#57 Fife Whisky Festival and Independent Spirits Festival

A tale of two festivals

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

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

Ready? Ready!

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

Busy dramming session in Cupar.

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

Keeping warm with Lady of the Glen drams.

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

Round two of the March festivals.

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

Hanging out with whisky enthusiasts…

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

…more whisky enthusiasts…

…and more!

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

Until next time, slainte!

Links

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

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

#41.2 Fife Whisky Festival 2024

Inside the green distillery…Aberargie!

TL; DR: After another successful Fife Whisky Festival under our belt, we got to visit a new Fife distillery, Aberargie! Owned by an independent bottler company, Morrison Distillers (Carn Mor, Old Perth and Mac Talla), they have a clear plan for their whisky. They gave us a great tour, and what an amazing tasting!

(missed Part 1?)

And here we are, after the opening dinner (!), the two Fife Whisky Festival sessions (!!) and the Sunday morning Adelphi masterclass (!!!), it was finally time for the final event: the visit to Aberargie distillery!(!!!!) Compared to other new distilleries, they are quite under the radar, although we were already aware of its existence since our first trip to Lindores in late 2021, as the distillery can be clearly seen from the road to Newburgh. It is owned by the Morrison Distillers group (formerly Morrison & Mackay), which also has connections to other distilleries, in particular Bowmore. Their malt is not on sale yet, so their main business is still that of independent bottlers. They own the Carn Mor brand, for single casks or small batches, Old Perth, a fully sherry-matured blended malt (coming in different configurations) and the recent Mac-Talla, a range of Islay single malts but from undisclosed distilleries (they were very adamant about not saying from which one).

Ready for the distillery tour.

We were welcomed by Greame, head of production, and Thomas, the brand ambassador who was at the festival the day before. Thomas told us that we were the first visitors ever: what an honour! The site buildings include an office/bottling hall, the production (where we headed) and of course the warehouses. Inside, Maree, brand manager, and David from production were waiting for us in a meeting room. Tasting mats had already been prepared, with four “Old Perth” marked spots, and four “Mac-Talla” ones. Once everyone took their seat, Greame started explaining the history of the company, which used to focus on fruit liqueurs, and talked about their connections to Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch. The distillery started operating in 2017, and barley is sourced from their own surrounding farm. It’s a farm-to-bottle site, except for malting that is done at Simpson. During this chat, we started with the tasting: first, an 8y cask sample destined to become part of a bottling from the Old Perth range, fully matured in ex-Oloroso casks, and reduced to 48% abv. The second dram was from the same (undisclosed) distillery, same age, same abv, but distilled in a different way (apparently this distillery has both stainless steel and copper condensers) and fully matured in an ex-PX cask. The third sample was the Old Perth 12y (46%, chill-filtered, natural colour), one of the three core range expressions (the others being the Original, NAS, and the cask strength).

A nice welcome.

At this point, the group was split in two for the tour of the distillery. We were in the second group, with David and Thomas. As usual, we started with barley storage and milling; the mill is a modern one, near the two malt bins with a capacity of 28 tons, and it can process batches of 2 tons. Almost all the whisky they produced so far is unpeated, and they almost uniquely used Golden Promise barley. They aim for 9 mashes per week in their semi-Leuter mashtun, collecting the sugars through the usual 3 waters at increasing temperatures. They recently increased the number of washbacks, from 6 to 9, all stainless steel, where fermentation takes from 3 to 6 days and it is ignited by 20 kg of dried yeast. They have two stills, a 10,000-litre wash still and a 7,500-litre spirit still, both using steam coils as heat source. They collect the heart of the distillation from 74% to 60.5%abv, one of the largest cuts we heard of. Because they do a 5-week production, their capacity is currently around 250,000 litres of alcohol per annum.

No pictures inside, sorry!

The two groups were then reunited in the courtyard, just before getting inside the racked warehouse. There, they have temporary tanks where the spirit (both theirs and the sourced one) is kept before being casked. It’s quite a big operation, which made sense considering the availability of bottles from their independent bottler side. Still in the warehouse, we could spot a number of distilleries’ names and different types of casks. We walked a bit more inside, until the point where seven big butts were on display: contrary to most of the current sherry casks, which are seasoned for the whisky industry, these were bodega casks, which were actually used in sherry production for decades. They’d originally acquired ten, but only seven survived, and they are used to put to rest the whisky that ends up into the non-aged Old Perth (Original and Cask strength expressions), in a Solera-like system. We had a sample of it (again diluted to 48% abv), and we found it dirty but exquisite.

