#74.4 The Springbank Whisky School

Back to shovelling!
(day 3, Wednesday)

TL; DR: Day three at whisky school started with shovelling barley destined for Springbank production into the kiln, followed by helping out packing Kilkerran Heavily Peated on the soon-to-be-moved bottling line. The reward was an incredible Springbank warehouse tasting with David, featuring a 1990 Springbank and gorgeous old Hazelburn and Longrow. Dinner at the guesthouse ended with an unforgettable cheesecake, then a fun Watt Whisky tasting capped off the evening.

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

On Wednesday morning (day 3 of the school) the weather looked “meh” with an overcast sky. Thankfully it improved during the day. Breakfast was again the full Scottish, and again Gianluigi “had” to help Teresa finish it (she’d then ask for a reduced portion for the Friday, Gianluigi didn’t). While preparing for the day, we realised how little it took to get into a new routine. We also realised that our grand plans to go for a run before the school had already gone right “oot the windae”, so our running shoes had come just for a trip.

Morning clouds.

At 8.00am, we went straight to the malting floor, as there was more shovelling for us! First, we shovelled the barley from the floor into wheelbarrows, to then put it down a hatch where, thanks to a conveyor belt, it was moved into the kiln. When we were finished with that, the team took us inside the kiln, where we spread the barley evenly with our shovels, and turned it slightly to make sure air and smoke could pass through. That barley, in fact, was going to be used to produce Springbank – in this case, the kilning starts with 6 hours of peat smoke, followed by 48 hours of hot air (powered with a gas burner). The way the barley is dried up indicates what it’s going to be used for: for example, 30 hours of hot air for Hazelburn, and instead 48 hours of peat smoke for Longrow. Kilkerran is the same as Springbank (so, lightly peated). However, the malt for the unpeated Kilkerran, the base of their blended malt Campbeltown Loch, and the heavily peated Kilkerran are sourced elsewhere.

Climbing the barley mountain in the kiln.

Only the conveyor belt was ready for this picture.

Throughout the year, they start with Hazelburn, followed by Longrow and then Springbank, until they close the distillery to switch to producing Kilkerran at Glengyle for the last 3 months. When we were there, they were malting barley for Springbank, filling Hazelburn newmake spirit into casks, distilling Longrow, and bottling Kilkerran, so in a sense (a veeeeeeery loose sense), we contributed to the production of all four main malts!

After the break, the group divided again. Graham and the two of us went to the bottling hall (next to the parking lot) to assist the team with boxing. At first, Graham was putting protective cardboard squares around the neck of bottles, Gianluigi was putting the bottles inside the box, and Teresa was helping piling the boxes into pallets. They were bottling the next batch of Kilkerran Heavily peated, which is a batch of a few thousand bottles. One cool thing they do with batches (so, excluding single casks) is to marry them in a large vat first, to then re-rack the married whisky into well used casks for 6 months to allow the liquid to settle. These casks are quite recognisable as their end is black, with only a few numbers on them. After the 6 months, these casks are emptied into another vatting tank, which is connected with the bottling line. They have two bottling lines, one automatic (for all the bottles with the classic Springbank/Kilkerran/Campbeltown Loch shape) and the other one semi-automatic, for all the bottles with alternative shapes (Cadenhead’s dumpy square, tall square “olive oil” style, and a couple of different tall round, at least). To make things easier, they told us that they will move soon to another shape of bottle for all Cadenhead’s and Springbank Society bottlings.

The automatic bottling line.

Work on the bottling line was briefly interrupted at 10.50am, when we went back to the maltings to see the kiln being lit: almost like the crossing of the wildebeests in the Serengeti!

And the peat is on.

At noon we walked back to the Still Guesthouse, where Donald had prepared us a chicken burger with potato wedges and salad, again very much appreciated (how many favourites can we have??). Back to the bottling line, we assisted the staff on the line for a wee while, until Chris showed us around the bottling hall. We were the last school term to “work” in the old bottling line, as the works for the new one were almost complete, and the lines were going to be moved to the new building at the end of the week. The old building is going back to be a maturation warehouse. We could sense the bottling team felt both emotional and excited about the move.

Chris also showed us where they store labels, boxes and bottles, and how the whisky is filtered three times before going into the bottles. Once the pallets are done and full with boxes, they are transported with a forklift to the dispatch point, which is also going to be moved to the new bottling hall. Like the old bottling hall, this building (between Springbank and Glengyle distilleries) is also going to become a warehouse – you can tell they are in need of warehousing space.

At some point, Chris very kindly allowed us to grab some drams, leftovers from previous bottlings. We were also given the chance to disgorge a vatting cask of the Kilkerran Heavily Peated into the larger vat and, while we were at it, try a sip of the whisky. So nice of them!

Where casks are disgorged.

The last activity of the day was a great reward for the shovelling (we guess), a Springbank warehouse tasting, reserved for attendees of either the Whisky School or the Barley to Bottle long-day premium tour (£250.00). We walked into Warehouse #3 together with David, the sales director, who hosted the tasting. The first three drams were quite spectacular, first a 2001 Hazelburn, matured in a refill cask (natural abv ~48-49%), followed by a 1990 (!!!) Springbank from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead (41.6%), and finally a 2001 Longrow from a 3^rd fill ex-bourbon hogshead (we missed the abv). Finally, a younger Longrow, only 4-year-old, from a Virgin oak octave cask: definitely punchier compared to the three balanced and soft tropical drams we had before. During the tasting, David talked about the challenges of selling Springbank in an ever-hungry market, so to maintain it available for fans while also trying to slowly expand. All this while making sure that supplies are used as intended (for drinking) and not hoarded by collectors, as much as possible at least. In the current market this is probably a good problem to have, but we can definitely see how it must require a lot of effort, and we cheer them for doing so!

A superb dram.

After the tasting we had some spare time before dinner, so we went to the Cadenhead’s Tasting Room to use the extra dram voucher we’d gotten the day before at the warehouse tasting. Dinner was salmon fillet, followed by another incredible dessert: one of the best cheesecakes we ever had! So, good that Gianluigi had two (!!), which Sandra took as a compliment (and indeed it was, still dreaming about that cake!). (Side note, Teresa is no longer amazed at how much Gianluigi can eat, but it was funny to see the others genuinely impressed by the performance.)

The unforgettable.

After dinner, we joined Graham, Andrew and his wife, and other visitors for a Watt Whisky tasting with Mark, at their shop near the Feathers Inn. It was a 6-dram tasting, very much Mark’s style, with a lot of delicious ex-bourbon cask Speysiders, but also a great “tea-spooned” Campbeltown blended malt (i.e. Glen Scotia), and a final peaty-sherry bomb, a 6y Staoisha (from Bunnahabhain distillery).

