Tag: cask strength

#67 Bonnington distillery

A distillery next door

 

TL; DR: Back in October, and thanks to our pal Graham, we visited a distillery that is less than one km from our door: not the one you are probably thinking, rather Bonnington distillery. The manager Gregor welcomed and showed us around the premise. A very interesting project, and a surprisingly maritime single malt. 

Our first contact with the distillery we’re talking about in this blog post was in April 2024, during the Biscuit Factory Beverage Festival (one of the many ‘drinks’ events in vibrant Leith), when other than the main festival, we attended a Bonnington & Crabbie tasting, in collaboration with Justine from Kask Whisky. There, we met their responsible for marketing, whom we shared contacts with, hoping for an informal tour of the Bonnington distillery. While we lost contact, our whisky pal Graham Fraser managed to keep in touch, got the details of the distillery manager, Gregor, and arranged a visit for early October this year. Persevere.

  • We run close to these casks almost every week!

Bonnington can be considered our “local” distillery, it’s really not even one km for our place, and it’s next to the Water of Leith Walk, so we often run just next to it. A few times we even smelled either the mash or the wash, which is nice but not a great incentive for a run, eheh! The distillery belongs to the Halewood Artisanal Spirits, together with a sister distillery in England (Bankhall), and our auld acquaintance Aber Falls, in north Wales. The company also owns the popular Whitley Neill gin, and Crabbie, famous for their green alcoholic ginger beer. John Crabbie is a whisky brand with strong ties to Leith, as the man who carried this name, including the now lost Yardheads distillery. For more of the history though, we’d suggest checking out Justine content, in particular her whisky history blogs on Substack. The group also included a smaller and experimental distillery located not too far away, in Granton, called Chain Pier. It was active only for a little while, from 2018 until January 2020, and so far only a handful of bottlings have been released, including by a few independent bottlers. Back to Bonnington distillery, the current site was chosen because it was the largest available in the EH6 postcode area, generally associated with Leith. The site has some history, as it was built as far back as the early 16th century, including the Bonnington Manor House, while the area was also involved in the 1560 Siege of Leith. This delayed the operations by about 6 months, for the inevitable archaeological assessments. To note, there used to be an unrelated short-lived previous Bonnington distillery not too far away, near the Biscuit Factory.

  • You wouldn’t say we’re outside a distillery.

The land was bought in 2017 and construction works started the following year. The distillery was completed in 2019, their first mash in December. They didn’t fill their first cask until the 20th of March 2020: a notable date, as it was the day before the first COVID-19 lockdown. Before starting, they went through the original purchase records to figure the original style of Crabbie’s whisky, finding out that it was a Highland style of whisky – they decided to reproduce it.

Back to the tour, Gregor started describing production in the courtyard, partly occupied by a few tanks, for draff (sent to anaerobic digestion) and pot ale, and two 30-ton malt silos. They employ 6 operators (out of 11 staff) and run 24/5 with four mashes a day, and each mash uses about 2 tons of malt. The output is about of 750,000 litres of pure alcohol per year, if they were to run 24/7 they could reach about 1.1 million lpa, but that’s not in the plans right now.

  • Ok, maybe these silos give it away…

The production water is sourced from a 120-meter-deep borehole, while the malt is sourced from either Beard or Crisp, with 3 deliveries every fortnight. When we visited, they’d just finished their peated run, which lasts a month and uses 190 tons of malt peated to 50 ppm. The mill is a modern AR2000, coloured bright red, which produces a grist with approximately the “usual” husk/grit/flour split (20%/70%/10%). They mash in a 2.5-ton semi-lauter mashtun with 3 waters at increasing temperature starting at around 63°C, obtaining a partially cloudy worth. They are equipped with 15 washbacks, 9 of which are in the next part of the building, past the stills, and they were added recently to increase capacity. They use MG+ yeast and, depending on the time of the week, fermentation can last either 150 or 80 hours. Gregor told us that the spirit obtained with the two fermentations is matured separately, and while the long distillation produces more stewed fruit notes, the short one enhances the biscuity notes: very interesting.

  • All stainless steel here.
  • A man and the newly added washbacks.

They have two gas boilers to get the steam for distillation, the wash still is 10,500 litres, while the spirit still “only” 7,500. Distillation is fast, to match the same time as mashing and, thus, facilitating the pipeline. The wash is preheated to about 60°C by a heat exchanger used to very cleverly cool down the pot ale in about 25 minutes, saving one hour of distillation time and gas consumption. The wash still produces about 20%abv low wines, which are then mixed with the head and tail of the previous run, which are obtained discarding the liquid above 75% and 62/61.5% abv of the second distillation. From each run, they obtain 1,100-1,200l of newmake spirit, at about 72% abv, which translates into about 130-140 casks per week. These are stored in their warehouses in Kirkaldy, as there isn’t much capacity on site. Casks are stored mainly palletised, as they have limited dunnage space, and are sourced from the Speyside Cooperage, unless they want something more special. Interestingly, they also have a spare gin still, but it hasn’t been used since March 2021, probably to avoid competition with their other gin brands.

  • Classic picture.
  • A less classic one. Always nice to see the stills from beneath.

After that, we went to a meeting room underneath the offices, where Gregor gave us a few sips of their products. We tried the John Crabbie and Johnny Cree (both non-age statement, NAS, 40%), which are fully matured in virgin oak and ex-bourbon casks, respectively. The former is not bad at all, just a bit watery due to the low abv. Currently the non-age statement expressions of both brands (the second named after John Crabbie’s business partner) are produced at the distillery, while in the future the aim is also to produced the aged Crabbie (12y and 15y, currently sourced whisky). Then we tried a few Bonnington single malts, a range which is reserved for small batches or single casks: the peated Muscat cask (NAS, 51%) was very tasty, while the unpeated Muscat was good too (NAS, 47%). The other available we didn’t try was the PX casks (NAS, 47%). In general, their whisky has a striking maritime character, which makes sense as we’re not that far away from the Forth, but it is something not usually associated with Lowlands malts.