That’s a big warehouse!

After this, we headed back to the meeting room, where food was waiting for us. While we were eating, they started pouring the final four drams. Three of these were from the Mac-Talla range, starting with the Flùran (53.8%, single cask ex-bourbon), from the Flavourscape collection. This series is a collaboration with artist Marzia Sileno, who created a series of drawings inspired by the whiskies. In this case, the drawing recalls the flowery and light character of the whisky. This was followed by the Mac-Talla Mara, their cask strength expression (58.2%), a vatting of 25% first fill and 75% refill ex-bourbon cask: it’s a very spritely and delicious Isla drams, we both loved it (well, Gianluigi a few days later at home…). Finally, a novelty: the Mac-Talla Oloroso, a vatting of about 20 caks bottled at 54.8%, that was going to be announced the very next day: a delicious sherried peated malt. The final dram was a real banger: a cask sample of a 1996 Bowmore from a 2^nd fill ex-oloroso, at a natural strength of 47.4%. What can we say, we had a very few drams that good so far, an explosion of tropical fruits, surrounded by soft sweet smoke. A gem.

Art and whisky.

The event ended there, although it lasted almost an hour more than expected – not bad, it was really worth it. We made our way to the office for the pop-up shop they’d set up for the occasion, to grab some “souvenirs”. This was an amazing event, truly very well planned and definitely for whisky geeks and, by what we could see, organised by whisky geeks. They were extremely generous with the drams, they also provided 30ml samples for the drivers! We will keep our eyes peeled for their release, although it’s not going to be out soon. In the meanwhile, we can enjoy their fantastic whiskies from the Mac Talla and Old Perth ranges, which we got to know quite well during the visit. A visit which, by the way, marked Teresa’s 100th distillery visit!

The day ended with us driving back to Cupar to help Justine and Karen clean up the Corn Exchange after the third and final masterclass, and we managed to get some leftover from the Woodrow’s of Edinburgh masterclass (and because we’d run out of sample bottles, we temporarily stored them in coffee cups). What a great weekend, we’re already looking forward to next year.

Until next time, slainte!

Morrison Distillers

Link: https://www.morrisondistillers.com/

#41.1 Fife Whisky Festival 2024

Another Fife bites the dust

TL; DR: We volunteered again for the Fife Whisky Festival, what a great event! We started with a nice dinner at Lindores Abbey, followed by a day of work and fun at the festival, and finally a masterclass! We’ll definitely try to go back once again next year!

Whisky festivals are interesting experiences: a joyful buzzing bunch of people moving between stands, like bees between flowers to “sip” on the golden nectar offered. At least, this is what we experienced so far at the Fife Whisky Festival (FWF), Whisky Fringe, and Funky Booze, the very few festivals we attended so far. As people who started their whisky journey visiting distilleries, mostly in the middle of nowhere, we particularly appreciate these festivals’ chilled out atmosphere: busy but manageable. As a matter of fact, it’s the third year in a row we attended and volunteered at the FWF (it’s becoming a friends’ reunion!), and we’ve always had great time. The small but not-too-small size, the selection of exhibitors that tends to attract whisky nerds more than people who just want to drink, and overall the great organisation by the two festival directors Justine and Karen make this event special to us.

Not a bad place to enjoy a drink before dinner.

As usual, the festival started on the Friday evening with the opening dinner at Lindores Abbey distillery, over 70 people seated around a huge table in the cloister, after a welcome highball or dram (MCDXCIV single malt, 46%abv) at the distillery bar. The dinner was a 3-course meal paired with four drams. We started with a Lindores Abbey, a nice single cask expression, from a Ruby port seasoned cask, paired with melted camembert cheese. Afterwards, a Lochlea Our Barley (their core range expression, ok but a bit boring in our opinion) and a tasty beef main with roasted vegetables. This year, the guest speaker was Nicholas Morgan, who talked about his career and his connection with Fife (mostly due to working for Diageo at Cameronbridge distillery). Having read a couple of his books, it was quite interesting. The meal continued with a very good Spey single malt (probably our favourite of the dinner drams), a Spirit of Speyside bottling from 2022 and creme brulee. Finally, another Lindores, an interesting cask sample from a French wine cask that we couldn’t quite understand (the room is big and, at that point, people were chatty). During the evening a couple of drams made their way to our glass, first the new Blended Malt by Woodrow’s of Edinburgh, a small but great independent bottler based in Leith: a perfect session dram. The other one was a very yummy Clynelish Rare Malts from 1974, bottled at cask strength at 23 years of age: as these bottlings are disappearing, probably one of the few times we’ll be able to try one.