Great end to a great day.

After the tasting (and an extra dram or two), we briefly stopped at the Feathers Inn and soon went to sleep, amazed again by the quality of whisky you can find in the Wee Toon!

Coming next week, another post about the Springbank Whisky School! Until then, slàinte!

Springbank Whisky School

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/whisky-school/

#74.3 The Springbank Whisky School

Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’
(day 2, Tuesday)

TL; DR: Day two of the whisky school, filling and rolling casks all morning, watching the mashtun being filled, then more cask-rolling into the dunnage and racked warehouses after lunch. Reward came with a Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting of eight drams, standouts being a Palo Cortado Benrinnes 11y and old Laphroaig and Bowmore.

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

The second day of the school started like the first one: alarm at 6am, breakfast at 7am. That morning we got scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, a favourite of ours! Well fed, we walked to the distillery for the 8am start. It had rained during the night, so everything was wet, however the sun was shining when we arrived. That was pretty much the weather during the whole week, showers here and there, but generally sunny and not too cold…“breezy”, if you want.

Anyway, the first activity of the day was not a heavy one, just watching the steep tank being filled with water while chatting to the staff in the malting floor.

We don’t think this counts as quality control.

After that, it was time to get serious: our next job was rolling casks! (To note, when the Whisky School is on, the filling day is Tuesday instead of the usual Friday.) A number of casks were already aligned in the courtyard, just outside the filling room: our job was to roll them in, pass them on to “wee Andrew” (“wee” because he’s in his 20s, he’s taller than most of us) who would fill them, and once filled, closing them with a bung. Meanwhile, Gavin was keeping the records on the weight and volume of newmake spirit that went in.

The wait before rolling.

Once closed, we rolled the casks back to the courtyard and wrote down the cask number on the cask end with stencil and white paint. That day the casks were filled with Hazelburn, mostly ex-bourbon barrels, but also some sherry hogsheads.

Stencilling away.

It was a hard job, especially to get the casks positioned in the right way (with the writings up), but it took us occupied and time went quickly while rotating tasks between the five of us. We took a break for coffee at 10am, and at 11am we went to production to watch the mashtun getting filled. There, Daniel showed us how they regulate the flow of grist and hot water going into the mashtun, in order to maintain the temperature as close as possible to 63.5°C. The stream is regulated with a mechanism manoeuvred by a chain, and a slight movement can make the balance change quite quickly – not an easy job. At noon we went back to the guesthouse for lunch, this time through a shortcut in the backyard, through a scrapyard: almost romantic. A hearty soup (delicious) and sandwiches were waiting for us.

The mashing-in magic.

After lunch and a much needed coffee, it was time to roll casks again: this time from the courtyard to the warehouse where the Kilkerran Warehouse tasting is held nowadays (and where the Cadenhead’s Warehouse tasting used to be held). The staff showed us how to put the casks in the right way, so when you roll them on the staves they end up with the stencils facing up. The warehouse was a two-floor dunnage, and the casks we rolled in were destined to the upper floor, so a winch was needed. Upstairs, we helped put the casks on the manual lift used to position the casks on one of the three levels. We’ll spare you the intricacies of getting the right orientation of the bung depending on the spot assigned to the cask – that was tough!

Then, we moved to the racked warehouse next door, where we rolled casks on to a forklift, which the staff used to put the casks at rest in the free spots, sometimes quite high up.

…but someone has to do it.

Again, manoeuvring full casks is no easy task, and it was a good workout, but in this case being short people helped: Robert and Graham, much taller than us, had definitely a harder time!

Fortunately, this effort was well rewarded with the first tasting of the week: the Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting. The brand ambassador Andrew (Graham’s brother-in-law but also well known to us from festivals and tastings) took us to the new warehouse space where the tasting is held, near the Cadenhead’s tasting room.

Thankfully these casks don’t need to be moved…

The lineup was similar to the one we had in December, but with a few key differences. We started off with two known drams, an English single malt – the Spirit of Yorkshire/Filey Bay, fully matured in Madeira, at a low abv of 47% (the cask was almost empty at that point), and a 14y Glen Garioch finished in a rum cask (55%), tropical juiciness. The third dram was a Glenfarclas 15y (56%), that started maturing in a refill ex-bourbon barrel but was then re-racked into a Ruby Port hogshead in 2019 – more a double maturation rather than a finish. This was the first time we tried a Glenfarclas that was not in a sherry or bourbon cask, and it didn’t disappoint. Then, one of the best drams of the lineup for us, a Benrinnes 11y, first matured in refill bourbon and then in a Palo Cortado sherry hogshead for 3 years (54%). We bought a bottle, and strangely the last time we were in Campbeltown we also got a bottle of Benrinnes (but from Watt Whisky). Two is a coincidence, three is a trend…Let’s see next time. The fifth dram was a Tullibardine 11y, re-racked for the last 4 years in a fresh (aka 1^st fill) oloroso hogshead (52.1%). The sixth dram was, as per custom, a peated one, a delicious 11y Caol Ila (58.2%) from a bourbon barrel – the same we’d tried in December, but we’re very happy to go over it again, as it was delicious. We also had two extra drams, a 23y old Laphroaig from a bourbon hogshead – a stunner, one of Gianluigi’s favourite drams of the whole week – and a 28y Bowmore also from a bourbon cask, again a stunner, delicate and tropical. What a tasting!

A much easier job.

After that Graham left, and the four of us went back to the guesthouse for dinner. That night the menu was a tasty steak pie, followed by a delicious Eton mess: Sandra really knocked it out of the park! Tired from all the rolling and dramming, we soon went to bed for a well-deserved rest.

Coming next week, more shovelling! Until then, slàinte!

Springbank Whisky School

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/whisky-school/

#74.2 The Springbank Whisky School

Barley on my mind
(day 1, Monday)

TL; DR: First day of the Springbank Whisky School, so exciting! We spent most of the day in the malting floor – shovelling, grubbing and turning barley while understanding all the steps before milling. We were also treated to a walking tour to discover the sites of the many lost distilleries in Campbeltown!

(missed Part 1?)

On the Monday morning, we woke up early but excited: it was the first day of the Springbank Whisky School! A shower, then breakfast in the dining room: a full Scottish fried up by the lovely Marie, but also some fruits, yogurt, and toasted bread. It was a big plate, and as per usual Gianluigi helped Teresa clean it up! At 8am sharp Donald walked us from the Still Guesthouse to the distillery (only 5 minutes or so away).

Big breakfast for a big day ahead.

While arriving we saw (and smelled) grey peat smoke coming from the distillery kiln chimney: maybe no pope were made on that day, but still a very good sign! We met the distillery manager Gavin introduced himself and the school, gave us some study material, and briefly showed us around: first our lockers in the staff room, then a brief distillery tour.

