#26 Winterfest or Dramfest?

A day out at Deanston

TL;DR: In early December 2022, we spent a day at Deanston distillery for their Winterfest. Many drams were sipped throughout lots of fun whisky activities. Definitely a day to remember, and hopefully to repeat next year!

The first weekend of December, right after Gianluigi’s birthday and to celebrate the passing of huge deadlines for both, we were looking for some whisky activity. At first, we thought about going to the West Highlands, Ardnamurchan or Mull, but then we decided to postpone this trip: we would have had to rent a car, book accommodations…We wanted something simpler. However, having visited most of the distilleries in the area, it wasn’t easy to pick something new. But well, who said that it had to be new? The solution was there all along: Deanston, Warehouse 4 tasting. We figured the casks would have definitely been different from the ones we had sampled from in May 2021. When we checked out their website though, there was no availability for the day. Unlikely, a bit strange, but oh well. It’s after some snooping on their website that we found out that something different was going on: the Winterfest! Tickets were £50 pp, for a tour and some tastings, plus a snack and a meal. Couldn’t believe it, so off we went!

So, there we were, on a cold Saturday morning, jumping on train at Waverley (train we almost missed, thanks for the n-th time to Lothian Buses), direction Stirling, similar to our January 2020 trip. And if here you are asking: “wait, January 2020, May 2021…is it the third time you visit Deanston?”, the answer is yes, and probably won’t be the last. Anyway, we had some time to kill before the bus to Doune, so we had a quick pie and a coffee. The bus was on time and in about 20 minutes it brought us to Deanston (on the bus we bumped into Rachel from The Grail Tastings, which we’d seen only on screen before!).

When we arrived, the shop and café were already full of people ready to start the day at the distillery, some were from the Friends of Deanston Facebook group, others from the East Linton Whisky Society. We checked in (to find out that our badge names were Teresa…and Teresa 2, ahah) and joined one of the three groups. Ours headed off to the production plant, where we did an in-depth visit, including the water turbine.

This time we paid more attention to the open mashtun and to one interesting characteristic: there is only one receiver where low wines, foreshots, and feints mix together. For the non-geeks: the low wines are the result of the first distillation (usually around 20%abv) in the wash still. The second distillation, in the spirit still, is what produces the new make spirit, which will be put into cask and matured. However, not all the product is kept, only the middle part (or “heart”). At Deanston, it is taken between the abv of 75% and 67% (the “cuts” or “cut points”). The foreshot (or “head”) is the first part of the distillation which contains a lot of methanol so no good for drinking, while the feints (or “tail”) are the end of the second distillation, too low in abv and containing some undesirable compounds. These two don’t go to waste, they are distilled again. At Deanston, they mix it with the next batch of low wines, and the receiver tank never goes empty: according to their master distiller, this is the reason why the spirit is so waxy. Very fascinating.

When the tour finished, the guide took us back to the café, where breakfast was served: coffee (or tea) and a yummy morning roll. After this half-hour break, we started the second activity of the day, a warehouse tasting…nope, not the usual Warehouse 4, but Warehouse 2. Here, they gave us a tote bag with plenty of gifts (funnels, glasses, etc.) and we started the tasting. Unlike the Warehouse 4, the Warehouse 2 tasting consisted of three bourbon-matured drams of Deanston directly from the cask: one young-ish (5y old, can’t remember the abv), one a bit older (12y, 57.2%), and finally a 21y (54.3%). The aim was to understand how the cask affects the whisky, which was a great purpose, very educational (similar to what we did at Lagavulin). The 12y old sample probably came from a very active cask, as it was much darker than expected, darker than the 21y as a matter of fact, but all three were delicious.

After a short break, we went to Warehouse 4, for yet another tasting: this time the drams were four, and they were all matured or finished in sherry or other casks. We started with a 10y finished in an ex-Lepanto brandy cask (59%), followed by a vintage 2004 in an ex-amontillado butt (58.7%) and an organic distilled in 2001 and matured in an ex-fino hogshead (55.3%). We finished with a sublime 29y (vintage 1993) which spent 11y in an ex-bourbon cask and 18y in an ex-port wine cask (47.5%).

