#5.1 Run through the stills

Balvenie all the way!
(Day 1)

For the first post of 2022 we go back a few months: a trip to Speyside for the Dramathon and a couple of distillery visits, including our 50^th!

First things first, happy new year! And we hope you had good and resting holidays, possibly filled with drams!

In spite of the ongoing situation 2021 was a decent year, and we managed to “dram around” quite a bit and do a few whisky trips! One of the highlights was an event we attended back in October. This one has been on our radar for a while, but for various reasons we haven’t been able to attend before: the Dramathon! This combines two of our major extra-work activities, running and dramming.

Gianluigi has always been running, more or less. During his rugby years (first as player, then as referee) it was part of his training, of course. Since he moved on, running was the only activity he kept doing regularly. On the other hand, Teresa has never been a sporty lassie, but she recently got into running after realising she couldn’t run up the stairs without getting heavy breath. We already participated to a couple of races back in 2019, before the pandemic. For this one, we prepared for approximately a month and a half, and after recovering from Covid, so the aim was just to finish our respective races (Gian the half-marathon and Teresa the 10k) and have fun.

Of course, could we plan a trip to Speyside without visiting at least one distillery? Never! A couple of months before the race Gianluigi got in contact with Balvenie to ask if there were tours available and the answer was yes for the morning before the race, what a luck! That required our friend Justine handing over Cliff’s keys (don’t know who is Cliff? Read here!) the night before, and us leaving Leith early in the morning. The trip was smooth, except we had to refill gas at a gas station at Dalwhinnie, just a few hundred meters before the distillery. Getting off the car we realised that, when you read that Dalwhinnie is coldest place in Scotland, it might be right…the temperature drop from Leith was significant! From the gas station we quickly drove to Aviermore, Granton on Spey and finally entered mighty Speyside.

Celebrating the 50th distillery visit! (Credits to James for the pic)

Balvenie is a distillery we have been wanting to visit for a couple of years. However, during our first trip to Speyside in 2019 it was fully booked, while earlier this summer it was closed to visitors. The other important reason to celebrate is that we were reaching an important milestone, with this being the 50^th (working) distillery visit! Nine of these distilleries were in Kentucky, US (including the Evan Williams micro-distillery in downtown Louisville), two in Ireland (excluding the former Jameson Bow St distillery) and 39 in Scotland (for the nerds: 3 in Campbeltown, 10 in Speyside, 6 in the Lowlands and 20 in the Highlands….still no Islay, thanks to Covid).

After checking in at Glenfiddich, the distillery ambassador and guide James met us at the visitor centre. While walking towards the maltings, he started introducing us to the history of the brand and the site.

We entered the malting building – we were really looking forward to this, and not just because it was freezing outside! The facility looked bigger than Springbank, and James told us that around 30% of the barley used to produce Balvenie gets malted here. We were really impressed by the golden “dunes” of barley, we could definitely see why this is one of the highlights of the tour! Next, the kiln itself (yes, we were inside the pagoda), where we got an understanding of the process, which very veeeeery roughly is a combination of heating and hoovering. James patiently let us take more pictures of the barley dunes on the way out.

Red Riding Hood and the Balvenie’s peat.

Then, we moved to the other stages of production. To our surprise, we discovered that the mashtuns and washbacks of Balvenie are just next to the mashtuns and washbacks of Kininvie, a sister distillery whose malt mainly goes into the Grant’s blends. So basically we visited one distillery and a half, yay! We could also see an extremely lively wort, double yay!

The still house was less of a surprise, but only because we had had the chance to briefly see it two years ago when we visited Glenfiddich. In the warehouse, James showed us a wooden tun used for the vatting.

A not-so-little gem in the warehouse: a wooden tun.

Now the tour (and what a tour!) was complete, so we moved to the tasting room, small and cosy.

When James heard that we had done a vertical Balvenie tasting very recently, he made sure the lineup for the tasting was completely new to us, so kind of him! First, we had the Balvenie Single Barrel. We both fell in love with this dram, and indeed this is the bottle we bought. Then the Distillery Exclusive Sherry Butt (61.3%), the 19y “Edge of burnhead wood” (48.7%, interesting experiment with heather, but not really our cup of tea), a yummy 21y Port wood (40%) and the Tun 1509 (Nas, 50.4%, batch 6). Chats around our whisky journey and the history of UK train lines (another James passion) accompanied the tasting.