Probably those drams were one or two too many, as the morning after we woke up with a slight headache. We quickly dressed up and headed towards the Cupar Tearoom, where we had a delicious breakfast, including a 3-pancake stack with bacon. That bacon-heavy breakfast was enough to made us feel better, so by the time we got to the Corn Exchange we were perfectly fine again and ready for the festival. As usual, we helped exhibitors unload their cars and vans, showing them where their stand would be, and performend various small tasks required before the festival started. We also met up with this year official photographer, Dougie from Dramface: check out his IG page – unlike ours, his whisky shots are great!

Getting ready…

For both sessions, our main task was to check tickets and put wristbands on. When the first wave of people was in, we moved on to serve coffee and tea to the exhibitors, and helped them with anything else they needed (and also, enjoy a couple of drams). In the second session we were a bit more relaxed (and maybe slower because of the irresistible fudge donuts we’d had in the break), and for about an hour we got lost in the “Bermuda triangle” formed by Woodrow’s, Fragrant Drops (another small but great Leith-based independent bottler) and Daftmill. Gianluigi even talked a bit with Francis Cuthbert, Daftmill’s owner, about his cows…professional interests. As the second session ended, we helped tidy up the rooms. It was a long day, but it was a lot of fun too, in particular catching up with many people we hadn’t seen in a while: people are what really makes whisky special. The day ended with a nice (and very abundant) meal with the other volunteers at the Greenhouse, kindly offered by Karen and Justine as a “thank you”.

Nah, it wasn’t just hard work 🙂

We woke up well rested on Sunday. After packing up the van, we got a coffee at Justine’s B&B, before going back to the Corn Exchange to help set things up for the three masterclasses: Adelphi, Kingsbarn, and Woodrow. To our surprise, we and other volunteers were invited to join the first one, so nice of Karen and Justine! The presenter was Antonia Bruce from Adelphi/Ardnamurchan – a great tasting host who brought delicious drams. We started with the (now) classic Ardnamurchan AD (46.8%), and moved on to a single cask bottled for Lockett Bros wine shop in North Berwick (unpeated ex-Oloroso Spanish Oak hogshead, 58.6%). The following drams were from the Adelphi range, a 16y Breath of the Isles (“undisclosed” Orkney, vintage 2007, 57.4%), and two sherried drams, a 18y Bunnahabhain (58.2%) and a 12y Inchgower (57.4%). The tasting ended with an extra dram, a 40y Miltonduff (refill ex-bourbon hogshead, 50.4%) from their 30^th anniversary celebratory collection: stunning.

We didn’t know there was a place for us!

A great lineup.

Because Teresa was driving right after the tasting, and Gianluigi later in the day, we couldn’t drink (Gianluigi only sipped a couple of them), and for once we had run out of sample bottles (lesson learnt: sample bottles are never too many). Fortunately, our pal John came to the rescue and gave us some of his empties: thanks! We left soon after the tasting for a 30ish minute drive north-west to attend an event we were really looking forward to: the visit to Aberargie distillery!

Stay tuned to hear more about this, and until then, slainte!

Fife Whisky Festival

Link: https://www.fifewhiskyfestival.com/

#29 Fife again

Back to the festival, with a visit to Inchdairnie

TL;DR: And the time for one of our favourite appointments came again: The Fife Whisky Festival, where we and a bunch of Edinburgh Whisky Group folks volunteered again to help Justine and Karen. As part of the festival, we visited the very modern Inchdairnie Distillery, usually closed to visitors.

One of our favourite events of the “whisky-year” is a relatively small festival, expertly organised by the entrepreneurial duo of Justine (Kask Whisky) and Karen (Angel’s Share Glass): the Fife Whisky Festival. It starts on a Friday in early March (carefully chosen to avoid clashes with the 6 Nations) with an opening dinner, followed by two sessions on the Saturday at the Corn Exchange in Cupar, and it ends on the Sunday with a few events at local distilleries or other venues. Simple and effective, and this year edition was no different.

Like in 2022, this year the opening dinner was at the Lindores Abbey distillery, in Newburgh. We were welcomed at the bar with a cocktail based on their Aqua Vitae, which we enjoyed in the adjacent production room (not working during the evening). Dinner was served downstairs, in the “huge table hallway”.

Happily waiting for dinner and drams.