  • An interesting selection.
  • An interesting selection (continued).

After these drams it was time to go back home, so we first greeted Gregor, and once outside the distillery, our pal Graham. It was not our first time visiting a distillery with him, but the first in such an intimate tour: it was good that for once we weren’t the only ones asking for nerdy details, which Gregor patiently explained us with competence and knowledge. He said that, when he has time and if asked nicely, he likes showing people around. But he also said that random showups are a strong ‘nope’: it is still a production plant (something some whisky people don’t quite get…). As we walked home, we passed by the massive bonded warehouses built by the Pattison brothers just before their demise, and subsequently acquired by DCL. We are very happy that the whisky industry is returning to Leith, such a pivotal place for the history of our favourite drink.

Stay tuned for our next trip! Until then, slàinte!

Bonnington Distillery Bespoke Visit

Price: free (October 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: a few sips from currently bottled single malts (see description above)

Target: anyone

Value for money: well…it was free

Highlights: the location and the compact production

Recommended: yes, but do get in touch with them first!

Link: https://crabbiewhisky.com/bonnington-distillery/

#63.4 As north as you can get (on the mainland)

Pointing north to the bunker

 

TL; DR: Our final distillery visit in this North Highland trip was to another new distillery: North Point! The location is very fascinating, and during the engaging tour, Alex walked us through their process in a distinctive visit that left us excited. After the visit, we visited peat bogs, beaches, and waterfalls, an ended the trip with a cheeky visit at Tomatin. 

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

The Forss Technology Business and Energy Park is only a few minutes driving from Thurso, the access road is on the right side of the A836, if you’re driving westward. As we approached it, the site looked more like a wind farm, as it’s surrounded by turbines. We’d done our homework before, and we learned that the site, built in the early 1960s, used to be a U.S. Navy radio station active during the Cold War. Not only that, but after the closure of NAVCOMMSTA Londonderry in 1977, it became crucial to monitor the North Atlantic and the North Sea until November 1992, when it ceased operation and the Americans left. The site maintained some activity because of some of the existing facilities (basketball court, bowling alley, swimming pool, baseball diamond), but then in 2003 it was transformed into a business park. And in 2020, North Point Distillery moved in!

  • The barrels told us the way to the distillery, thankfully.

We learned about North Point because of their other spirits (more on this later), but their inclusion in the 2025 Malt Whisky Yearbook meant that they started distilling newmake spirit for whisky, sparking our curiosity. The visit almost didn’t happen, because the Founders’ tour (the in-depth one, but they also have a shorter option for £12) was not scheduled on Saturdays. However, we’d noticed that the shop was open, so we got in contact and they agreed to give us a tour! This kindness is not a given, as other distilleries would have just turned us away, so many thanks to them! As we arrived Alex MacDonald, one of the founders and our guide for the afternoon, spotted us right away, and introduced himself while we entered the Murkle building. This is where their offices, shop and part of production are. Despite his surname, Alex is Canadian, and came to Scotland to play rugby. After getting an MSc in Business, he founded the distillery with Struan Mackie (native of the North Coast). The company is independently owned, and they recently obtained the B Corp Certification, to testify their effort in sustainability.

  • Yes, we got to the right place.

The part of production near the offices is mostly dedicated to the other spirits, although one of the whisky stills is also there. The stills are all named after members of their families (some still alive, who apparently complained) and they are custom made by a Serbian company. They are all electric, not very common in Scotland. Right in front of the stills, we could check out their massive collection of botanicals, while tasting three spirit samples each (excluding Gianluigi, the driver). They started in 2020 with one 500-litre still, Sandy Stroma, to produce their Highland Rum and their gin, and they later added Audrey, a small experimental one (for smaller batches as well, including for clients).

  • The first still, Sandy Stroma.

For the rum they buy molasses from Barbados, and they ferment them with Kviek Norwegian ale yeast for a week, before running it through the still. Their main product, delicate and sweet, is the Pilot Rum (aged for 1-year in ex-whisky casks), named after the pilots of the Pentland Firth, who used to guide bigger ships through those dangerous waters. They later added the Spice Rum (43%): for this, they found a recipe (including cocoa, orange, vanilla pods, and other 18 botanicals) that tries to replicate the experience of drinking rum while eating a Terry’s Orange. In the same stills, they also produce the Crosskirk Bay Gin, made with juniper imported from Tuscany (because of a higher concentration in oils), Szechuan and pink peppers, and other botanicals. Edoardo particularly appreciated the gin and its oiliness, the last of the three-spirit flight.

  • Plenty of botanicals here.

As we were saying, one of the whisky stills is also in the same building: Gertie, the 1000-litre spirit still. While Alex explained that they obtained the license for whisky in 2021, he gave us a newmake spirit sample of what will become Dalclagie Single malt. Until 2023 they mostly did research and development, including 40+ mashbills before finding the one they wanted for their malt.

  • Newmake, malternatives, and beautiful stills in the background.

Alex then walked us to where the rest of whisky production is, inside an adjacent, much bigger building. They get pre-milled malted barley from Crisp, mostly Maris Otter, processing 4 tons every two weeks. They are still experimenting a lot, in particular around Christmas, with both barley and yeast: a fun time for their distiller Greg. They also have plans to trial some heritage “bourbon-style” mash recipes. Mashing is carried out in a 2000-litre mashtun for 9 hours, while they have six wooden washbacks: two Wilhelm Elder, and four former vatting used by Diageo for the Johnny Walker Blue label (one of them is called Angus). We wondered if they were still haunted by the whisky of the ghost distilleries that went into that. After 7 to 10 days of fermentation with Kviek yeast, they finally run the first distillation in the 2000-litre wash still, Nettie.