Kiln in action!

But soon after, it was time for us to get “serious” and…Shovel barley! (We’ll spare you the jingle that Gianluigi came up with, but yes, there was a jingle about shovelling barley.) A little premise here: malting is a key part of Springbank’s production: for a long time, they were the only distillery where every step was done on site, from malting to bottling. Now Dunphail distillery (in Speyside) is also malting 100% of the barley on site, while other distilleries are at 10%-30% (Kilchoman, Laphroaig, and Bowmore on Islay, Benriach and Balvenie in Speyside, Glen Garioch in the East Highlands – we might have missed some). Most of the Scottish distilleries source malt from maltsters (or send theirs to be malted elsewhere, like Ballindalloch, Bruichladdich or Daftmill). For Springbank, the decision to keep malting in-house was not by accident, as for a period between 1960 and 1992 they also sourced it outside. It was Hadley G. Wright, the former chairman of J&A Mitchell (sadly passed away in 2023), who decided to bring it back to create more jobs for the Campbeltown community.

Malting starts by taking the green barley from the bins where the lorries unload it. When ready, it is transported with a conveyer belt through three hatches into the steep tank (13 tons if it goes to the slightly larger lower malting floor, 10 tons if it goes to the upper malting floor), where it is soaked with water for 14 hours. Water is then drained, and after 12 hours the barley is soaked again for another 14 hours. After draining, it is shovelled through another hatch if it goes to the lower malting floor, or shovelled outside the steep if it stays on the upper floor. That day we were on the lower malting floor, and a pile of wet barley was waiting for us, ready to be spread. So, for about 30-40 minutes, we shovelled barley on to wheelbarrows, that we then used to spread it on the floor, under the supervision of Joey and John, who levelled out the most uneven bits. Being five (plus the staff) doing it, it went quickly, and it was already time for the 10am break, when we gathered at the washback bar for a hot drink and some sweet treats.

Working hard. Were we doing a good job? Oh well.

The second activity of the day was a walking tour with Findlay, hunting down the sites of lost distilleries. Having read David Stirk’s Whiskypolis book recently, Gianluigi was already acquainted with the story of the 30-odd distilleries that used to be in town. Only two survived all the shocks of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, that led to many closures in the 1920s and 1930s. The two are obviously Glen Scotia (formerly only Scotia) and Springbank, while Glengyle was resurrected in 2004 by J&A Mitchell in order for Campbeltown to retain its official whisky region status. And we’re happy for that, as Kilkerran (the brand name under which they sell Glengyle’s whisky, as the name is owned by another company) is a tremendous dram! Two other old distillery names live on as Springbank variants: Longrow, heavily peated and double distilled), and Hazelburn, unpeated and triple distilled. Some of the spots gave it away that there used to be a distillery – for example, Benmore is a now the name of the street, but you can still see half of its pagoda roof and the name on the old gate.

What remains of a glorious past.

Some others were less straightforward to spot, like the site of Lochead distillery, which is now home to…a Tesco. Apparently, when they had their application approved by the Argyll and Bute Council, they were supposed to include in the architecture something that hinted at the fact that there used to be a distillery, so they came up with “pagodas” on the roof. Pardon our French, but they look a bit shite. The old Hazelburn distillery is, instead, one of the best-preserved buildings. Some warehouses of Glen Nevis also survived. Nice touch, during the tour we also popped into Glen Scotia, where we said “hi” to Greg, who gave us the excellent Warehouse Tasting back in December.

The oddest rendition of a pagoda.

After the tour, it was time for lunch back at the Still Guesthouse: scotch pie, keeping it traditional. Common theme for the whole week: the food was delicious, we were (happily) spoiled! Anyway, after the one-hour lunch break, we were split in two groups, Graham and the two of us in one, and Robert and Stephen in the other. While Robert and Stephen went on to look at mashing, fermenting and distilling, we went back to the maltings, where the staff showed us all the nitty and gritty of what is done there. First, we watched the steep tank being filled in with barley, and how it gets evened out. To see how the steep tank gets filled with water, we had to wait for the next morning.

Step 1, filling the steep tank with barley.

Anyway, once spread on the floor, the barley is turned every four hours to keep it aerated and break up rootlets. The three of us got to turn a few rows of barley with both the grubber (manual) and the turner (electric). Every step and relevant information is noted down on paper registers, things like when the barley is turned, temperature, humidity, etc. It was quite exciting to see some old registers going back many years!

Quality control.

Turning…Less easy than we thought!

The team then took us outside in the internal courtyard, where they keep both wet and dry (under a shed) peat, and where the old oil tanker still lays, which was used before they switched to natural gas. Back inside, we went up to the last floor, which is not used to spread malt, but to store the barley from two local farms (wink, wink) waiting to be processed. It’s also where we could see the top of the malt bins (and a conveyer belt!).

The oldest destoner we ever saw.

We then checked out the destoner above the Porteus mill, a very old piece of equipment in a wooden box, which weighs the malt to send to the mill in 25kg “coups”. All very nerdy details, and of course we loved it!

With that, our first day was over. While the afternoon was a bit slow, it was a solid start of the school, and we were looking forward to the second day! We went back to the guesthouse, where Sandra had cooked us a delicious dinner, chicken Balmoral with fava beans and mashes, followed by a trifle: we still dream about it! We then had a couple of drams with Stephen and Robert in the sitting room, before retiring to our rooms.

Stay tuned to know more about our second day! Until then, slàinte!

Springbank Whisky School

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/whisky-school/

#74.1 The Springbank Whisky School

Getting ready to go!
(prologue)

TL; DR: Sooner than expected, we had to get ready for something that had been on our wish list for a long time – the Springbank Whisky School. We were so excited for this once-in-life opportunity! This is just an introductory blog post to our intense week in the wee toon, more (much more) to come.

A few weeks ago, back in March (2026, for you reading from the future!), we ticked off one of the whisky experiences in our bucket list: the Springbank Whisky School! In a few words (but many more are about to come), it’s an intensive week at the distillery, ‘working’ and learning everything about the nitty and gritty of their production, from malting the green barley, to sliding bottles in a cardboard box, ready to be shipped anywhere. With a few drams in between, obviously. Obviously a heaven for Springbank lovers, but overall an experience that attracts many whisky nerds and enthusiasts from everywhere.