As last year, we had four drams, an opening one and three paired with the delicious courses. This year we started with a Lindores Abbey (Friar John Cor cask strength), and then we had a Nc’Nean (The Huntress 2022 edition), a Loch Lomond and finally another Lindores Abbey (the leftover of their inaugural release, reserved to the members of the 1494 Club). Before the event, Justine kindly asked the distillery staff if we could sleep in our campervan in the parking lot, which they agreed (thanks again!). We are not sure that everyone was up to speed though, as in the morning we spotted some puzzled faces among the workers…oops. As we woke up, we quickly dressed and drove towards Cupar to grab some breakfast. For the second night we had booked a B&B, and fortunately we could check in early.

That’s the closest we slept to a distillery.

The festival went very smoothly. We were on tickets duties at first, and during the second session we also checked in Roy Duff (from the Aqvavitae Youtube channel) and other whisky-pals from Glasgow, among others. During each session, after most of the attendants got in, we helped the standers by bringing coffee, tea, etc. Gianluigi even replaced temporarily Declan from Glenallachie to let him have a break, as he was alone at the stand. For a minute it was nice to “play brand ambassador” for one of our favourite brands! There were many volunteers, so work was not excessive, and it was nice to take a break from time to time to get a wee dram and chat about whisky with old and new friends. After cleaning and wrapping up everything, the night ended at a local restaurant with a good curry.

Find the real brand ambassador…

On Sunday, after a sizeable Scottish breakfast at the B&B, we picked up our friend Stephen and drove to one of the events of the day: the visit to Inchdairnie distillery (the other was a Lady of the Glen tasting at Dalgety Bay). We were very excited about that, for a number of reasons. First, it was a rare occasion to visit a distillery usually closed to public. Second, we knew they were producing some very interesting spirits that we tried at the virtual Fife Festival whisky tasting in 2021 (the only year when the actual festival didn’t go ahead), including some rye, which we both quite liked.

The distillery is in an industrial estate near Glenrothes. The parking lot is in front of two modern buildings, one for production and the other one for he offices (with warehouses behind the latter), and the entire (very tidy) area is surrounded by a green lawn. After a little wait, we were welcomed inside the offices, in the conference room. As we sat around the table, Ian Palmer (the managing director) introduced himself and started describing the distillery vision and production, soon delving into technical details (so much that we both started taking notes on our phones).

Yes, Teresa’s hair went wild…

Production started in 2016, with a capacity of 2 million litres per annum, soon to be doubled. Because of this big capacity, they experiment with different mashes of malted barley, rye and oat. Thus, they have lot of different products in their portfolio and, unlike most new distilleries, they are keeping some to release themselves and selling the rest to blenders (including Macduff International, whose portfolio includes Grand Macnish, Islay Mist, Lauders and Waterproof whiskies…many of theese bottles were on display). Current plans will see their single malt (Inchdairnie, unpeated) released in 2029, and will be the result of Fife malted barley, from both spring and winter crops. Depending on the season it is distilled, the newmake will be put in different casks (here a scheme of the pairing between season and cask type).

At the moment, they are also producing an unpeated single malt, Strathenry, as their trading whisky (a few independent bottled ones already came out). There are also two peated malts: Kinglassie and Finglassie. The former is produced using Fife barley, while the latter is sold as a trading malt (to blenders and independent bottlers). A range of unique distillations, varied every year, will be released under the name of Prinlaws, and they will be experimental runs. Finally, the first product they released is the Ryelaw: a mash of malted rye (53%) and malted barley (47%), with second distillation in a Lomond still (the third we saw, after the Ugly Betty used to produce the Botanist gin at Bruichladdich, and Scapa’s wash still). Because there isn’t a definition for rye whisky in Scotland, it is classified as a single grain whisky. However, it satisfies all the criteria for American rye whiskey, except not being produced in USA, of course. It is currently available for the not wallet-friendly price of £110.

A passionate Scott with a passionate audience.

After the thorough introduction by Ian, Scott Sneddon (the distillery manager) took us around the production plant. We first saw the boiler, currently running on natural gas, which will be replaced with a hydrogen fuelled one. Being so new, they don’t have neither a Bobby nor a Portheus mill, and the milling is done with slightly different percentages compared to the most common 70% grist, 20% husks, and 10% flour mix. This is to maximise the sugar production in the mash, which is obtained through a mash-filter, as opposed to the majority of distilleries that have a mashtun. Fermentation happens in stainless steel washbacks outside the production building. Other than the three stills (wash, spirit, and Lomond) used for production, they also have a wee pilot still, which they used to decide the various parameters for their spirit. Of course, everything in the distillery is highly automatic, as testified by the equipment in the control room. Outside, we saw silos utilised as spirit receivers, and a row of palletized warehouses, with barrels patiently waiting to be ready for bottling. They have also a small warehouse in a separate building for their cask club.