  • Quite a unique setting for production.
  • Nettie and us.

Then it is moved into the building we were in before, for the final distillation, with Gertie: cut points are always made based on aroma and taste. At the moment they store most casks (palletised) in the same main production building. Among the casks, a small cabinet with some bottles: in fact, the Founders’ experience included a sample of three aging malt spirits, one chosen by each of the co-founders, and one chosen by the distiller. Two of them were an 11-month-old Chateau Talbot red wine cask (at ~65%), and a 12-month-old ex-Jim Beam bourbon cask (~64%). Despite the young age they were very different, the first one richer, the latter carrying a lot of hints of newmake spirit. The third cask sample was not available on the day, so instead Alex treated us with a delicious E.H. Taylor Bottle-in-bond bourbon (50%abv).

  • Promising experiments.

Then, before the tour ended, it was time for a surprise: a trip to the bunker. Being former military buildings, most of them come with a bunker, and they didn’t let go the opportunity to use it for cask maturation (stored horizontally there). We’d never been to a bunker before, so it was a great experience, and we’re very curious to see how the whisky will mature there, compared to the main warehouse.

As we left the production/warehouse to go back where we started, Alex pointed us to some buildings they are trying to acquire for potential expansion: exciting times for them. Back at the shop we had a rugby chit chat: despite Alex used to be a hooker, Edoardo a fullback, and Gianluigi a referee, they seem to have (surprisingly) gotten along, eheh. Overall, we really enjoyed the time spent there, and Alex gave us a great tour. The project is interesting and considering how well they are doing with the current spirits, their single malt will be one to keep an eye out for. The tasting in the warehouse and the visit to the bunker were the cherry on the top, which made this tour a bit different and innovative.

  • A bunker as a warehouse, that’s a first.

We soon left the site, under an overcast sky, driving towards the Forsinard RSPB in the Flow Country. This is a truly majestic landscape, one of the biggest peatlands in Western Europe, now a conservation area: peat bogs are more efficient than forests to capture carbon dioxide. We also got soaked by a storm, so we rested a bit inside the RSPB visitor centre, getting some warm drinks in exchange for donations, and watching the full half-hour video. Back on the road, we drove south inland, and then north-west towards Tongue. We looked for a place to stay trying to avoid the midges: we failed.

  • Amazing peatland.

The day after we continued on the North Coast 500, stopping at the Smoo Cave and in Durness for some shopping, and then for a fantastic seafood late lunch at the Kylesku Hotel, in the namesake village. We finally stayed in a quite pricey (£50 for one night!) but scenic campsite just north of Ullapool. We managed to have dinner outside, but as soon as the wind calmed, midges came back, so we had to retreat in the campervan where we spent the night sipping some Springbank samples: one of Edoardo’s favourite, so we’re always sure to have some for when he comes over.

  • Brothers in water.

The final day, after a hot breakfast in Ullapool, we drove straight back to Edinburgh, with a stop for a walk at the Corrieshalloch Gorge (very scenic, just a shame for the…midges!), and a final last stop at Tomatin distillery. There, Edoardo and Gianluigi shared a flight of their bottle-your-own drams (pricey, but generally good) and one of Cu Bocan (their lightly peated malt), plus a couple of sherry expressions: the Manzanilla and the PX finished ones were particularly delicious. After that, we slowly drove back to Leith, where we arrived in time for a quiet dinner and a final dram.

  • Unplanned but welcomed stop to finish off the weekend.

First, we loved this trip, and we had a fantastic time up in the Highlands. Landscapes are fantastic, and although we had been there before, this time we really appreciated why it became so popular. It’s really a magic place. Second, the distilleries: we had a very good time up north. Apart from Pulteney, which was a bit too corporate and impersonal (not the guide’s fault), Wolfburn, which was the other one well established, was just fantastic. The two new distilleries, 8 Doors and North Point, were both great as well – we were walked through the detail of their projects, and people’s passion was contagious. During both visits we could try their newmake spirit, and although someone might think that it is a given for new distilleries, after visiting a number we can say that it really isn’t. Kudos to them, and we’ll patiently wait for their single malt whiskies.

After a pause, we’ll be back with a Fife experience! Until then, slàinte!

North Point Founders’ Tour

Price: £30.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 1hr (in theory, but it was longer)

Tasting: Pilot Rum (40%), Crosskirk Bay Gin (45.1%), Spiced Rum (43%), Dalclagie Newmake spirit (63,5%), 11m spirit ex-wine cask (~65%), 12m spirirt ex-bourbon cask (~65%), and we had a dram to replace the third spirit sample (not available on the day, see text)

Highlights: the bunker and the warehouse tasting

Target: whisky and spirits enthusiasts, and Cold War nerds

Value for money: good

Recommended: absolutely

Link: https://www.northpointdistillery.com/

#63.3 As north as you can get (on the mainland)

The Wolf(burn) is loose*

 

TL; DR: After escaping the haar in Jonh O’Groats, we arrived in Thurso for another long-due visit: Wolfburn distillery. Charlie was a very competent and knowledgeable tour guide, and we really liked the tour. The distillery is lovely, and the malts we tried were delicious: definitely one we’d happily go back to.

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

We woke up surrounded by the haar. A thick and pervasive fog, obviously coming from the sea. From where Mr. Vantastic was parked, we couldn’t even see the shore, a mere 100-120 meters away. We couldn’t help but think what could have meant for people a few hundred years ago, not knowing what was hiding behind a wall of fog like that: nothing maybe, or merchants, or unfortunately raiders sometimes. Nevertheless, thick fog can also provide a sense of calm and peace, like if everything is slowing down.