They were all delicious, and very happy to have tried them (unfortunately, once back to the visitor centre, we noted a steep increase in single cask bottling prices since our 2021 visit…probably a bit more than what would be caused by inflation alone). The variety of the drams we tried was huge, and we could see how Deanston’s spirit can deliver in ex-bourbon casks, and how it holds up in stronger casks, like port or sherry: a chameleon of a spirit, and we’re very happy to confirm so after these tastings.

Then, the three groups got together, and we headed to a big tent outside (someone joked: “like the Dothraki in Game of Thrones”) where we enjoyed a full meal, including a delicious soup, coffee, etc. Once finished, we were asked to wait a few minutes to clean the tables and prepare the final tasting (yes, another one!). This time, the tasting was hosted by the Master Distiller Brendan McCarron, who’s always very funny and insightful to listen to. We tried four cask-strength drams (this time 10ml only, fortunately for our livers). We started with the (at the time) newly released Deanston Virgin Oak cask strength (57.5%), a celebration for the 10th anniversary of the visitor centre. It was followed by an Organic 2000 vintage (50.9%), a 2009 Bunnahabhain Coterie (Winter 2022), finished in Amarone casks (59.7%), and by a peated dram, a Ledaig Ink Doublewood (Winter 2022, 53.8%).

We left the distillery soon after the tasting (thanks Ronnie for the lift back to Edinburgh!), not that tired, but definitely happy. What a day, probably one of our best whisky-days so far. Deanston is one of those distilleries that we didn’t fully appreciate at the beginning, it was not immediate “love” like Tobermory/Ledaig or Glen Scotia. However, over time it grew on us, so much to become one of our favourites.

Until next time, slainte!

Deanston Winterfest

Price: £50 (December 2022, inclusive of tour, three tastings, breakfast, and lunch)

Duration: All day

Tasting: SO MANY DRAMS (see above)

Value for money: Very, very good

Highlights: Great atmosphere, great whisky, very friendly staff

Recommended: Absolutely

Link: https://www.deanstonmalt.com/

#25.3 Highlands trip bonanza!

Back to Edinburgh through Aberfeldy and Pitlochry

TL;DR: The final day of the trip was dedicated to slowly driving back to Edinburgh. Still, we were able to fill the day with a few distillery visits: Aberfeldy first, followed by Edradour and Blair Athol! Phew!

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

We woke up early that day, skipped breakfast, and drove straight to the ferry terminal at Fishnish, on the Isle of Mull, to catch the ferry back to the mainland under the morning sun. After a quick ferry trip (we believe it’s the quickest Mull route), we arrived in Lochaline, on the Morvern peninsula (home to another distillery, Nc’Nean, which at that time we didn’t even know existed). We had breakfast, finally, at the Lochaline Snack Bar, which serves delicious sandwiches, rolls, and other goodies at very reasonable prices. We enjoyed our breakfast in the good company of a nice English couple, who told us how they decided to spend their retirement on Mull…not a bad idea at all!

Back in the car, we soon arrived in Corran for another quick ferry (this time just to save us over an hour drive), and then drove for the first time through Glencoe: what an incredible place! It felt like being in the middle of American canyons, but green.

We followed the road to Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum, then we turned left (eastward) and drove almost straight towards the first distillery of the day: Aberfeldy! It was not a new name for us, we had seen it in supermarkets and at the airport, but we had never tried it before, so we were quite curious. The distillery is in the village of….yep, you guessed it: Aberfeldy! Lovely place, the landscape was not as dramatic as the ones we had crossed earlier in the morning, but hilly and cosy. The distillery itself sits in quite a beautiful spot, almost like a postcard, with a small walking bridge to cross before entering the visitor centre.

The distillery is owned by Bacardi, together with Dewar’s, one of the most prominent blended scotch whiskies, and a few other single malt distilleries (Craigellachie, Royal Brackla, Aultmore and Macduff). Before the tour, we could take a look at the museum on site, with lots of memorabilia and documents about the history of John Dewar and related brands.