We found out about the school during the pandemic, but at the time it was closed, for obvious reasons. Gianluigi first enquired back in November 2022, after they restarted, but we were told that after losing those two years, the queue was estimated to be seven years long! Fair enough, we were ready to wait until 2029, and that was just to join the waiting list. But then, very suddenly, in October 2025 we received an email from the distillery: they were reopening the waiting list. We signed up right away, again expecting to finally do the school towards the end of 2026 or even in 2027. But that wasn’t the case, possibly because (as we learned later) after the pandemic they moved from running it 10 weeks a year to 20 weeks, halving the waiting times. When the confirmation email arrived, asking us to choose three potential terms, we realised that we could do it as early as February/March 2026: only a few months away, such a nice surprise! And so we did, we selected the second week of March, to avoid a clash with the Fife Whisky and Independent Spirit festivals. Soon after, our good pal Stephen from the Edinburgh Whisky Group, a massive Springbank fan also on the waiting list, managed to book for the same week: “los tres amigos” going to Campbeltown, yay!

Los tres (oh sorry, quatros) amigos.

The adventure started on a sunny Sunday afternoon, when we slowly left Edinburgh towards Glasgow, where we picked up Stephen who was visiting friends. We met him at the CostCo petrol station, so in the meanwhile we filled the tank (the diesel was “only” £1.349 per litre then….It seems so long ago!). We then swiftly left Glasgow and drove to Campbeltown, aiming to check in just before dinner. The Whisky School includes accommodation in the lovely Still Guesthouse (owned by J&A Mitchell and used by staff visiting the wee toon), a few minutes walking from the distillery, in front of the Co-Op supermarket.

The school normally hosts 6-7 attendees per week. However, when we arrived, we realised that in our term we’d only be five: the three of us, Robert and Graham. Robert is from California, but he used to live in Scotland, where he obtained the master in Brewing and Distilling at Herriot Watt University and then worked at Fierce Brewery, before moving back to the US. He’d flown all the way from San Jose to attend the school (and for a following trip to Islay)! Much closer to home, Graham lives and works in Glasgow, but since his wife is from Campbeltown, he stayed with the in-laws. Not the first time we’d met him, as we were already introduced to each other at the Fife Whisky Festival the previous weekend.

The Still Guesthouse, hard not to guess what this is all about.

Stephen and Robert were given two rooms on the ground floor (the “15” and the “12”), while we shared one of the three rooms upstairs (the “Single cask”). While the rooms downstairs had a shower, ours didn’t, but since we were the only two people upstairs, we still had the one bathroom to ourselves. There is also an annex, but obviously nobody used it during our term.

In the room, we found the gear provided by Springbank: a set of five t-shirts (orange, red, green, purple and black), a black jacket and a high-vis vest. On the initial form the smallest size was a unisex S (which fits Gianluigi), but they were super kind to get a XS set of t-shirts and jacket for Teresa (who is a tiny lady). After the school the high-vis vest are in the van, don’t know how good of an idea this is, since the big mark on the back with “2026 Springbank Whisky School”. A thing we had to get ourselves were the safety boots: we both got some hybrid models with all the safety requirements, but that could be used for hiking as well. Our old hiking shoes were long done (Teresa’s died last year on Ben Nevis), so we killed two birds with one stone.

All sorted!

All meals from Monday morning to Friday lunchtime are also provided by the school, and it is a fixed menu (obviously taking into account food allergies or diets) for the three meals. So, on our arrival on Sunday evening we had to get food somewhere, and the obvious choice for us was the Ardshiel Hotel. After a tasty meal and a pint, we went back to the guesthouse, where we met Robert.

A fine, fine week ahead!

We had a dram all together in the cosy sitting room, where a bottle of Campbeltown Loch blended malt (46%) and a Seven Star blended scotch (46%) were left for us to enjoy. We also found a liquor cabinet in the kitchen, where previous guests had left a bottle of Longrow from the distillery’s shop demijohn (that gets constantly refilled, in a solera-ish fashion), and some other liquors/spirits. Good find and nice way to ‘connect’ with students from previous terms (we’d also leave some of our samples for students after us), but we all concurred that it wasn’t a good night for dramming given the big start the day after. We soon went to bed to get a good rest before properly starting the adventure on the next day!

Stay tuned for the rest of the adventure! Until then, slàinte!

Springbank Whisky School

Link: https://www.springbank.scot/whisky-school/

#52 Rosebank Distillery

28 (+2) years later

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

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

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

No way we could miss it.

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

Old and new beautifully combined.

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

A big production area.

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

A shiny mashtun.

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

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

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

A mini Ian Mcleods’ tasting.

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

No better way to end the day.

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

Until the next time, slainte!

Rosebank Distillery Reawakening

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the history of the distillery

Recommended: for historical reasons

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

#24.2 Dramming in Dublin

Back to Dublin after the storm: the Dublin Liberties Distillery

TL;DR: A much awaited reunion with two friends became a perfect opportunity for Teresa to visit another fairly new distillery in Dublin: The Dublin Liberties. But before then, we explored Irish whiskey from home.

(missed Part 1?)

Soon after our weekend in Dublin in 2020, we found ourselves stuck at home, unfortunately not baking much. However, during this unfortunate period, we started digging a bit more into Irish whiskey (well, into all things whisky to be fair). We got our first bottle of Redbreast 12, and in spite of the 40% ABV, we loved every drop of it. We also got a big Irish whiskey tasting for the Belfast Whiskey 2020. There were supposed to be a bit more than a dozen dram, finally they were 19 (it took ages to finish them all…) and among many forgettable drams, we found some quite nice ones (Dingle Single Malt, Sliabh Liam Dark Silkie, Dunville Three Crowns). Later that year, an Irish whiskey tasting was organised by Justine and Connor for the Edinburgh Whisky Group, and this time we found another true gem: Powers John Lane 12y, now one of our favourites. And we didn’t replace the bottle, but Jameson Black Barrel was an easy sipper for a while (we’d be very curious to try the cask strength version).

Oh yes, we like you… who would have said an Irish dram would be so tropical?!?

So, one bit at a time, we started navigating the world of Irish Whiskey, although to be honest we are still confused and a bit annoyed about one thing: sourcing. Well, not the sourcing in itself, which we have no problem whatsoever with, but the fact that many of the new distilleries don’t make it clear on the label when their spirit is sourced from another distillery (at the other end of the spectrum, an excellent example of transparency was the Raasay “While We Wait” expression, very clear indeed!).

It is with this background knowledge that I (Teresa) went to Dublin for the third time in less than three years. Only a good reason could bring me back to a nice, but still quite expensive city.

No, that’s not the reason I went back to Dublin, but could have been.

The reason was indeed really good, a reunion with two old friends back in August 2022. The plan was very simple: just a chilled-out weekend to enjoy the city, good food and, most of all, some time together, with not much sightseeing involved. My two friends are not much, or better, not at all into whiskey (yes, I have friends that don’t like it!), so any whiskey-related activity was also out of question. Nonetheless, the evening we spent in Temple Bar and its surroundings, I couldn’t resist the “Irish whiskey calling”, so I had a Redbreast 12y and a Yellow Spot. Both quite pricey (from memory between 12 and 15 euros for a 25ml dram), most likely because we were in a very touristy area (so my fault, really).