  • Where’s the sea?

That morning we couldn’t slow down really, as we had to shower, fix and eat breakfast, and wrap up the van by 9.15 maximum. Our first destination was about 40 minutes away, and we had to be there at 10am. Somehow we managed to do everything on time, and soon we were on the road, leaving the haar behind as we drove. During the drive we spotted a distillery to-be in the former Castletown Mill, between John O’Groats and Thurso, set up by the company behind the very popular Rock Rose gin. The single malt will be called Stannergill. The site looked under construction (we’re in July ’25), but we could see the still already positioned, so they must be not too far from completion. Another visit for another time.

The first distillery we visited that day was one of the first coming online in the new wave of the 2010s: Wolfburn distillery. They have been around for a while, and in fact their first 12y single malt was released earlier this year. The name comes from a burn that flows near the distillery, which is also their water source. There used to be an older distillery called Wolfburn located roughly in the same area, in the outskirt of Thurso, in what now is a small industrial estate. The old distillery was founded in 1821, licensed in 1823, but closed down in 1858, with all the equipment sold at auction. This was decades before Alfred Barnard visited the area, so no record of it in his book. The new distillery was founded in 2011, and was up and running in 2013. The distillery manager and master blender, Shane Fraser, had previous experience at Glenfarclas, while the two owners were new to the spirits industry. While Wolfburn single malt has been around for a while, it doesn’t seem to be too common: we’d only tried a few expressions in the 2020 lockdown during two online whisky festivals, the Summerton whisky club festival and the Belfast whiskey week. We generally liked it, in particular the peated version (Morven), but since then, we tried Wolfburn only a handful of times, so it started fading a bit from our palate. A first plan to visit the distillery failed in 2021 because of a Covid-related issue, and we couldn’t fit Caithness in the rescheduled trip. No more plans were done to visit them…Until this summer! Hurray!

  • Right place, on time. Yay!

We arrived at the distillery five minutes earlier, while our soon-to-be guide Charlie was opening the visitor centre. The distillery production is in a warehouse, together with the shop and some offices. As we entered, we could spot all the equipment from the wide hall: malt bin, mill and mashtun on the left, washbacks and stills in front of us, two tanks for water and spent ale, and the shop, on the right. Fun fact, the tanks come from the demolished Caperdonich distillery, from Rothes. So, after Belgian Owl (still) and Falkirk (still and mashtun), Wolfburn is the third distillery we know of that uses equipment from the defunct Caperdonich. The plant was built by Forsyths, and it was the first project Richard Forsyths took on.

As it was just the three of us, the tour started right away, and after some background information, Charlie started describing the production process. Currently they are only producing four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: we wondered if that is because of the current sales slowdown in the whisky market (and potential overproduction in the industry in general). At first, they only had two people working in production, now they are four, and production went from 100,000 litres per annum to 125,000.

  • Nice view on arrival. To note the red tanks from Caperdonich.

They get the malt from Inverness, one lorry every 4 to 5 weeks while, as we said, water comes from the nearby Wolf burn. They aim for a light and floral spirit, mostly unpeated: only 3 out of 11 barley deliveries per year contain lightly peated malt to 10 ppm. To make sure not to mix peated and unpeated runs, the first distillation after their peated period (and cleaning) goes into ex-Islay quarter casks anyway. In general, they mill 1.1ton of malted barley (with the usual split for the grist, 20/70/10) and mash it (twice a day, 8 mashes a week) first with 4,000 litres of water at 64.5°C, and then with another 1,000 litre at 80°C. The third water, 4,000 litres at 90°C, is stored for the following mash. Mashing takes 5.5 hours, and at the end of the process they obtain a clear wort, and sell the draff to cattle farmers. The wort, 5,000 litres, is moved to one of the very tall washbacks: they are so tall that they don’t need defoaming.

  • Good to see everything is signposted.

Fermentation lasts 72 hours for the Monday and Tuesday batches, while 96 for the Thursday and Friday ones (so 84 hours on average), and is kicked off using distillers’ yeast to obtain an 8.5% wash. At the end of the catwalk between the washbacks there are the two copper stills, both equipped with a steam coil inside, heated by a kerosene boiler. First distillation lasts about 5.5 hours, while the second one only 4.5 hours; during the latter, they take the spirit between 74% and 61%abv, a quite wide cut, discarding the first 40 minutes of foreshots, and the last 1.5 hours as feints.

  • The unmissable selfie with the stills.

At that point Charlie walked us to warehouse 1, the first past the distillery, where we could see a number of different cask types and sizes, which they get from the Speyside Cooperage.  Casks are stored horizontally above ground: a proper modern dunnage warehouse. He told us that warehouse 2 (the next one) is identical, while warehouse 3, on the other side, hosts the bottling plant as well (the water to reduce the abv is from the burn as well). There are two more warehouses – Charlie said that on top of the distilling history, land availability was crucial for choosing the site.

  • Warehouse 1, bigger than we thought.

Back to the main building, it was time for the tasting, with a branded perfect-dram glass for us to take home. The first dram was Wolfburn Aurora, made with an even split between 1st fill ex-bourbon and 2nd fill sherry casks, bottled at 46%. It’s a non-age statement whisky, similar to most of the expressions we tried, but Charlie told us that as older stock becomes available, the average age increases, and is now around 8 years. Second up, the Northland (46%, NAS but again around 8y), unpeated spirit aged in ex-Islay cask: peat is there but very subtle, so much that Edoardo bought a 20cl bottles to give to a pal who claims they don’t like peated whisky…We’re waiting for the response. The third dram, Langskip, was cask strength (57%), from 7y and 8y 1st fill ex-bourbon barrels: a floral deliciousness. The last two drams were the 10y (46%, 2nd fill Oloroso casks) and the Morven (46%, again ex-Islay casks, but peated spirit).