Then, we started the tour of this very pretty distillery. Around production, the signals of being owned by a big corporation were obvious, with a lot of signs that reminded Gianluigi of his environmental consulting days (not a bad thing, on the contrary: emphasis on environment and safety are a must!). It is on this tour that we realised that we could remember all the stages of production…after all, that was the 5^th distillery in 4 days.

At the time we didn’t really know what it was…

Then, we moved on to the warehouse, where a dram taken from a cask was served, but only to those with a more expensive ticket (3-4 people on the tour, including Teresa). It was a 1999 (so almost 20y old) Aberfeldy ex-sherry cask, and it was truly delicious. The fact that it was served with people with the regular ticket just waiting and watching was not the best however, a bit awkward. Anyway, back at the visitor centre, we could try a dram each: we chose the Aberfeldy 12 and the Dewar’s White Label. Not very memorable the first one, more memorable (but not in a good way) the second one.

We had lunch at the café in the visitor centre, but we soon left to get to the next distillery of the day: Edradour! It is a very small distillery, located near the village of Pitlochry. It used to be one of the smallest, if not the smallest in Scotland (called ‘the little gem’), but then they lost the record because a few smaller distilleries opened and because they built a second production line in a separate building on site, increasing the stills from 2 to 4. Edradour is owned by Signatory Vintage, an independent bottler, and indeed the shop stocks quite some of their range.

This time, drams were served at the beginning of the tour (so Gianluigi could sip a tiny bit of it): we picked the flagship Edradour 10 (40%) and the peated version Ballechin 10y (46%), and decided not to go for the whisky cream liqueur. We started the tour with a big German group, but after a while, we and another 3-4 people branched off to get the tour in English. As usual, the tour guide went through the story of the distillery, which was founded in 1825, although their first single malt was only released in 1982! We visited the new distillery first, while the old production plant was showed to us from the courtyard as we walked back to the visitor centre. It is on this tour that we discovered what the ‘monkey shoulder’ is. At the shop, we found out that for a few extra quid, we could get the Signatory Vintage version of Edradour, still 10y old and vintage 2019, bottled at 46%, non-coloured and not chill-filtered: a very delicious treat to ourselves! We also got the whisky cream liqueur for a friend, who gave absolutely positive feedback!

Back in the car, we drove towards the final stop of the trip, the neighbouring Blair Athol distillery, in Pitlochry. We went first for a coffee in the village (the early start was catching up on us), and then checked in at the distillery. After a bit, our host for the day, the very knowledgeable Calum, took us to the table for the tasting (after two tours in a day, we didn’t feel like going for the third one…Well, we would catch up later on).

We can’t remember whether this was before or after the tasting…

We hadn’t had any Blair Athol before, and actually rarely heard anything about it, so we weren’t surprised when Calum explained to us that the majority of the whisky produced there goes into blends. Now that we are a bit more experienced, we can say that Blair Athol drams can be fantastic, but mostly the independently bottled ones. There, we were given Blair Athol 12y and Distillers edition 2019, followed by a range of Diageo products: Cragganmore, Caol Ila and Lagavulin Distiller Editions, and a wee tiny sip of Johnnie Walker Blue Label – the first and only time we tried it, not impressed (instead, we determined that the much cheaper Green Label we had at home was more enjoyable). After collecting “our” driver’s drams and a quick stop at the shop, we finally drove home.

It was a cracking weekend, one of the most memorable ones, and we took so much in from all these distillery visits. It’s when we switched from being whisky curious to whisky enthusiasts! Some of the experiences were quite touristy, which was OK with us at the time, but would not suit us well today after n more distilleries tours and tastings…We really appreciated Ardnamurchan for their environmental forward thinking (well, now we appreciate them ALSO for the stunning quality of their whiskies), while the range we tried at Tobermory was incredible. Edradour and Ben Nevis were unknown to us previously but revealed themselves as little gems in the scotch whisky landscape. Overall, a fantastic trip!

Until next time, slainte!

Distillery Links

Aberfeldy: https://www.dewars.com/gl/en/aberfeldydistillery/
Edradour: https://www.edradour.com/
Blair Athol: https://www.malts.com/en-gb/distilleries/blair-athol

#25.2 Highlands trip bonanza!