This was probably one of the best, most complete tours we had so far, we couldn’t have celebrated the 50th distillery in a better way! We happily drove to Rothes, where we had our hotel booked. After a quick warm-up run (well, for Gianluigi, Teresa ehm….) we had a light dinner, resisting the drams temptation. We needed a good rest before the big day!

Balvenie Tour Tasting

Price: £50.00 pp (October 2021)

Tasting: 5 drams selected for us by the distillery ambassador – Balvenie Single Barrel (12y, 47.8%, ex-bourbon), Distillery Esxlusive Sherry Butt (16y, first fill oloroso, 61.3%), The edge of burnhead wood (19y, American oak barrels, 48.7%), Port wood (21y, 40%), and Tun 1509 (Nas but at least 21y, 50.4%).

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: good

Highlights: the kiln and the intimate tour

Things we did not like: nothing

Link: https://uk.thebalvenie.com/

#3.3 Campbeltown Loch, I wish you were whisky!

How things are done!
(Day 3 & 4)

A day at Springbank and Glengyle distilleries, plus a Glen Scotia tasting.

(missed Day 2 or Day 1?)

And finally it’s the Springbank-Glengyle day! During our first trip here, back in 2018, we only visited Glen Scotia and opted for the Cadenhead’s Warehouse tour instead of the Mitchell’s company distilleries…what did we miss! Fortunately, the folks at Springbank were nice enough to offer us a tour on a Saturday, which is normally closed (many thanks to Mary for that), and a tasting at their newly build Washback (spoiler: the bar is made of an actual wooden washback!).

Since we were the only group, we could tour the distilleries all together. First off, Springbank. We started off with the malting facility, which they still do 100% on their own (and we realised how this is the bottleneck of their production size, but also their strength). There was barley drying on the malting floor, one of the first times we actually saw this stage of the process happening live. Of course, it is all done like in the old times, and as a testimony of this there was also a hi-fi system (go 90s!) to keep the workers company.

Moving outside, another thing new to us: a pile of dry peat and one of wet peat. The knowledgeable Mary told us that they are used in a slightly different way depending on the product they are producing. The kiln is run for 30h with hot air when they are producing the unpeated Hazelburn (10% of their production), for 6h with peat and 30h with hot air for Springbank (80% of their production), and up to 48h with peat smoke for the (quite heavily) peated Longrow (another 10% of the production).

In case you need a recap about distillation.

Moving to the next production stages, the mashtuns, (actual) washbacks and stills, we could again see how hands-on are all the processes here: no computers, everything very manual. In a world moving too fast, it is comforting to find a place where time seems to slow down, and where people definitely take their time to do things. And rightly so, since their bottlings normally fly off the shelves like pigeons after a gunshot. Next up, the warehouse, which is of course the best smelling place of the distillery, as always…eheh.

Glengyle brought us back to slightly more modern times. Opened in 2004, one of the reasons being to circumvent a rule of the SWA (Scotch Whisky Association) which wouldn’t allow to call an area a whisky region with only 2 distilleries. The stills came from the defunct Ben Wyvis distillery, dismantled in 1977. The distillery looked more “conventional”, although still way less automated than many distilleries we visited, which looked like they could be run by computers…maybe in a dystopian future that will happen and the machines will take control on humanity by poisoning the booze! Don’t worry, we are not becoming sci-fi writers, and going back to Glengyle distillery we could spot the window which inspired the Kilkerran Single Malt logo: a selfie was a must!

Glengyle, or the second distillery tour in less than two hours.

At the Washback bar we picked a Hazelburn and a Longrow flights, since they included drams we were not very familiar with. Both awesome, in particular the former: the Hazelburn Cognac SC knocked our socks off! And among the latter, the (at the time) just released Longrow 18 was outstanding.

The smile only a flight of Hazelburns can give you!

After a few extra drams, the party moved to another bar, were we took turns wearing a “90s Meg Ryan” wig…We’ll spare you the pictures! We had dinner at Number 42 – great food quality (probably one of the best fish&chips tried so far), although not ideal combination of small portions and high prices. The night still ended on a high after a few drams at the Ardshiel.

On the last day we had a free morning. Many (including Teresa after a run and a shower) joined Justine in a lost distilleries’ hunt – Benmore, Argyll and so many others! Meanwhile, in preparation for the upcoming half marathon, Gianluigi went for a 24k run on the hills around the town. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t too bad, so he could actually take some (far from decent) pictures!