  • Quite the display for a delicious tasting.

In the shop they have quite a variety of bottlings, other than their core range (in 70cl and 20cl bottlings, and 5cl miniatures): the new 12y (60%ex-bourbon and 40% sherry casks), a small batch Cognac Cask (46%, finished one year in ex-Cognac cask), the Drams on The Burn (a vatting of few casks for a local festival), a couple of small batches (one ex-Rum, another cask strength) and the “fill-your-own-bottle” (details below) single-cask expression. Everything is also very well priced between £45 and £75 (for 70cl bottles), except the “fill-your-own-bottle”, which is a tenner or two too expensive in our opinion.

  • Bottle-your-own.

As the tasting ended, we quickly left, as we didn’t have much time before our next tour. We had to decide whether to go to Lidl or to try go watch the second half of the first test between Australia and the British and Irish Lions. With Gianluigi and Edoardo being rugby fans, we obviously chose the latter, and we drove back to Top Joe’s, in Thurso. They don’t do food, but we could order some tasty sandwiches from the next door Central café menu.

Overall, both the tour and the tasting at Wolfburn were great, one of the best and most satisfactory experiences we did recently in an established Scottish distillery (we’re excluding the new ones that haven’t released their own whisky yet). Charlie was an excellent guide, very knowledgeable, and very engaging too. Their range of malts is very tasty and various, and the delicate, floral (but also very fruity) spirit signature is clearly there in all the different expressions we tried. Definitely one you should keep an eye on, and if you’re in the area, go to.

Next up, the final northern distillery, but with a twist, so stay tuned! Until then, slàinte!

Wolfburn Classic Tour and Tasting

Price: £19.50 pp (£18.00 when we visited in July 2025)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 5 drams, Wolfburn Aurora (46%, NAS), Northland (46%, NAS), Langskip (58%, NAS), 10y (46%), Morven (46%), and a perfect-dram glass to take home

Distillery exclusive: Fill-your-own-bottle 2018 ex-Bourbon cask (7y, 59.3%, £89.99)

Highlights: the tasting

Target: everyone, both occasional and seasoned drinkers

Value for money: great

Recommended: yes

Link: https://wolfburn.com/

“The hero of the gods
The crossing of the threshold
The belly of the whale
Refusal of return”

*The wolf is loose, Blood Mountain (2006), Mastodon

  • © imago images/Gonzales Photo/Terje Dokken

We’ll miss you Brent, crazy guitar genius.

#63.2 As north as you can get (on the mainland)

Pushing north: 8 Doors distillery

 

TL; DR: After the morning in Wick, we spent the rest of the day in John O’Groats. After a trip to a nearby lighthouse, we visited 8 Doors distillery, where Ryan gave us an extremely interesting and geeky tour of their operation. Even though we’ll have to wait for their single malt, it’s definitely a must-do visit! 

(missed Part 1?)

There is a human tendency to order facts and figures, probably that’s why articles with rankings, billboards, such as “the X best records of year Y”, “Quentin Tarantino movies ranked”, and so on, preceded the internet by a long time. For whisky brands, having one of the ‘-est’ facts can often be an unmissable chance to make themselves notable, which has become particularly important since the massive wave of new players in the market (are we over 160 distilleries yet? For sure over 150, and just for malt ones). The “biggest”, “oldest”, “southmost”, “highest”, or “the only distillery on Skye”…which now became “the oldest distillery on Skye”. Although some of these traits might actually have a connection with the flavour profile of the whisky advertised, in most cases we wouldn’t read too much into it.

Nonetheless, going back to our long weekend up north, let’s talk about the northmost distilleries in Scotland. The northmost used to be Highland Park on Orkney, although now it’s probably been beaten by Lerwick distillery (assuming it’s online) on Shetland. On the mainland, it was Pulteney for a long time, but then the (imaginary) trophy went to Wolfburn. Nowadays there is a new winner of this race: 8 Doors distillery, in the village of John O’Groats, which is where we were headed after our tour at Pulteney. The village is only about half hour driving from Wick, almost straight north, along the rugged North Sea coast. We only stopped to put some diesel in the tank, and to save time we ate our pre-prepared sandwiches while driving (the Lidl rosemary focaccia, with grilled aubergines and roast turkey: delicious!). We took advantage of the stunning sunny, warm and breezy weather to visit the Duncansby Head Lighthouse.

  • Such a nice day to head to a lighthouse.

It is only a few km away from John O’Groats, just a short drive on a secondary single-track road. The building is not accessible, but there is a stunning walk starting from the car-park on the cliff near a marine bird nest (we saw puffins here! Unfortunately our phones’ cameras are too crappy to take decent pictures) and a view on the Duncansby Stacks, a very scenic rock formation. Back to the car park, we drove to the John O’Groats Campsite to drop Mr. Vantastic before going to the distillery, which is just a couple of minutes away. As a matter of fact, everything in John O’Groats seems to be two minutes away from everything else: the distillery, the shop, the campsite, the signpost, the pier, the brewery, although the rest of the village is quite spread out.

  • Duncansby Stacks…Breathtaking (the picture not so much).