From Ardnamurchan crossing the sea to Tobermory

TL;DR: Second day of our trip, and for the first time, we visited a recently built distillery: Ardnamurchan! It was also the first distillery we visited openly talking about sustainability. In the afternoon, we took the ferry to Mull, had a stroll in Tobermory, and visited the local distillery, of course!

(missed Part 1?)

On the second day of our long weekend we woke up very rested, after a great sleep in the very quiet Ardnamurchan Bunkhouse. The weather was overcast, so we skipped a potential walk in the woods and went directly for breakfast at the Natural History Visitor Centre, which also had a gift shop and a tearoom with delicious food (well, at the time at least…as we write it is closed for the winter, but there is a sign of business on sale). Then, a few meters away, the Ardnamurchan distillery.

Ugly picture of the beautiful lighthouse.

The distillery was funded and built in 2013 by the independent bottler Adelphi. According to the very knowledgeable guide, the decision was prompted by increasing difficulties in sourcing whisky casks. They started distilling in 2014, similar to many others (Wolfburn, Kingsbarns, Ballindalloch, Annandale) in what we can now consider the first wave of new distilleries (well, if we exclude the handful built in the ‘00s, like Kilchoman, Glengyle, or Daftmill). We liked the distillery, it is a combination of modern and classic styles, with a couple of classic pagoda roofs, one for aesthetical purposes (it’s above the visitor centre) but not the other (mystery…). A particularly interesting detail is that they use vegetable biomass collected in the area to heat up their boiler and rely on heat exchanges, showing how the whole production process was set up with sustainability in mind. They also have warehouses on site, so after the production tour we could take a sneak peek at the maturing casks.

The only picture we took at the distillery.

The tour ended in a very cosy tasting room/bar, where we were given two drams: the Adelphi house main blended whisky (NAS, 40% abv), and the Ardnamurchan spirit, aged for a couple of years in octaves. Because these casks are very small, the wood/spirit contact is higher and thus maturation is faster than in bigger casks – definitely a good strategy to get an idea of the direction the spirit is taking. Considering the age, we were impressed by the spirit, although the price was above the amount we’d spend on a 2y spirit. Well, we caught up afterwards. Since the first release of Ardnamurchan single malt in September 2020, we had more than a few drams, including a bottle of AD/07.21:05 we shared with friends in Italy over Christmas 2021, which “evaporated” in just over three weeks.

We left the distillery towards Kilchoan. We looked around a bit before going to the pier, where we got on the ferry to the Isle of Mull! About 40 minutes later, we were in the village of Tobermory, which probably many of you will be familiar with because of the very picturesque row of coloured houses on the waterfront. Well, fame deserved, it really is a special place!

We drove straight up to the camping, where we had booked a pod for two nights. The camping was only 20-min walking from the harbour (and the distillery), so we could both enjoy our drams, finally! On the way to the distillery, we stopped quickly by a shop to get oatcakes … a move that will turn out to be very smart.

Can you tell we’re eating oatcakes? Yes, you probably can.

So, the Tobermory distillery was where the non-automatic booking system almost failed us (remember, this was back in 2019, now you can book online!). We had booked via email a tour with an extended tasting (4 drams each), however we were warned that tours were at risk of cancellation because of renovations. We checked in at the visitor centre, and the (a bit cranky) lady told us that there was no tour because of the renovations, and that someone should have told us before getting there. More worryingly, she said that there was no tasting, as the last one of the day had already started (indeed, we could hear the cheerful laughs coming from one of the tasting rooms). The tide turned when we showed her the email exchange, and it turned out that the person we had been in contact with (and that was supposed to tell us that there was no tour) was her! A bit of an awkward moment, but then she opened the door of a second tasting room, where she made space for us (apparently it was used as a storage room) and got eight bottles for the tasting: instead of both of us having the same set of four drams, she gave us a dram of eight expressions! Very well played, although, after a very quick description of the drams, she kind of disappeared…