Back inside, we had a very nice buffet lunch and a nosing experience of some of their spirits (including some oat newmake spirit, veeery different). To our surprise, no tasting on site, which was actually better for us as we didn’t have to pick a designated driver. Instead, they gave us a very generous tasting pack with four drams: 2018 Inchdairnie Palo Cortado, 2017 peated Kinglassie (probably ex-bourbon cask), Ryelaw newmake spirit and Ryelaw (distilled 2017). A very nice touch, and as we later found out, the drams are all delicious.

A tasting pack makes you happy 🙂

Overall, one of the most peculiar distilleries we visited so far. While most of the new distilleries went down the road of a traditional building and process, others like the Cairn definitely embraced modernity. Inchdairnie, however, seems to push this to another level, and only with time we will see if their efforts will be rewarded. For now, everything looks very promising.

Until next time, slainte!

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

Inchdairnie Distillery (not generally open to visitors)
https://www.inchdairniedistillery.com/

#18 Two festivals adventures

Festival!

TL;DR: With the relaxation of Covid restrictions (thanks vaccines!), public events started coming back, including whisky festivals! In 2022 we attended a couple of wee ones, the Fife Whisky Festival in March and the Whisky Fringe in August. In both cases, we are already looking forward to the next editions!

Until a few years ago, the word “festival” meant a very specific situation to us: (mostly) summer, a few thousand people around, and music blasting your ears. Northern Italy wasn’t short of these events, so during our teenage and 20s we indulged in what the national and international rock scene offered. Fast forward a few years, we are still going to concerts, even to international festivals, despite the older age making it more difficult: sleeping in a tent in our mid-20s was feasible, doing it in our mid-30s, it just won’t happen again (thanks a lot, Bluetooth speakers!).

Us going to festivals before getting into whisky!

In the meantime, we collected a new hobby: whisky! As you probably know if you read this blog, we started by visiting distilleries around US and Scotland. We have been enjoying the usually remote location of many distilleries, and the often intimate type of experience. That’s why, when first heard about whisky festivals, we weren’t too convinced. This changed in 2019, when we learned about a couple of them that seemed a great opportunity to know more about our beloved amber liquid.

After missing out on a couple of events in 2019 (Whisky Fringe was already sold-out when we learned about it) and 2020 (we only managed to attend a Fife Whisky Festival side-event at Kingsbarns distillery), the time of our first whisky festival finally arrived, in March 2022: the Fife Whisky Festival, for real! Because of our friendship with one of the organizers (Kask Whisky Justine), we were recruited as volunteers to help out during the day. The festival actually started the evening before, with a dinner at the Lindores Abbey distillery.

Welcome cocktails on the way at Lindores Abbey…

A very tasty 3-course dinner, entertained by the radio host Vic Galloway (to note, he’s curating a very interesting podcast for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, tasting drams with guests from the Scottish artist scene and pairing them with music). The dinner was accompanied by four tasty drams: a wine-matured Lindores, the Glen Scotia Victoriana, a 25y Glenfarclas, and finally a peated Kilchoman, UK exclusive batch 3, each one presented by one of the respective distillery ambassadors.

Archived the dinner, the day of the festival arrived, at the Corn Exchange in Cupar. We were given aprons and instructions: we were going to be at the door, Gianluigi scanning tickets (with Kath, a friend from the Edinburgh Whisky Group) and Teresa putting bracelets and giving away scratch cards (with Kath’s partner, Craig) to get the chance to buy one of the festival bottles, a single cask Lindores Abbey and a highly sought-after single cask Daftmill. The scratch card was actually a very smart move by the organisers, because it avoided tons of chancers going straight to the shop and buying a limited edition bottle to be put on auctions. Of course, someone complained, but there is no remedy against self-entitlement and selfishness…or is there?

After the entrance operation, our task was to set up the room for the two masterclasses, Mackmyra and Loch Lomond. During these, we could do little breaks, which we exploited to taste a couple of drams each. We spent the rest of the session walking around the stands assisting brand ambassadors and chatting with friends.

