TL; DR: We took advantage of a free weekend to get on the van and go for a night away in the (not so wild) wilderness. The next morning, we visited Glengoyne distillery: a very nice tour, although very basic, which ended in a lovely tasting room with some very tasty drams! 

In recent months we had been quite busy, for various reasons: friends visiting, visiting friends, unfortunately work as well… so, except for the Spirit of Speyside weekend, we’ve not enjoyed much our van. In early June though, we had a weekend with no commitments, so wedecided to spend a night out, not too far away, in the area between Stirling, Glasgow and the Trossachs. This area sits across the Highland Line (roughly, very roughly following the Highland Boundary Fault), which historically was used to separate the taxing regime of whisky producers in the Lowlands and Highlands: we basically spent the weekend crossing it back and forth!

We’re not new to the area: back in February, we’d spent a lovely evening in Fintry, together with our friend Justine, having a meal at the Fintry Inn, followed by a few nice drams from the Uncharted Whisky Co independent bottler, which has strong ties with the pub (in our understanding, it’s also their tasting room). This time, we aimed for another pub that welcomes campervans, the Pirn Inn in Balfron. The drive was uneventful, but when we got there, we realised they didn’t have a kitchen: d’oh! So, we had to go find food. First, we tried the Old Mill in Killearn, but it was super-busy (in part because of a beer fair they had on for the weekend). Moving on, second time charme: the Clachan Inn in Drymen. We were lucky: it was very busy, which surprised us, before realising it is on the West Highland Way, already swarmed with hikers this time of the year. They found us a table at the bar to be shared temporarily with a couple waiting for their table at the restaurant: we had a nice chat, and as the man was a dairy farmer, Gianluigi asked some questions about farms management and diseases…professional bias. After dinner, we quickly drove back to the Pirn Inn, where we had a last pint and a dram (Bunna 12 never disappoints!), before going to sleep.

In the morning, the sky was cloudy. We woke up rested, and we somehow managed to avoid midges invading the van, probably thanks to the previous night breeze. We tried to look for an open cafè, but we were unlucky… so after a stop for the loo, we drove towards our first destination: the Devil’s Pulpit. The Carnock Burn goes through a very beautiful gorge, all green and brown. You’d almost expect to find something like this in a tropical jungle, rather than in the Southern Highlands (or Lowlands?). The parking spot can only take three cars (if well parked), so we left Mr Vantastic at a bigger lay-by at the cross of the A809-B834 roads, from where we had to walk no more than 10-15 minutes to find ourselves at the top of the gorge. It was very nice, although we were slightly upset by the amount of garbage found all over the place: from the lay-by, to the side of the road, and in the gorge itself: how can people be so inconsiderate?

Back to the van, it was time to drive to our next destination: Glengoyne distillery (with a brief stop at the Turnip The Beet for tasty coffee and snacks). Glengoyne is an old acquaintance , as we visited it during the pandemic years (can we say that?) in summer 2021, but at the time we couldn’t tour production because of COVID19 of course…and the waterfall was empty too! Gianluigi had also visited it as part of a networking event after a conference he attended in Glasgow in 2018: too many people, it wasn’t such a memorable experience.

We parked on the south side of the road, which together with their warehouses, is in the Lowlands: the road is the boundary, apparently. Thus, as you can guess, the distillery is in the Highlands. It is owned by Ian McLeod’s Distillers, together with Tamdhu, the newly rebuilt Rosebank, and a the soon to-be-built Laggan Bay, on Islay (in our understanding they also have acquired a single malt distillery in India). As we came out the parking, a hostess pointed us to the check-in for the tour, which started a few minutes earlier in the courtyard. Our tour guide was Diane, “fae Glasgow”, and the other two people on the tour were a father-and-son couple from Canada.

In a small exposition room, Diane explained us that the distillery has always been Scottish owned since its foundation and licensing in 1833. It must be one of the few among the old ones, we reckon. Glengoyne means “the valley of the geese”, and it is located in Dumgoyne (“the hill of the geese”), hence why you can find this bird on the label.

We quickly moved to production, which is fairly standard. First, Diane showed us a destoner dating back to 1912 and the mill, which we couldn’t take a picture of. The barley varieties they use are mainly Sassy and Lauriet, although one week a year they use Golden Promise, all coming from the East of Scotland.

The mashtun has a copper lid, and it takes 16,000 litres of water at 63.5°C for the first water, followed by the usual two waters at higher temperatures to maximise the sugar absorption during mashing. Fermentation takes place in one of the six Douglas Fir wood washbacks and lasts about 56 hours, a rather short one. The newmake spirit is obtained after a usual double-distillation process, first in a wash still (16,000 litres), to get to ~20% abv (from their 8-9% wash) and then in one of the two spirit stills (5,000 litres each). Their cut points for the spirit run (what it is going into casks) are generally from 75% to 65%, and the cut is taken only after 3-5 minutes of foreshots.

After production, we visited Warehouse 1, next to the production building (not on the other side of the road): quite small, they mostly made a maturation exhibition out of it, where transparent bottles containing spirit and whisky at different stages of maturation are showed, together with the different types of casks and wood. A very interesting bit for more inexperienced visitors. Diane soon after walked us to the Manager’s Cottage, where there is a very nice and relaxing tasting space, with sofas, comfy chairs and fireplaces (they were off while we were there, otherwise we could have easily taken a nap).

The tasting was ready for us: 3 drams from the core range paired with one chocolate each, from the Highland Chocolatier. First off, the 12y, bottled at 43% and matured in a combination of first-fill European oak (ex-sherry we think…20% of the total), first fill American oak ex-bourbon (20%), and not better specified refill casks (60%). Quite nice and bright. The second dram was the 18y, again bottled at 43%, but with a different composition: less refill (50%) and ex-bourbon (15%) casks, and more first-fill European oak casks (35%). This brought definitely more dark-fruity notes and richness, although not as rich and decadent as the last dram. This was a 21y, fully matured in first-fill European oak casks.

Overall the visit was nice, geared towards less whisky knowledgeable visitors though. The best part was the tasting – while we were a bit sceptical because of the low abv, these were delicious and not watery at all. A shame their prices are a bit higher than expected (in particular in the shop, and even taking into account the discount for visitors doing a tour or a tasting), which is probably the main reason we haven’t connected so much with this distillery so far. However, the velvety and soothing quality of these drams was not lost on us, and we think they are perfect to share with family and friends less used to higher strength drams than us. So who knows, maybe one coming in the future?

Stay tuned for the rest of our trip, this time definitely below the Highland line! Until then, slainte!

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Glengoyne Collection Tour and Tasting

Price: £35.00 pp (June 2024, plus £3.50 booking fee per transaction)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting:3 drams, Glengoyne 12 (43%), Glengoyne 18 (43%) and Glengoyne 21 (43%)

Highlights: the tasting room

Distillery exclusive: Glengoyne Distillery Cask, ex-Port, 14y (56%, distilled 14/04/2010, £200…!)

Target: the whisky curious

Value for money: good

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.glengoyne.com/

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