The two days went really fast and, after a morning in sunny Howth, it was already time for my two friends to head towards the airport. Not for me, because my flight back to Edinburgh was late in the evening, so I still had a few hours to spend in the city…That called for a distillery visit, of course! It was still very sunny, so I decided to walk to my destination, the Dublin Liberties distillery, where I had booked the last tour of the day (just in time!). At first, I wasn’t even sure I was in the right place, the neighbourhood looked very residential to me, and indeed I was already angry at myself for giving Gianluigi more evidence to laugh at my lack of orientation skills, but then I saw a small sign…I was at the distillery, phew!

Arrived at the distillery, such a relief!

While waiting for the tour to start, I browsed the shop: whiskey of course (but again no checked luggage, so I didn’t really pay attention to the bottles on display), the usual merchandise, but also a good selection of whisky books.

The tour started in a small room where the guide gave a brief introduction and made us (i.e. myself and three Americans) watch a video about the troubled history of the Liberties neighbourhood, including the famous 1875 whiskey fire. Such a young distillery (it started producing in 2019) doesn’t have much of its own history, so I found it quite clever to devote the first part of the tour to the roots of Irish whiskey in general. And all this while sipping a dram of Honeycomb liqueur (if memory serves me well), a bit sweet for my taste but nice touch!

Another nice touch was the information about where barley is malted (Cork), and about the location of the warehouses (Wexford) – in most tours you normally get this level of detail only if you ask. We then moved to production – mashtun, stainless still washbacks and of course the still room, where I found out that the distillery has a capacity of 700,000 litres of alcohol per year. Not huge, but still more than I expected. Unfortunately my more geeky questions (like about the cut) weren’t answered, which made me realise that knowledge of whisky production wasn’t really the strength of our young guide. She was still entertaining, so overall an enjoyable tour.

Finally, the tasting, which happened in the beautiful bar in a relaxed atmosphere. The two drams were two whiskeys, most likely sourced from other Irish distilleries (I didn’t ask), the Dubliner (3yr, 40%) and the Devil Oak (single malt, 5y, 46%, a bit confusing that they have also a blend with the same name, more prevalent). Probably because of the young age, none of them was particularly memorable, but I was surprised by how the Dubliner was very drinkable.

Back at the shop, out of guilt for my ignorance, I bought an Irish whiskey guide and made my way to the airport, where I found the perfect souvenir: a bottle of Yellow Spot, at a price (60€) that was almost too good to be true, compared with the 70-80 pounds we usually see it in Scottish shops.

Overall, nice to keep our exploration of Irish whiskey going. Until next time, Sláinte!

The Dublin Liberties Distillery Tour

Price: 18 euros (weekend tour, August 2022, 16 euros on weekdays)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 3 drams, Dubliner Honeycomb Whiskey Liqueur (30%), Dubliners Blended Whiskey 3y (40%, likely sourced but not 100% sure), The Liberties Oak Devil Single Malt 5y (46%, NCF, NC, sourced)

Target: Anyone, but geared towards tourists and novices

Value for money: Good

Highlights: The history of Liberties covered in depth and the friendly staff

Recommended: Yes if you’re a tourist or you’re bagging distilleries, no if you’re an expert

Link: https://thedld.com/

#24.1 Dramming in Dublin

A whiskey weekend before the storm: Teeling & Roe & Co.

TL;DR: In January 2020, we visited friends in Dublin, so why not check out a couple of distilleries in the meanwhile? We chose two among the many newbies, Teeling, in the Liberties neighbourhood, and Roe & Co, a new Diageo distillery close to the iconic Guinness brewery!

In our blog, so far, we talked about our whisk(e)y adventures in Kentucky, England, Canada and, of course, Scotland. You might have noticed an important gap, which is the object of this and the next blog post: Ireland!

Gianluigi had actually visited Ireland, mostly Dublin, a few times way before his whisky journey started, while for Teresa the first time came when we went there to celebrate 2019 New Year with two friends from the US. At that point, we were already into whiskey (and whisky), but in our heads Dublin = Jameson, so that’s what we went for: the Jameson Experience in Bow Street, where the old distillery was. It was a nice experience for newbies, and it was very interesting to compare scotch (Johnnie Walker), American (Jack Daniels…) and Irish whiskey (Jameson, of course). For sure, at the time we were not aware of the troubled history of Irish whiskey: after the trade block with the Commonwealth countries as a consequence of the Irish Independence war, and prohibition in the USA, Irish whiskey saw a decline which led the biggest producers (Powers, Cork Distillers and Jameson) to join forces and form the Irish Distillers company, while moving production to the New Middleton distillery, in Cork, in 1971. For many years, only two distilleries were active in Ireland: the aforementioned Middleton and Bushmills, in Ulster.

Recent years saw a renaissance of Irish whiskey, however. First, in 1987, John Teeling acquired and converted an old potato processing plant into the third Irish working distillery: Cooley. More recently, a number of distilleries throughout the island popped up, including a handful in Dublin.

It is in this context that we started to sniff around. The occasion was a weekend at the end of January 2020, when Covid was already a thing but hopes were that, like the SARS-CoV-1 in 2003, it would have been a limited outbreak…so naïve! We went back to Dublin to visit a friend of Gianluigi who was working at the UCD, and a former Teresa’s advisor from New Zealand. When we looked at the available tours we spotted four distilleries: the Liberties, Pearse Lyons, Roe & Co. and Teeling. Being unfamiliar with all of these brands, we chose the latter two, almost randomly.

First Irish whiskey distillery visit: Teeling.

It was a sunny Saturday morning, when we arrived in the Liberties, a former industrial neighbourhood. This is home to both the Liberties (more on this next week) and Teeling distilleries. The latter was founded in 2015 by Jack and Stephen Teeling, the sons of the founder of Cooley, now owner of the Great Northern Distillery, in County Louth, the former Harp beer brewery converted into a distillery in 2015. In hindsight, visiting Teeling first made sense as it is the first new whiskey distillery in Dublin in over 100 years, and the first operating since Jameson and Powers moved to Cork.

The building is quite modern, and it’s obvious that they built the distillery with tourists in mind: everything is spacious and feels ready to accommodate big groups. They are quite a sizeable distillery too, with half-million litres of alcohol per annum. They produce many different styles of whiskey: single grain, single malt, single pot still and the typical Irish unaged spirits (Poitin), all bottled at 46%, except the latter which goes up to around 50-52%. Their main expression Is the Small Batch, made with malt and grain whisky. The tour was nice, nothing particular to note, except that the three stills (most Irish whiskeys are tripled distilled) come from an Italian firm, Frilli, and they are named after the owners’ daughters (which now we cannot recall…it was 3 years ago!). The tour ended with a visit to the on-site warehouse, where some of the first casks filled are stored.