We arrived at the 8 Doors distillery a few minutes after 3.00pm, the time we originally agreed with Ryan Sutherland, the distillery manager, who moved to 8 Doors after an extensive experience with William Grant & Sons (Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Grant’s). Ryan is a fellow barfly and although we’d never met in person before, we’d chatted online a few times. When we started planning this trip, we asked him if he could give us a tour of the site, which he kindly agreed to. As we entered the visitor centre, we had to move around a swarm of tourists coming from a cruise ship: not a rare occurrence in summer, as Ryan told us later, which can put some pressure on the staff. Fortunately, the shop/cafè is wide enough for everyone, it has a big window facing north towards the Pentland Firth and a fireplace – a cosy and relaxing space. Ryan took us to the tasting room, between the shop and production, to drop our bags, but we soon moved to the main production area. The distillery is quite self-contained, and from the main area we could see most of the equipment.

  • Ready for another distillery tour.

The distillery started production in 2022. Founders Kerry and Derek wanted to bring distilling back to John O’Groats and its community, and to do so they employed a consultant, John Ramsay (former Edrington), who is now the master blender. A short-lived distillery existed between 1826 and 1838, and illicit distilling was common in the area before. The name of the distillery comes from the founder of the village, John De Groot, which had seven sons and to avoid fights, he built an octagonal house where each of them (him and the sons) had a door and a window. We wondered if, in their shoes, we’d take the south facing one, for the sunlight, or the north facing one, for the view on the Firth.

The distillery is a small operation, producing only about 36,000 litres of spirit per year (in theory they could reach 45,000 litres), and is run by one operator, Andrew, and Ryan himself. Ryan described the setup in great detail, including all the small changes he is implementing to make the process more efficient – his engineering background shone through. There is no mill at the moment, so the malt comes in already milled from Simpson maltster (usual 20/70/10 split for husk/grit/flour), but in the future they are hoping to get the malt locally from Caithness producers. They are also considering using oat, which would be super interesting, as only a handful of Scottish distilleries are using this cereal (Inchdairnie and…actually we cannot think of any other).

  • The repurposed mashtun.

The mashing equipment comes from a defunct brewery in East Lothian, Archfield Brewhouse, and has been repurposed to work in a distillery. Because of this, together with the usual mashtun, there is also a kettle, that comes in handy to pre-heat the water with the heat exchanger. For each mash they use one 400kg bag of grist together with 1,200 litres of water: the 3-to-1 ratio makes it a thick one, cloudy at first but they let it decant for a while. Between the first and second water they get 1,800 litres of wort, which is then moved to one of the four 2,000-litre stainless steel washbacks (there is a fifth, but it’s not been used). Fermentation lasts about 100 hours on average to get a wash at up to 9%abv. Here is where it gets interesting: depending on the variety of barley, they try to pick a yeast to obtain a determined flavour profile. Among the barley varieties used, Lauriet, Firefox and Diablo, but also Cara Gold, Maris Otter and Golden Promise. Yeast-wise, M1 is the main one, which results in a fruit-forward wash, but they also use XP for red fruits flavours, Norwegian beer yeast Kveik/Hornindal, MW, D23 and MGplus. In general, they produce their house-style for most of the year, while in December and January they run more experimental batches.

  • Fermentation check.

The stills and the spirit safe are on a raised floor, and fun fact: from there we spotted Mr Vantastic in the campsite! The stills are from Speyside Copperworks, which is now owned by Forsyths. The first distillation in the 1,700-litre wash still is very slow, about 7 hours, while the second one is carried out in the 1,300-litre spirit still. They run the foreshots for 15 minutes, then the heart (or spirit) is collected within 3 hours, from 71.5% to 64% abv. They aim to produce about one hogshead per day.

  • Sorry we’re covering the second still.

After all these technical details, Ryan took us outside to have a quick look at the LPG boiler and head to the warehouse, a low building on the other side of the distillery staff car park. Here we saw a multitude of casks of different sizes. They mostly fill ex-Sherry casks from Casknolia of various sizes (from 50-litre octave to 5,090-litre butts), but also casks previously used for their Seven Sons range. The filling strength is the standard 63.5%, and the type of cask used also depends on the barley/yeast combination: interesting experiments they are running at the moment are an ex-brandy cask filled with spirit obtained from Cara Gold barley and D23 yeast, or a former Booker’s bourbon cask with spirit fermented with Hornindal yeast. All of these, albeit technical, sounded very cool, and our science-y brains were quite triggered by all these potential permutations.

  • A peek into the warehouse next door.

Back to the tasting room, we were ready for the whisky flight. First off, a small taste of newmake spirit (63.5%), fruity and cereal, as you’d expect for a good one. Then, we moved on to the Seven Sons whisky range (named after John De Groot sons). First, the 10y blended scotch (46.7%), characterised by a high malt content (40%) with the grain component coming from North British. This is one of their “house” whiskies – not all batches are identical (this is the 9th), but they aim for a nice-sipping blend, and they nailed it! Edoardo took one home to share with his friends over the next 6 Nations – as Italians we need something good to hang on to. The second dram was a blended malt, a 12y teaspooned Dalrymple from Ailsa Bay, bottled at 57.1% (100 of the old imperial proofs), from a third fill European cask, which provided a mild and delicate flavour. The third dram was a single malt, a 6y sherried (Oloroso) and very vibrant Glen Wyvis from a Firkin cask (52.1%), the cherry on the top. We finished the tasting with their Five Ways whisky liqueur (22%), and a cheeky “Manager’s Dram”, a delicious blend produced with the idea of recreating a 1970s Famous Grouse.

  • This will satisfy our thirst.

What a geeky and awesome tour! We loved everything about the distillery and how they set up their plan, and it was really great to listen to Ryan explaining in detail how the distillery works. 8 Doors is one to keep an eye on, where we’d like to go back to (not just for the beautiful scenery). We are looking forward to the release of their first single malt!

  • Not a bad spot for the night.

After the distillery, we walked a bit around John O’Groats, before going back to the van and start a barbecue. It was a bit windy, but nonetheless we managed to grill some massive Hellbent burgers. The evening ended with a pint at the John O’Groats brewery/pub, a very cosy place just in the middle of the village.

