) was estimated around 3-4 hours, but it took us only 2, so we had some spare time!

Quite windy up there!

Back in the van, we started looking for a place for coffee and a bite, possibly in the direction of our next destination, Tomintoul. We were unlucky at first: some cafes were still closed until summer, some were opening later in the day. We were saved by Bike Glenlivet, a cafè inside an outdoor centre, less than 10 minutes past the distillery. There we could enjoy a sandwich and, past midday, a warm soup.

We arrived at Tomintoul distillery a few minutes early, just the time to park, take some photos and check in. The distillery is tucked at the bottom of a woody hill, along the road, with another hill in front of it: we were told later that during the heather flowering season it becomes all purple, which is why purple is one of the flag colours.

About to explore the distillery producing a ‘gentle dram’.

The visitor centre actually consists in a room with the shop and a big table for tastings. Fun fact: in the room there is also a giant bottle (over 100 litres!) of Tomintoul 14: the Guinness World Record holder for biggest whisky bottle, in our understanding. The distillery is usually open to public, but their regular tours are on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, making it a bit hard to schedule a visit. This was one of the reasons to visit them during the Spirit of Speyside, the other being that we were not very familiar with their whisky, so an enhanced event could have made us know them better…and it did, indeed!

Teresa losing the ‘who’s the tallest’ contest again.

The tour was hosted by Rob, the distillery manager, and Iain, the master blender who gave us a dram of their 16yr (40%abv), one of their flagship expressions. We always appreciate the tours where they give you a dram at the beginning, well done! The distillery was founded in 1964, so it is “young” compared to their peers, and they produce unpeated (marketed as Tomintoul), lightly peated (peated Tomintoul) and heavily peated (Old Ballantruan) single malt. The latter takes name from the spring where they source water. The peated run lasts about 6 weeks per year, much less compared to the 40 weeks of the unpeated one. They use Crisp malt, which is stored in 8 malt bins before processing through a dresser and the classic Porteus mill. The grist is then moved 12.2 tons at a time to the mashtun, with 48,000 litres of water at 65°C, followed by the usual two other waters at increasing temperature, to maximise the sugar intake.

The mash-tun is mashing. Smashing.

Once the wort (clear after the first water, cloudier after the second) is cooled down to 20°C, it is moved to one of the 6 washbacks, where they add solid distillers’ yeast. Fermentation lasts about 60 hours, then the wash is distilled in one of the two wash stills, and then again in one of the spirit stills. Cut points are usually from 72% to 61.8%, and it takes more or less two hours. Originally the distillery had only two stills, the second pair was added in 1974. Rob showed us one of the byproducts of the first distillation, a syrup with almost 0% alcohol, which is sold to farmers.

…And the classic selfie.

Still in the still room (pun sort of intended), Iain joined us again, this time to give us a dram of the 25yr (43%), a very sweet and delicious one! We then visited one of the warehouses, a racked one (the most common from the distilleries built in that era). They can store up to 150,000 casks on site, while the rest is shipped to the main site in the Lowlands. There, Iain demonstrated us the use of a (leaky!) copper dog, although the whisky inside it came from a bottle, not straight from a cask: a single cask from a Bordeaux wine barrique, vintage 2008 (14yr), bottled at 60.7%.

A 25yr dram after visiting the still room. Nice surprise!

We headed back to the visitor centre for the remainder of the tasting: first, a couple of Madeira matured expressions, a 15yr limited release (46%) and a single hogshead from 1998, bottled in 2022 at 24 years of age (50.2%). The next dram was their Cigar Malt, a quite delicious sherry cask matured expression, lightly peated, and very solid despite the 43% strength (a shame it was a bit pricey). We finished with an Old Ballantruan from the core range: the 15yr (the other two are the non-age statement and the 10yr, all bottled at 50%): a sweet and smoky dram. At that point, a group of Spanish who were on the tour (one of them was a London-based employee of Angus-Dundee, the distillery owners) brought out some Jamon Iberico, which paired perfectly with the last two drams!

A wide range of flavours here!

We left the distillery very happy (not just because of the drams, Gianluigi was dry!), taking one of their bottle with us: as most of their core range is bottled at 40% or 43% and the limited expressions were a bit pricey, the perfect one for was the 14yr: not only unchill-filtered and bottled at 46%, but also from ex-bourbon casks, which in our opinion is the best type of cask to grasp the distillery character.

We arrived at our destination, the Parkmore Cottage and Camping in Dufftown, where our friend Justine (from Kask Whisky) was waiting for us. We had a beer, dinner and a few drams with her, to conclude the day on a high. And what a great day was that, first the climb to Ben Rinnes, and then Tomintoul. With 7 drams their tour was one of the most generous as well (compared to higher priced tours with less than half of the drams…), giving us a chance to fully appreciate the potential of their very solid and fruity (gentle, as they like saying) whisky.

Stay tuned to know about our day at another Speyside whisky distillery…until then, slainte!

Tomintoul Distillery: Behind the Scenes Tour and Tasting

Price: £70.00 pp (Spirit of Speyside 2024)

Duration: 2hrs (actually, almost 3!)

Tasting: Tomintoul 16yr (40%), Tomintoul 25yr (43%), single cask from a Bordeaux wine barrique (2008, 14yr, 60.7%), Madeira 15yr limited release (46%), Madeira single hogshead (1998, 24 yr, 50.2%), Cigar Malt (43%), 15yr Old Ballantruan (50%)

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the tasting (including drams during the tour)

Recommended: yes

Link: https://tours.tomintoulwhisky.com/