After the tour, we got a 4-dram tasting: the Small Batch, the Single Malt, the Single Pot-still and a distillery exclusive. It was very interesting to try them all together, a comparison between very different styles of whiskey! At the bar, we also tried one of their special releases of the time, the Brabazon vol. 2, a sourced whiskey finished in ex-Port cask and bottled at 49.5% abv, very different from the others!

The following day, much cloudier, was Roe & Co’s turn, very close to the Guinness St James Gate Brewery. The name is inspired by George Roe & Co, the owner of the old Thomas Street Distillery. This used to be a massive distillery around the late 1800s, just a stone throw away from the brewery, with over 2 million gallons of single pot still whiskey produced per year. It was closed in 1926, following the aforementioned crisis of Irish whiskey. The new Roe & Co distillery was built by Diageo in the old brewery powerhouse, and started producing in 2019. It is a very beautiful old industrial brick building, with big windows that make it possible to see the still room from outside. Next to the building, there is a tower with a green dome and a pear tree (which inspired the distillery’s logo).

Second day, second distillery: Roe & Co.

Production is characterised by a closed mash-tun with a copper lid, a few (we cannot remember how many) wooden washbacks, and three stills of different shapes. Again, this distillery too has been clearly built with visitors in mind, so the spaces are quite open, and the bar is near the still room. After visiting the production, the guide brought us to a fancy showroom with a big table, where there was a wooden box for each of us. Inside the box, a few aromas and other stuff for a sort of sensorial experience (honestly, the least favourite part of the tour).

Afterwards, we went to a blending room, where the guide gave us a brief but informative introduction to mixology before we mixed our own cocktails. While we are far from being whisk(e)y purists (once in a while we like a good whisk(e)y-based cocktail), we’re not big fans of this “whisk(e)y as a mixer” thing that has been pushed so much by big companies like Diageo. However, we have to say that this experience was really interesting, definitely a plus of this tour.

Finally, at the bar we had a sip of the Roe & Co whiskey, a blend made with malt and grain whiskeys from undisclosed Irish distilleries: a nice dram (45%, not-chill filtered, NAS). We also tried an ex-Port cask finished Roe & Co, another blend (if we recall correctly), a bit more robust, but we couldn’t get it because we had no checked luggage. Oh well.

We felt this trip to Dublin was just a first, tiny taste of the Irish whiskey wolrd, and indeed we were left more curious than when we had arrived. Since then, we have tried some very interesting expressions, and it’s nice to see the Irish whiskey scene being revamped. For more about this, stay tuned until next week, Sláinte!

Jameson Bow St. Whiskey Experience
Link: https://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/en-gb/visit-our-distilleries/jameson-bow-street-distillery-tour/

Teeling Distillery
Link: https://www.teelingwhiskey.com/

Roe & Co. Distillery
Link: https://www.roeandcowhiskey.com/

#22 Goodbye 2022, see you soon 2023

A very dramming year

TL;DR: As usual this period gives us a chance to reflect on the year about to end. It has been an intense one for us, particularly the second half. Whisky-wise, we had some very fantastic experiences, some disappointing, and a few average ones. While we are looking forward to “dramming around” in 2023, here our 2022 highlights.

Aaaand…It’s December, and we are finally on holidays. By the time you will be reading this, another Christmas will have just passed, we hope you had a great day of celebrations with your loved ones, and that you are now bloated and relaxing on Boxing Day (or St. Stephen, as it is known in Italy).

Because of our jobs, we both arrived at the end of the year very tired. However, it was also a year full of fantastic whisky experiences, that we hope to repeat next year. In 2022, we visited 19 (Gianluigi) and 20 (Teresa) new distilleries (17 in Scotland and one in England together, Gianluigi visited one in Canada, Teresa one in Ireland and one in England). We also had the chance to revisit some good old acquaintances, like GlenAllachie and Deanston (amongst our favourites). We were able to go to Orkney (hurray!) to catch up with both Scapa (aye!) and Highland Park (nay!).

And, finally (FINALLY), we visited Islay for the first time, after our March 2020 trip was cancelled by you-know-what. What a crazy holiday that one, our rented campervan broke down on day 1, half-hour away from the ferry terminal. Although we had to get last-minute accommodations and move around by taxi, we managed anyway! And what a visit, we have to say that whisky tourism on Islay is something really different. Take the Laphroaig tour for example, the token system to pick the drams for your tasting at the end makes it much more flexible than most of the other tours, so that can be enjoyed by both novices and experts. Moreover, Bunnahabhain (best warehouse tasting ever…just the bottling prices a bit too steep), Lagavulin, and Kilchoman rewarded us travelling there by including no-core range drams, all limited ones, which made the experience truly special. We wished other distilleries on far-away islands would do the same… We can’t wait to go back to Islay, to catch up with the other distilleries, and revisit some.

Moments before the best warehouse tasting ever.

Other than Islay we had some incredible whisky experiences, like the Deanston Winter Fest (coming up soon in the blog), or the GlenAllachie tour during the “Speycation” (coming up soon too).

Deanston WinterFest: that’s happiness after three tastings.

This word was brilliantly created by our friend Cath, and greatly implemented by Justine (Kask Whisky): over the weekend we visited 5 distilleries (+ 1 being built) and did a few tastings, including one in the now closed Coleburn distillery, and one in the Strathisla’s warehouse. A couple of weeks earlier, we were again in Speyside for the Dramathon, and of course we visited (or revisited) a few distilleries: Glenfarclas (new visit), Glen Grant and Glen Garioch on the way back (both revisits).

The direct-fired Glen Garioch spirit still.

Some of the tours we did were OK, a bit standard but nothing to complain about: we’d say that usually you get what you pay for. Disappointments came from distillery-exclusive bottling prices. In some cases, instead of rewarding you for visiting the distillery (and already paying for a tasting or a tour), they put a 20-30 quid premium on those. Not nice. The only distillery experience that was really a disappointment and we regret paying for was Highland Park. Despite avoiding the basic tour (£30, already not cheap) we opted for the improved one (£75, the most expensive tour we did so far) to be denied any dram of distillery exclusives or other limited bottlings, and just taste the core range which we could have done in Edinburgh anytime. An expensive tourist trap, we won’t go back there (sorry James, you were a superstar guide though!).

A nice but waaaaay to pricey Blair Athol (£120!!!).