In the afternoon we attended the last event of the trip, a Glen Scotia tasting with Ian MacAlister at the Ardshiel Hotel. We started with the 10y, a very new bottling destined to grocery stores. This is why it is bottled at a 40% abv, like their other NAS supermarket release, the Campbeltown Harbour. Similar to this, and in spite of the 40%, it is a quite drinkable sweet dram, very well engineered for a broader audience. The other three drams – Warehouseman’s Edition (2005 recharred American oak finished in first fill oloroso, 56.2%), Single Cask Shop Bottling (2013 highly peated 1st fill bourbon, 61.4%) and Master Distillers Edition (2002 refill American oak hothead, 57.3%) – were all outstanding, with the Single Cask Shop Bottling being the one we liked the most. At this point, Ian surprised us with two more drams. The first one was a 2002 single-cask refill PX, which he (and us) loved – too bad there isn’t enough for a bottling, it was quite unique! The second was their new festive bottling, a 12y cask strength which has spent some time in heavily charred and oloroso casks, frankly delicious!

Last but not least: the Glen Scotia tasting!

We were all quite happy (well…you know), and the party naturally moved to the Ardshiel bar, with Ian staying with us for a couple of pints and many chats. Dinner was booked there as well: delicious and again great service, strongly suggested! Back to the bar, our friend Cath started playing the guitar and singing. At some point Gianluigi was invited to play the guitar, but it was not a great success since Tool and Mastodon songs are not quite as sing-along songs as he would think, who knew! He somehow managed to remember Don’t look back in anger and Everlong to accompany Cath solid effort, before passing the guitar back to her. Probably because of the many drams, we went to bed quite early, although it felt like 1am!

The day after was smooth, returning back to Edinburgh with only a quick stop at Fyne Ales to grab a few of their sour beers, with anything notable happening. As a first group trip, we really enjoyed it. And it was awesome to spend time with people sharing our same whisky passion and which up to now we had mostly met on Zoom. Going to Campbeltown again was great, and put back in perspective how whisky can (and should) be enjoyed at a slower pace, after all the FOMO and online hysteria which went crazy during the pandemic. Can’t wait to go back!

Springbank Tour

Price: £10.00 pp (October 2021)

Tasting: a 20ml of Springbank 10 and a 50ml of Springbank Distillery Visitors bottling (NAS 46%), and a sampler glass

Target: everyone, literally!

Value for money: Great

Highlights: the malting floors

Things we did not like: nothing

Link: http://springbank.scot/

Glengyle Tour

Price: £10.00 pp (October 2021)

Tasting: a 20ml of Kilkerran 12 and a 50ml of Kilkerran Distillery Visitors bottling (NAS 46%), and a sampler glass

Target: everyone, literally!

Value for money: Great

Highlights: the malting, but the distillery overall

Things we did not like: nothing

Link: https://kilkerran.scot/

Glen Scotia Tasting*

*Since this was a bespoke tasting, we won’t make a summary card.

Link: https://www.glenscotia.com/

#2.4 A very Scottish summer holiday

A trip to Orkney Speyside et al.
(day 4)

First unplanned visit of this trip: Glen Grant and its garden in the morning, then Cardhu and its great history in the afternoon.

(Forward to Day 10 / Days 7-8-9 / Days 5-6 or back to Day 3 / Day 2 / Day 1)

The morning was supposed to be free from whisky-related activities. However, we were in Speyside, so why not to explore something new? We drove to a village we had never visited before, Rothes. This is the home of one of the major, if not THE major, pot stills building company, Forsyths, and of three single malt distilleries: Glen Spey, Glenrothes, and Glen Grant. The former two (owned by Diageo and Edrington, respectively) are normally closed to visitors, so we directed our attention to Glen Grant, since from their website we understood that at least the shop was open.

At Glen Grant: safety first, drams later.

Actually, it was much better than that! First, the distillery café had the Illy Espresso (maybe because of their Italian ownership? Who knows…), which was a nice surprise. Second, it was possible to visit the Victorian gardens and enjoy a mini-tasting of two drams for the ridiculous price of 5 pounds. We first strolled through the gardens, much bigger than expected, with some very nice lawn, orchard trees, and a more luscious vegetation around a stream on the back of it. We then moved back to the visitor centre to enjoy the drams: the Arboralis, a non-age statement 40% expression added to their core range in March 2020 (not exactly a perfect timing!) and the 10y. We decided to get a bottle of the Arboralis, although we were very tempted by their 15y (bottled at 50%) which we had tasted a while back and found it delicious. This was the first time we saw it in a UK shop, since it was previously restricted to travel retail and other markets.