At the end of the first session, we and the other volunteers quickly cleaned everything up, and had a little lunch break. This is when Justine brought in the mystical fudge donuts: a beast of a dessert, probably hundreds of Kcal per bite. After checking that everyone had one, Gianluigi decided to show his true animal nature and ate a second one.

The second session went almost as smoothly as the first one: a few more drunken fellas, but fortunately no one outrageously pished. Overall we loved the atmosphere, so relaxed and friendly, it was a great day that we are looking forward to repeating.

A few months went by, until we got to the middle of August. Gianluigi had just come back from a conference in Canada (and a distillery trip he managed to sneak in, wink wink), just in time to attend the Whisky Fringe. “Just”: his flight from Toronto landed in Edinburgh around 9am. Fortunately, the festival location, the beautiful Mansfield Traquair, is only about 30 minutes walking from Leith, and the festival was starting at 2pm. After an abundant brunch and a bit of unpacking, we were on our way to the festival.

The number of participants for each session was limited to 500, which seems a lot, but because of the festival layout on different floors, and the space around, never really felt very crowded. The first stand we hit was the Uncle Nearest one. We were already aware of their fascinating history (Green Nearest was the person, at the time enslaved, who taught Jack Daniels how to distill). We tried two of their Tennessee whiskies, both quite delicious. We then went to say hi to our friends at Ardnamurchan (Gianluigi is part of their AD/Ventures club), and to taste one of their fabulous drams. We met several friends, some from the Edinburgh Whisky Group, some from past tastings, some just friends. Feature of the festival, a half-time dram: at 4pm, each person could choose a special dram from one of the stands. Gianluigi went for a 16y Port Charlotte from Thompson Brothers, Teresa for an old Glen Moray, both very tasty!

Blurred picture (ooops) of Uncle Nearest whiskeys.

Choosing what to buy with our 10-quid voucher was hard, of course you can’t get all the delicious Thompson Brothers’, Glenallachie’s, Springbank’s/Kilkerran’s, Ardnamurchan’s at once. We finally opted for a bottle of White Heather 15, a stunning blended scotch from the Glenallachie company, very different from most whiskies we tried, and which we had been after for a while. The night ended with a meal with some friends at the Leith Depot, and a last dram at Nauticus.

Both experiences challenged our prejudice of whisky festivals being messy and noisy. They were both quite relaxed, lively experiences, where we could enjoy some delicious drams (well, not so many at the Fife Whisky Festival, as we were helping out) without spending lot of time queuing. We already signed up to help at the 2023 Fife Whisky Festival, and we will keep an eye on the Whisky Fringe tickets. Are we ready for bigger events? Not really sure, but who knows.

Until next time, slainte!

Whisky Festivals Links

https://www.fifewhiskyfestival.com/
https://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/whisky-fringe/

#10.3 Whisky in Edinburgh and beyond

Dramming in
Glasgow and Fife

Another couple of distillery trips right outside Edinburgh: Clydeside and Kingsbarn.

(missed Part 2 or Part 1?)

Being in a new golden era of whisky, recent years saw a plethora of new single malt distilleries being built around Scotland and the rest of the world. A few new ones are in the Lowlands. Here, distilleries opened really all over the place: in Fife (remember our trip to Lindores Abbey?), in Edinburgh (someone said Holyrood?), in the south of Scotland (ehm-ehm, Borders), and in Glasgow. One of the most recent here, is the Clydeside distillery, which opened in 2017 and started producing new make spirit in 2018. We visited it back in November 2019, at a time we were getting more and more involved into whisky. We spotted an event in the SMWS website which included the distillery tour plus tasting and bites. What else could we ask?

Coincidentally, a couple of friends of ours were visiting, so we gladly involved them in the visit (we’re still unsure whether they really wanted to get involved, but they didn’t say “no”). Being a time when people used to go every day to the office, Teresa was already in Glasgow, and the three of us reached her in the late afternoon. At the time the distillery was not quite easy to reach by public transport from the city centre, so we grabbed an Uber. The distillery building is beautiful, a mix of modern and industrial architecture, right on the side of the Clyde river (well, the distillery name kind of gave it away, I guess…). There is a whisky shop inside the visitor centre, with a wide selection of whiskies.

The tour was very nice, we had to translate it in Italian for our friends, so we ended up not taking any pictures (and tbh, at the time the blog idea was not there yet…), but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We were very happy to try the newmake spirit at the end of it. Being a SMWS one, the rest of the tasting was quite great as well, and there we could try a single grain whisky distilled a couple of days Gianluigi was born! The bites were a bit underwhelming, so to calm our hungry stomachs we had to get a (very typical late night in Glasgow) kebab when we were back in the city centre, before our train back to Edinburgh. At the time they didn’t have any official release yet, but now that they have, we are waiting for the right occasion to go back to Glasgow and try something tasty!