Next up, another former “northmost” distillery on mainland Scotland, so stay tuned! Until then, slàinte!

8 Doors Distillery (bespoke tour*)

Price: £23.33 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: newmake spirit (63.5%) and 4 drams, Seven Sons Blended Whisky (10y, 46%), Blended Malt (12y, Dalrymple, 57.1%), Single Malt Glen Wyvis (6y, 52%), Five Ways Ginger Whisky Liqueur (22%)

Distillery exclusive: bottle-your-own versions of a whisky from the Seven Sons range and Five Ways whisky liqueur (forgot to take note of the prices, sorry)

Highlights: the location and Ryan’s knowledge

Target: casual tourists and whisky geeks alike

Value for money: very good

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.8doorsdistillery.com/home

(*similar to the Behind the Scenes tour https://www.8doorsdistillery.com/tours, but longer and with extra drams)

#62 The EWG trips are back

Glasgow is hot!

 

TL; DR: On a hot Saturday in July the Edinburgh Whisky Group went to Glasgow for two distillery visits. First off, Glasgow distillery, for a preview on the tour that is now open for bookings. A great tour and wonderful drams! Then we visited Jackton distillery, a much younger project, which that day was hosting a nice market. 

After the successful trips to Campbeltown in ‘21, Speyside in ‘22 (the SpeycationTM), the Highlands in ‘23, and Yorkshire in ‘24, this year the Edinburgh Whisky Group (EWG) trip was different. For who hasn’t read old posts, the EWG group was set up by Justine Hazelhurst (writer, organiser of the Fife Whisky Festival and whisky expert) on Facebook, a few years back, and during the COVID-19 pandemic it exploded to almost 500 members. Some of us started attending online tastings during lockdown, and after the group became a more restricted one (hence more manageable), some of us kept in touch and started the tradition of a whisky trip every year.

For this year (2025) we decided to do something different: not a long weekend away but one (or possibly more) day trip(s) from Edinburgh. These trips are less demanding to both organise and attend, but another reason is also a lack of new destinations. Islay is too complex for such a big group: logistics is awful on the island, you cannot reach many distilleries with public transport, and accommodation is scarce (and possibly too expensive). In the south of Scotland distilleries are too sparse, again requiring some logistic effort. A possibility was to go back to Campbeltown, ideal from many points of view, but for now we decided to skip it (maybe when we’ll go back one or more new distilleries will have opened…Who knows?).

  • Wearing sunglasses at a distillery, it doesn’t happen that often!

Another challenge was to find distilleries within reaching distance that not many of us have visited, which is not trivial. Two logical answers are: distilleries that are not open to public, or new…or both! Which is kind of the case for the first distillery we visited on this trip: the Glasgow distillery. We’re writing “kind of the case”, because Glasgow has been around for over 10 years now and, at the time of our visit, they were about to open to the public (here for more info). Anyway, that morning we all met at Haymarket, in our case after a very nice breakfast (though a bit pricey) at the Haymarket Cafè, in front of the station. Around 9.30, the minibus Justine had booked arrived, and our trip officially started: it was a sunny day, and the temperature was already toasty, but nothing compared to what would happen later in the day. The drive to the distillery was uneventful and we behaved on the bus: (almost) no drams were passed around.

The site is located in the south of Glasgow, near the M8, not too far from IKEA and Douglas Laing (impossible to miss the Big Peat sign when driving on the M8!). As you can imagine, the distillery is on an industrial estate, and we could see why they hesitated to open it to visitors (not that we care much though). We were welcomed by Sebastian, who works in the marketing and sales team, and is also one of the blenders. After the usual health and safety instructions, he took us to the warehouse, just a few steps from the courtyard. Currently, they mainly use two buildings facing on the courtyard in a L-shape: a big warehouse (some palletised, some stacked horizontally in rows two-high) with the bottling equipment, and a production building, where the spirits are produced, including an experimental lab, equipped with a small still to do small-scale trials, and a very nice and cosy tasting room. The latter is used for their regular tours, in our understanding limited to 8 people at a time, but we were too many to fit in.

  • The spirits range.

In the warehouse, we were presented with two bottle line-ups: one was their spirit range, which included the Malt Riot blended scotch (40%), the G52 botanical vodka (40%), the Makar gin (43%), and the Banditti spiced rum (44%). On the other barrel, their single malt core range, the Glasgow 1770. The name (1770) comes from the year the original Glasgow distillery was founded, which used to produce unpeated, peated and triple distilled malt whisky, until it closed in 1902. The (current) distillery founders, Mike and Liam, in 2012 decided to follow the footsteps of their predecessors and acquire the name to bring back distilling in Glasgow, at a time when only Strathclyde grain whisky distillery was operating, plus Auchentoshan in the city outskirts. Works on the site began in 2013, in 2014 they had their first product (Makar gin), and finally the first newmake spirit was distilled in 2015. Sebastian joined around that time, right after uni. Later in 2019 they doubled capacity by adding a second pair of stills.

  • the 1770 Glasgow range.

We had a taste of each of the three single malts. The Triple distilled is matured in a combination of 1st and refill ex-bourbon casks, with a touch of virgin American oak barrels. The Original starts its journey in 1st fill ex-bourbon casks, but is then finished in virgin oak casks. The Peated malt, however, is first matured in virgin oak casks and then finished for about 8 months in Pedro Ximénez sherry hogsheads. Other than their core range, they also release cask strength versions of the Original and the Peated malt (we tasted the latter), and a few small batches every year: these can either be from a single cask or a vatting of few casks. Sebastian told us they are introducing a new yearly limited release, based on previous small batches that went well: for this year they picked a Ruby port cask finish. We then moved to the production building, were Sebastian first introduced Tara & Mhairi and Margaret & Francis, the two pairs of stills for whisky, and then Annie, used for gin and other spirits. Then, he took us to the catwalk above the rest of production in two groups. The others, in turn, were left to enjoy another two drams: the current Small Batch Cognac cask (6y, 58%abv, ex-bourbon and finished for over 3y on Cognac casks, both peated and unpeated malt), and the Peated Cask Strength version (same recipe as the core range one, but 60.7%).