The luscious victorian gardens behind the distillery.

The mood was great at this point, because of the unexpected distillery visit, so we decided to have a walk in the village and then nose around the Glenrothes distillery. Meanwhile, we spotted a second-hand shop in an old abandoned church, where we found a folding table which was perfect for our camping chairs! Even better mood now, and so we happily drove to the next stop: the Cardhu distillery!

We arrived a bit early, so before checking in we had time to have lunch in the parking lot. Similar to Clynelish, the investments for the “johnnywalkerification” (credits to Justine from Kask Whisky for this term) of the distillery were obvious: a statue of the striding man saluting you as you drive into the premise, together with one of Helen Cumming holding her well-known red sheet. Behind them, a small herd of highland cows was quietly grazing.

Highland coo, Helen Cumming and the striding man.

Our tour started with a 15 minutes video about the history of the distillery origins, and how the legacy of Cardhu/Cardow was defined by the family women: Helen and Elizabeth Cumming. In particular, how Helen helped all the illicit distillers of the area by displaying a red sheet when the excise man was in. The video was very interesting, well done, and not too cheesy (no mention of the more recent “pure malt debacle”, however…). We then moved on to the production areas, where our guide Hamish displayed his impressive knowledge by talking the group through the processes. The fermentation room looked awesome with its eight wooden washbacks, but one of the best moments was when we arrived in the stills room: we started smelling a strong scent of fruits, more particularly pears – the “heart” of the distillation was flowing through the safe. This is the middle part of the distilled spirit which is actually going to be put in casks, while the initial (“head”) and the final (“tail”) parts are going to be collected and re-distilled instead. In the warehouse there were a few casks opened for us, which we could smell through the hole as an example of different flavour profiles across Diageo’s portfolio.

Finally, as always, the tasting. This day Gianluigi had the short straw, so Teresa could happily enjoy her drams. The line-up was quite rich, first off three core range expressions: the 12y, the non-age statement Amber Rock and the 18y. All nice drams, maybe a bit weak on the mouthfeel, but definitely good sippers. The following three were special: the Distillers Edition (NAS, bottled at 48% and benefitting from triple maturation, ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and ex-red wine casks), the Four Corners of Scotland Edition (16y, 58.2%) and finally the hand-filled distillery cask (an 11y ex-bourbon casks, cask strength). These three drams showcased the difference a more natural presentation can make, they were all very tasty and full of flavour! As in all Diageo’s distilleries we visited since reopening, while the prices of core range bottlings were great, unfortunately the same could not be said for the hand-filled or other special releases like the Four Corners of Scotland series. We were divided between the Distillers Edition and the 11y Special Release 2020 (which, very kindly, Hamish made us taste): we ended up buying the latter.

Back in the campervan, we drove past Ballindalloch (home of other distilleries for another trip hopefully) to Grantown-on-Spey, where we had booked a pitch in a very nice camping (other lesson: bringing a hammer might be useful to put the stakes on a gravel pitch). This time the weather was acceptable, so we were able to grill (hurray!!) and roast some marshmallows (HURRAY!!). Since we finally had a table and chairs, we enjoyed the evening by sipping our driver’s drams under a warm blanket.

Glen Grant Victorian Gardens Visit and Tasting

Price: £5.00 pp (July 2021)

Tasting: 2 drams, Arboralis (40%, NAS) and Glen Grant 10y

Target: everyone

Value for money: Very good

Highlights: the Victorian gardens and the Illy espresso

Things we did not like: nothing

Link: https://www.glengrant.com/

Cardhu Collection Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (July 2021)

Tasting: 6 drams, Cardhu 12y, Amber Rock, 18y, Distillery Exclusive (48%, NAS), 16y Four Corners of Scotland, Hand-filled Distillery Exclusive (ex-bourbon, 11y)

Target: casual tourists, whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: Very good

Highlights: the video history and the tasting range

Things we did not like: nothing

Link: https://www.malts.com/en-row/distilleries/cardhu

Balvenie all the way! (Day 1)

How things are done!(Day 3 & 4)

A trip to Orkney Speyside et al. (day 4)

Balvenie all the way!
(Day 1)

How things are done!
(Day 3 & 4)

A trip to Orkney Speyside et al.
(day 4)