Among the most prolific areas for new distilleries, Fife could almost be a region on its own now. We recently visited Lindores Abbey, but among the new distilleries we can count for Aberargie, Daftmill, Eden Mill, Inchdairnie, and Kingsbarns. We visited the latter in March 2020, right before the pandemic. The event was organized by the Fife Whisky Festival, and consisted in the projection of the Amber Light documentary, featuring Dave Broom, and the tour of the distillery. To attend this event Gianluigi had to turn down a free ticket offer for a Scotland rugby game at Murrayfield, where it was playing against France. His epidemiologist instinct suggested avoiding big crowds, since Covid was already spreading across Italy and, in his mind, it was just a matter of time for it to get to Scotland.

Reaching the distillery in a combination of train and buses turned out not being the cheapest, we ended up spending more money than what a rented car would have costed at the time. However, it paid off as the distillery is situated in a very beautiful spot of the Fife coast, nearby the sea and meters away from golf courses. The projection of the movie was not the best, due to the initial technical problems and a very low audio volume.

The distillery was built in 2014 on an abandoned farm originally from the 1800s, of which they retained the main structure (including the pigeon house and, as many newly built distilleries, they have a café, where you can have food and tasty cakes. The very enthusiastic tour guide walked us through the production stages, and tested our ability to recognize flavours and aromas in a dedicated area. We understood that the intention was to release single malt at a young age, therefore commonly to others they use lots of shaved, toasted and recharred (STR) casks. They started making newmake spirit in 2015 (the first cask is exposed in the visitor centre), which we could taste at the end of the tour, together with a first core range expression, Dream to Dram (46%, ex bourbon and STR casks), and the Family Reserve: a similar expression but bottled at cask strength. The distillery is owned by the Wemyss Family, which is an independent bottler as well, so we were also offered a Velvet Fig 25y/o malt from their range. We particularly liked the Family Reserve expression, however at the time we had a 10-day trip to Islay scheduled for the end of the month, so we didn’t buy it and we got a couple of Wemyss blended malts miniatures instead…fortunately we could find that bottle months later, since that trip to Islay never happened.

In spite of the young age, the drams we had were both very tasty. We recently attended a Kingsbarns vertical tasting at the Tipsy Midgie, in Edinburgh, which confirmed how promising their whisky is, when matured in a range of casks as well. Overall, getting to know these new distilleries is very exciting: all of them can offer a unique take on single malt, and unlike many of their older brothers, the new and family-owned ones have more freedom to experiment and provide innovation in the category. Being able to reach them (more or less) easily is definitely a big “plus”!

Until the next adveture, stay safe and sláinte!

Whisky Activities Links

https://www.theclydeside.com/
https://www.kingsbarnsdistillery.com/
https://smws.com/
https://www.fifewhiskyfestival.com/

#6 Lindores Abbey Road

Last of 2021 but not least

The last distillery visit of the year was in a very special place: Lindores Abbey!

And, as quickly as it came, Christmas 2021 was gone, with the usual few pounds added to our waist, giving us a goal for the first months of 2022. We finally came back to Leith, what we now call “home”, and as we arrived, we felt relieved. Staying in Italy for over a month was really nice, but definitely an overkill.
We were eager to come back also because we had planned a visit to a new distillery: Lindores Abbey! The distillery is in Fife, just about an hour away from the city. We could have visited it in other occasions, but because of its wider historical interest, we wanted to wait for someone visiting us to make the trip. Occasion that finally arrived, as Gianluigi’s friends Roberto and Cecilia, with their wee one, were in town to spend New Year’s Eve with us!

Gianluigi and Roberto left early to pick up the car in a small rental place in Tollcross, a bit far from Leith but the only one applying a decent rate for an extra driver – Roberto was eager to try driving on the left side for the first time. After a small breakfast, we were on the road! The ride was smooth in a nicer weather than forecasted, Roberto had no problem adjusting to the different side of the road. After we left the Forth Road bridge and the M90 and right before driving into the village of Newburgh we spotted another distillery on our left: Aberargie. This is a new one as well, owned by Morrison Distillers (Carn Mor series, Old Perth, Strathern distillery) – from the road the building looked very nice, and we could even see the stills.