  • A nice setup behind us.

The production water is from Loch Katherine, which is the same source as Glasgow tap water. Originally, they used to work 7 days a week (13 mashes), but because they are short of a distiller, at the moment they only work 5 (10 mashes). This translates into about 200,000 litres of alcohol per annum, but with an annual release of “only”6-7,000 bottles, they are keeping a lot of stock for the coming years: playing the long game here. We didn’t get to see the 27-ton malt bin (refilled twice a week) and the (four rollers) mill, as they are not in the production building. For mashing they use three rounds of water, the last one is sparged and kept for the following mash, as usual. Fermentation lasts at least 72 hours, and they use MG+ yeast for the double-distilled unpeated product, and other types of yeast for the other products. They also devote a few weeks a year for experiments. The second distillation cut depends on the type of product: 85% to 75% for the triple distilled, down to 64% for the unpeated double distilled, and 57% for the peated spirit. Casks are filled on site, but some are transferred in partners’ warehouses, while they wait to acquire more buildings. Their plan is to keep the adjacent warehouse for finishing casks only. About 20% of the casks are “speciality”, with the remainder being ex-bourbon, virgin oak or sherry. After the tour, we went back to the warehouse where another two drams were waiting for us, both straight from the cask: an unpeated 9y fully matured in an American oak virgin cask, and their Distillery Exclusive, a delicious peated 7y/o malt matured in a Virgin oak cask but finished in an Oloroso cask (60.9%). A great close for a great tour and a wonderful tasting!

  • Getting ready for a delicious dram.

After the purchases (of course) and an extra dram we brought to share with the gang (a delicious Glasgow 5y from Fragrant Drops independent bottler) we were back on the bus. We had a quick bite (a very “meh” M&S sandwich for us), before we arrived at our next destination: Jackton distillery, in East Kilbride. We won’t spend much time describing the tour, since we visited them less than a year ago, and that tour was more geek oriented than this one (and again, a pity we couldn’t try their Raer blended scotch finished in French wine cases, the only one of their range bottled at 46% instead of 40%). Different to our first visit, there was a nice wee market at the distillery that day, with the distillery team serving gin cocktails and wine, and food carts and art craft vendors. Gianluigi, obviously, chose the fattiest cookie from the cookie vendor. But mostly, we had some refreshments, as the day became very hot in the meanwhile, and in the warehouse we were all sweating: very rare occurrence in Scotland!

  • Nice to be back at Jackton distillery.
  • Not everybody copes well with the heat.

Once back at Haymarket, we all shared a pint at Ryrie’s (a pub we like, but because it’s far away we rarely go to) before everyone went home. What a lovely day, and a lovely visit to these distilleries. While we look forward to the first Jackton single malt, we witnessed how Glasgow distillery is really upping its game, and it’s no surprise that it became one of whisky aficionados’ favourites. Sebastian was a great host, and very generous with the drams! We loved the 1770 Triple Distilled, so fresh, crisp and sweet, a great dram. However, we took home the Distillery Exclusive, totally on the other side of the spectrum: smoky, rich and bold! This to show the great variety of their products: well done!

Next up a long weekend up in the Highlands, so stay tuned! Until then, slàinte!

The Glasgow Distillery Experience

Price: £45.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 7 drams, in our case they were Glasgow 1770 Triple Distilled (46%), Original (46%), Peated (46%), Peated Cask Strength (60.7%), Small Batch Cognac Cask (6y, 58%, unpeated), Virgin oak cask sample (9y, about 60%, unpeated), Distillery Exclusive Virgin Oak/Oloroso cask (7y, 60.9%, lightly peated)

Distillery Exclusive: 7y Virgin Oak/Oloroso cask single malt (£65.00)

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the variety and quality of single malts

Recommended: definitely

Link: https://www.glasgowdistillery.com/

Jackton Distillery Tour

Price: £35.70 pp (July 2025, it was £34.00 pp in September 2024, plus £2.04 transaction fee)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Raer Orginal blended scotch (40%), Rarer Oloroso finish, Amontillado finish, PX finish blended scotches (all 40%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

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

#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 1st 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/

#58 A trip to the West

Hopping to Arran from Campbeltown

 

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

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

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

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

  • Pre-dinner refreshments.

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

  • Always beautiful.
  • Two guys and three stills.

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

  • Thanks Aly!

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

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

  • That looks promising.

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

  • Climbing Goatfell, that was hard!
  • …But totally worth it.

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

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

  • It’s not just all about whisky.

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

Until next time, slainte!

Springbank Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (April 2025)

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

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

Distillery exclusives: cage bottlings

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the whisky and the friendly staff

Recommended: yes!

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

Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Price: £45.00 pp (April 2025)

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

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!

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

Kilkerran Warehouse Tasting

Price: £40.00 pp (April 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 6 drams from the cask

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: great

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!!

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

#55.3 All drams great and small

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

 

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

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

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

  • Nice set up outside.

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

  • Cooper King distillery in one shot.

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

  • Ready for the tour.

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

  • Inside Neilson.

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

  • Super-modern gin and vodka distillation.

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

  • And Cooper King warehouse in one shot.

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

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

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

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

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

Cooper King Distillery Bespoke Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

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

Target: whisky and spirit enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the distillery set up

Recommended: yes

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