With the Covid19 restrictions behind our back, we could attend our very first whisky festivals, the Fife whisky festival in March and the Whisky Fringe in August – we had a lot of fun, let’s see if it’ll be the same with bigger events.

Enjoying a break between the two Fife Whisky Festival sessions.

In-person tastings came back too. We did a few organised by our friend Justine, of course, as well as others by Mark, Murray (both at Kilderkin) and Colin at Tipsy Midgie. We had some cracking drams, including a 20y Dutch single malt from Zuidam, a fantastic Doorly’s rum (from Foursquare distillery) and some cracking Daftmill-s and Bruichladdich-s. Also, SMWS events came back, including our favourites: Outturns and Distillery Visits (an event where you can taste whiskies brought by a distillery representative together with some provided by the SMWS). This year we did the Glen Moray distillery visit with Iain Allan connected remotely and the Distell one (Deanston/Tobermory) with the very funny Brendan McCarron: both cracking events with awesome whiskies! Gianluigi also decided to become an Aqvavite Youtube Channel Patreon: Roy’s content and entertainment are really priceless, and this was long overdue. We also attended a very funny blind tasting in Glasgow where we finally met all those whisky folks we’d only seen on screen until then.

By writing this up, we realised 2022 was intense not only because of work, but because of whisky too! We hope to bag more distilleries in 2023, although we’ll probably try to be more selective when picking tours and experiences. We are also starting to organise whisky tastings: the first will be towards the end February and will be Port-cask related (we got the idea during our fantastic trip in Portugal…tickets here), but the following ones will involve bottles we picked up in our travels, not necessarily at distilleries, eheh…Stay tuned! Overall, it’s still a very long way to become whisky geeks, but we’ve learned a lot this year and we hope to continue the trend!

Not just whisky for us…coming to a tasting soon!

Happy holidays and see you next year! Slainte!

#19.1 Dramming around Orkney

A visit to Scapa distillery

TL; DR: We were finally able to visit Orkney and its malt distilleries. First off, Scapa, home of quite a “mysterious” single malt, that we learned to appreciate during an in-depth distillery tour and a great tasting of mostly single cask expressions. Definitely a must-go for whisky fans visiting Orkney!

In summer 2021, we had carefully planned a trip to the North of Scotland, including a few days on Orkney, which we were very eager to visit. For various reasons (actually, one reason, guess which one!) we had to cancel it. The occasion to catch up presented itself this year thanks to a couple of friends from Parma, Roberto and Cecilia (and their wee one, Flora). They wanted to visit the Highlands since their first visit in 2019, but things happened in between. This year they finally made it, and halfway into their holiday we joined them in Inverness and continued together: direction, Orkney!

We travelled in a campervan, which was meant to be an adventure. It was indeed, although with way more midges than expected: that was our first unfortunate discovery of the holiday: the Northeast coast is full of midges, almost as much as in the West, at least around Thurso where we spent the first night.

On the way to Thurso, where midges were waiting for us!

We woke up early however, and not for the midges, our ferry from Thurso to Stromness was around 8am. The cafe on the boat had a very Scottish menu, which meant a roll-based second breakfast. The view was quite spectacular, in particular we could admire the Old Man of Hoy during the cross.

Once on the island, we explored the village of Stromness. It looked like a very peaceful place, and not overwhelmingly touristy. After the stroll we had a quick lunch in a cafe and drove towards East, direction Orphir, where we stopped for a walk to the beach, taking advantage of the nice weather. On the beach we found half a jaw of some animal…cow? Sheep? Seal? And, more worrying, some dead birds, likely because of avian influenza. This wasn’t the only time during the holiday, it happened later at the Brough of Birsay and at Dingyshowe beaches.

Moving on, it was finally time for our first visit to an Orcadian distillery, Scapa, right outside the “capital”, Kirkwall! Before the tour, Scapa was quite a “mysterious” single malt to us: until then, we were only aware of two official bottlings, the Skiren and the Glansa, the latter finished in ex-peated casks (since the distillery belongs to Chivas Brothers, we guess Allt-A Bhainne). We also never came across an expression from independent bottlers (the SMWS has a code for Scapa, #17, but as far as we know no recent bottlings).

Our friends dropped us at the visitor centre, where the tour guide Maria Letizia warmly welcomed us. Because she is Italian, she gave us a personalised tour in Italian, the very first time for us! The distillery is going through some renovations. They’re building a new tasting room, making sure it’s not pointing towards a certain buoy in the Scapa Flow. Maria Letizia explained that this is a sign of respect, because that’s the place where the Royal Oak, a ship with about 800 novices in training, mostly teenagers, was sunk by a German submarine during WW2, which was lucky enough to get to the Flow avoiding all old ships positioned as hurdles.

After this quite sad historical anecdote, the tour moved on as usual: we got told the history of the distillery, which was founded in 1885, and partially destroyed in 1919 by a fire. More recently, in 1994, it was mothballed and for a few years, personnel from the neighbouring Highland Park were turning it on for a few weeks every year to make sure that everything was still working. They get all the malted barley from the mainland, totally unpeated, and that was from the foundation in our understanding, which is very uncommon for an Island distillery. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any photos in the production area, so we cannot show you a very peculiar detail: their wash still is a Lomond still, similar to the Ugly Betty at Bruichladdich (which is used for gin, however). They also don’t have any filling station, so the newmake spirit is stored into tankers and transported to Glasgow to be put in casks, at 63.5% if first-fill casks, while at a higher strength, 68.8%, if refills. Some of these return back to the island, together with casks from other Chivas’ distilleries, to mature on site. We could take a sneak peek at the warehouses, but photos from the outside only.

Back to the visitor centre, everything was ready for the tasting. When we booked the tour (which alone was 5 quids only!!!), we could choose three tastings: the Land (a core range expression and 3 from the 10-16y range, £30), the Sea (four drams from the 15-19y range, £35) and the Air (four drams from the above 20y range, £45). These tastings were not bookable from the website, which only offers 3 unspecified drams for£25, we had learned about them by contacting the distillery via email. Except for the two core range expressions, all the other ones are available as 50cl bottles, as is typical of Chivas Brothers’ distilleries. Like the ones we saw in the other distilleries, they are a bit pricey too – company policy.

We chose the fancier ones, Sea and Air, although in the first one we decided to include two drams below 15y (more approachable price-wise). All very tasty drams, in particular a couple of sherry cask matured ones (very cask forward, though). In general, we found the distillery character very citrusy, oily, crispy and honey/vanilla forward. They were all single casks, except an 18y, a marriage of 5 ex-bourbon barrels from the small production of 2000, when the distillery was run for a few days by Highland Park operators.