Warm-up pictures before the distillery visit.

We arrived at Lindores Abbey a few minutes later. The distillery is in a very nice setting, surrounded by hills and looking towards the water. We will learn that the barley used by them comes from the surrounding fields. The distillery was carefully designed in 2015, while production started in 2017, with their first single malt released just a few months back, in 2021.

We checked in, and after a wee while the tour started. First stop, the “table room”, just in front of the visitor centre hall, with (as you might have guessed) a huge table in the middle. Here, our guide Matt delved into the history of the site, starting from the Abbey, built in the 12th century and one of the centres of religious (but not only) power in the Middle-Ages Scotland, which was also visited by a number of kings and queens. Destroyed during the reformations, a farm was then built on the site. The history is made very interesting by a draw of the abbey reconstruction, and an actual wall of the original building wall still standing a few metres outside the window. And the old spirit line, dividing Lowlands and Highlands, was even closer.

We moved to production, first into the milling room, where, of course, they could not possibly have a Porteus mill as most older distilleries, because Porteus were making such fine machines that they went bankrupt during one of the few whisky downturns. Similarly to few other distilleries (Tullibardine being one), mashtun, washbacks and stills are in the same space.

Here, there is also a remember of Dr. Jim Swan, the whisky guru who helped Lindores Abbey (among many other distillery) set up and passed away prematurely just days before their first spirit was produced. Back to the stills, there are one wash still and two spirit stills – a peculiarity is that the latter two work in parallel, not in sequence, so the spirit is distilled twice, first in the wash still, then half in one spirit still, and half in the other one.

Distilling lesson nr. 1 for the wee one.

The stills are very close to a huge window on the old abbey remains, but on the other side is also possible to spot the site where, a few years back, it was found a small crater which seems to confirm that distilling was actually happening in the Middle Ages, well before 1494, date of the king’s aqua vitae order to Brother John Cor. Unfortunately, the dig area was covered with a big plastic tarp for conservation reasons, and Matt told us that samples are being dated. This was quite exciting news, as the results could change the history of distilling in Scotland!
We moved to the warehouse, where many different casks were displayed on the metal racks: ex-bourbon barrels, ex-port pipes, hogsheads, quarters, octaves, and so on. Thanks to the Grattamacco visit, we could more easily spot (what we thought were) the ex-french red wine casks. Clearly, a lot of experimentation is going on here!

Finally, the tasting! First dram, their main single malt, the MCDXCIV (or 1494), slightly over 3 years of age, non-coloured and non-chill filtered, made up with 3 different types of cask: ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and STR (shaved toasted and re-charred, one of the many legacies of Jim Swan in the whisky industry). Second dram, the aqua vitae, a similar recipe to the one Friar John Cor used, but without some ingredients to avoid losing the “spirit” nomenclature. The smell and taste reminded us a hybrid between a grappa and an amaro – not our cup of tea honestly, but it might be very good in a cocktail.

After the tour we decided to have a snack at the distillery’s cafeteria, ordering a charcuterie board to share and thinking: “we will have something later”…however the plate was so abundant (and delicious) that no other meal was needed until dinner! Definitely recommended!

Back in the car, direction St. Andrews, as our friends had never been. The village was very quiet with that typical atmosphere of the days before a party. We did a long stroll between the university buildings, the cathedral and castle ruins, and our favourite part, the pier and the beach. As it became dark, we got back to the car and slowly drove back to Leith.

This was our last distillery visit of 2021. The year started with lot of uncertainty, but in spite of that we somehow managed to do some great whisky trips and visit quite a few distilleries all over Scotland. Still, there is a quite big gap in the whisky trips: Islay! Maybe 2022 will be the one….?

For now, sláinte, and see you soon!

Lindores Abbey Tour & Tasting

Price: £15.00 pp (December 2021)

Tasting: 2 drams, the MCDXCIV single malt (46%, NAS, NC, NCF*) and the aqua vitae (40%)

Target: casual tourists and whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: good

Highlights: the history of the site

Distillery exclusive expression: cask strength ex-sherry cask #18/95 (61.4%, NAS, NC, NCF)

Link: https://lindoresabbeydistillery.com/

*NAS: non-age statement, NC: non-coloured, NCF: non-chill filtered

A tale of two festivals

Inside the green distillery…Aberargie!

Another Fife bites the dust

Back to the festival, with a visit to Inchdairnie

Festival!

Dramming in Glasgow and Fife

Last of 2021 but not least

Dramming in
Glasgow and Fife