We were very happy to finally get to know this distillery and its character. After dinner, we tried the two core range expressions, Skiren and Glansa, which we had tasted a long time before. Quite inoffensive sweet drams, definitely not comparable with the juicy and tasty ones we had had earlier at the distillery. Just a shame Chivas don’t bottle more geek-forward expressions at a reasonable price (don’t have to be all single casks, btw).

The night ended at the Kirkwall camping, trying to avoid the midges. Stay tuned for the second and last part of this trip!

Scapa Tour and Tasting

Price: £5 tour (August 2022) + tasting (£25 3 drams, bookable online in the summer season; £30 Land 1 dram from the core range and 3 distillery bottlings 10-16y; £35 Sea 4 distillery bottlings 15-19y; £45 Air 4 distillery bottlings 20+y)

Duration: 1-1.5 hours

Tasting: depending on tasting choice and available expressions

Target: anyone really, the experience can be easily customised

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the still room and the Lomond still

Recommended: YES!

Link: https://www.scapawhisky.com/

#17.2 A first taste of Speyside

Walking and blending

TL;DR: The last two days of the trip were dedicated to less standard whisky experiences. First off, a walk through the village of Dufftown and its distilleries. On the last day, we did a blending experience at Strathisla, learning the hard way how difficult it is. Overall, definitely a great trip!

(missed Part 1?)

The morning of the third day was quite open, so we went back to Aberlour, officially for a walk to the Linn waterfalls, behind the Aberlour distillery, but we sneaked in a second visit to…no, not the distillery, to the Walker’s cookies shop! Just to pick up Christmas gifts for family and friends, and because Gianluigi loves cookies indeed! We had some take-away food from a local shop, before our afternoon activity: a walking tour of the 9 distilleries of Dufftown! If you’re asking yourself why 9, just stick with us…

A cute meeting point for the walking tour.

The tour was organized by Michelle, a local guide living in the village. We and another young couple met her at the clock tower. First, we walked towards her house, where she very professionally gave us a glencairn and a yellow vest: at the end of the day we were about to walk through a few whisky producing plants, most of them not open to visitors. To start with, we walked towards the site where the now demolished Pittyvaich distillery used to be (close to the Mortlach Parish Church). While looking at some of the old warehouses, Michelle poured a taste of a 25y Pittyvaich from a Diageo release. A bit down the road, we then stopped at Dufftown distillery, owned by Diageo.

This is one of the three distilleries making the Singleton (Singleton of Dufftown), sold mostly in the UK and Europe. Moving on with our tour, walking along the Dullan Water, we found the third distillery: Glendullan, another one from the Singleton series (this one distributed in North America, while the third one is from Glen Ord and is distributed in the Asian market). One exception was the House of Tully Singleton, part of the Game of Thrones range, which we had a taste of after a wee look at the still room. Next stop was a popular one, Mortlach, which we were very curious about for their quite complicated 2.71 distillation process. We saw their third still (from the outside), called the Wee Witchie, where the last 0.71 of the distillation happens (in our understanding, but not so sure…).

In this case, the dram was a Gordon & MacPhail 25y from the distillery label range, paired with homemade shortbreads, which were fantastic! It took a bit to get to the next stop, this time walking along the Foiddich. During the walk Michelle showed us the building where another silent distillery was, Parkmore, closed too long ago to get a sip. We were already acquainted with the next working one, Glenfiddich, but not the next ones: Kininvie and Balvenie.

Unfortunately, during this trip we hadn’t managed to book the latter (although we caught up almost a couple of years later), so we were very curious to see it. As we walked past the malting floor, we saw smoke coming out of it, meaning it was working! Michelle was very excited as well, she had seen it only a dozen of times. We walked past Kininvie still room (the mashtun and washbacks are at Balvenie). The final distillery was another silent one, Convalmore, now used as warehouses. This is where Michelle’s husband was waiting for us in a van to bring us back (it was quite dark at that stage). It was a great experience, a bit different from a regular distillery visit, definitely worth it! We ended up having dinner at the Commercial Hotel and, again, a couple of drams at the Seven Stills.

Sunday was the last day of our wee holiday. We had a very nice conversation with Linda and her partner, who drove us to Keith for the last whisky activity of the long weekend: Strathisla. The distillery looks very pretty, in particular as you walk in from the parking through the courtyard. Like Aberlour, it is owned by Chivas Brothers (a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard), and it is the core malt of one of their most popular brands, Chivas Regal. The 12 year old expression is present in almost all aunties’ and grandmothers’ houses back in Italy too.

For this tour, Teresa picked something different: the blending experience. So, after the tour of the distillery and the warehouses (where we had a dram of Chivas straight from the cask), we were guided to the blending room. It looked like a fancy version of a high school chemistry lab, with all the glass equipment, but instead of burners there were bottles of whisky. Our task was to create a blend of 5 whiskies: fruity (Strathisla), citrusy (Glen Keith), smoky (Allt A’Bhaine), creamy (Longmorn) and floral (Strathclyde, a grain whisky distilled in Glasgow). Of course, as we were making it, it was like: “it’s going to be super tasty”, but when a few months later we opened our 20cl souvenir bottle of our very own blends, it clearly was kind of crappy. Well, blending is more of an art, and the blenders job is definitely one of the hardest in the sector! Definitely a fun activity though, although we both agreed that one time was plenty.

As we came out, we had over an hour to wait at the Keith “station” (a porch) for the train to Aberdeen. We couldn’t really walk around because of the backpacks and the heavy rain, so we just sneaked in a walk to Glen Keith distillery, right in front of Strathisla.

On the train back we came up with the idea of a whisky blog. It would have taken over a year to kickstart it, but this trip is the culprit! It substantially improved our knowledge and made us even more enthusiastic about scotch whisky. Speyside is one of those places where every time we visit, we say to each other: “we should get a house here”. This was the first trip to this magical region, with many more just about to come!

Until the next story, slainte!

Strathisla Distillery Tours
https://www.maltwhiskydistilleries.com/strathisla/

Michelle’s Dufftown Distilleries Walk
https://www.dufftown.co.uk/prov_attr_detail.php?id=153

(Because this trip happened almost 3 years ago, we are not compiling the distillery visit evaluation box.)

Back to shovelling!(day 3, Wednesday)

Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’(day 2, Tuesday)

Barley on my mind(day 1, Monday)

Getting ready to go!(prologue)

28 (+2) years later

Back to Dublin after the storm: the Dublin Liberties Distillery

A whiskey weekend before the storm: Teeling & Roe & Co.

A very dramming year

A visit to Scapa distillery

Walking and blending

Back to shovelling!
(day 3, Wednesday)

Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’
(day 2, Tuesday)

Barley on my mind
(day 1, Monday)

Getting ready to go!
(prologue)