The tasting consisted of three Tobermory single malts (unpeated) and five Ledaig-s (heavily peated). We started with the main flagship, Tobermory 12, to move on to an 11y distillery cask (ex-bourbon) and then to a 17y finished in Madeira casks, which was awesome. We also started the Ledaig series with the main expression, the Ledaig 10, followed by a 15y finished in ex-Rioja casks, and the 18y finished in ex-sherry casks, part of their core range and arguably one of the best drams ever. We finished off with a single cask expression, a 19y finished again in ex-Oloroso casks, and a 20y finished in ex-Moscatel wine casks. Being newbies at the time, we were mostly chasing big flavours, peat and strange finishes, so this combination of expressions literally blew our palates off! We came out of the tasting very happy, purchasing something for us and something to gift (and paying the tasting an extra fiver for some unknown reason, but we didn’t want to be bitchy about that).

Soon after (the tasting was at 4pm!) we went for an early but delicious dinner at Cafe Fish. We were outside the restaurant afterwards, enjoying the later afternoon sun, when a seagull landed on an apparently abandoned plate, grabbed something and left. When the unfortunate lady returned (nope, not abandoned), we had to break the news to her: she almost threw up and the waitress had to take her plate away, looking not too happy about that. After this “funny” scene, we slowly headed back to the camping (the return was uphill, d’oh!) to find another of the Highlands’ curses, after single track roads: MIDGIES! Gianluigi, as usual, got bitten a lot, Teresa much less…at the time it was surprising, after the n-th time, not so much.

We spent the following day visiting Mull. We left the camping mid-morning, drove towards Dervaig, Calgary and then along the west coast all the way to Fionnphort. We stopped a few times to admire the incredible landscapes, for a sneak at The Inn at Port nan Gael (delicious local mussels!), and another time to avoid driving over an incautious lamb. At Fionnphort, we crossed the sea to Iona, where after a quick stroll we visited the rest of the island running, trying to stay on a path along the perimeter. Unfortunately, at some point we ended up in a peat bog, but we were still able to return to Baile Mór, where we took the ferry again back to Mull.

We then crossed the island eastward, to Craignure, and we returned to the camping in Tobermory, amazed by the incredible visit we had! Mull is definitely one of those must-go-back places!

Stay with us for the last day and the other distilleries. Until then, slainte!

Distillery Links

Ardnamurchan: https://www.adelphidistillery.com/
Tobermory: https://tobermorydistillery.com/

#25.1 Highlands trip bonanza!

From Edinburgh to the West Highlands, via Dalwhinnie and Ben Nevis

TL;DR: During our first big whisky road trip on the Highlands in mid-July 2019, we bagged seven distilleries in four days. First off, Dalwhinnie (OK, albeit a bit touristy) and Ben Nevis (if only we knew…). And amazing Scottish landscapes, of course.

For this story, we go back to 2019, early Summer. We were fresh members of the SMWS, and definitely eager to learn more about whisky, in particular eager to visit more distilleries. The perfect occasion was a mid-July weekend, when Teresa could enjoy a Glasgow bank holiday. Prompted by all the people telling us how beautiful Mull is (true story), we aimed towards that direction, central and west Highlands. From this, we started defining our route while poking distilleries.

A thing to note, it is unbelievable how in only three and a half years the whisky tourism landscape has changed. Many of the distilleries didn’t have an online booking system at the time, so we had to contact them via email or phone. That made us (well, Gianluigi mostly) a bit uneasy: will everything go as scheduled or will our bookings be lost in translation? We’ll see how mostly everything worked out fine, in the end, except for one.

This is the only picture we took at the distillery.

On Friday morning, we drove up north from Edinburgh, as the first visit was at Dalwhinnie. Built in 1825, the distillery is actually visible from the A9, the main highway from Edinburgh to Inverness, past Pitlochry but before Aviemore. The village giving the name to the distillery is one of the coldest in Scotland, as it is very far away from the sea and one of the highest as well. As a matter of fact, the distillery is often referred to as the highest in Scotland, although the highest is actually Braeval (by 2m, Wikipedia says). The buildings are very beautiful and somehow symmetric, including two pagoda roofs above the former malting floor. Being very close to the river Spey, it falls within the area where distilleries can pick their region between Highlands or Speyside, albeit Dalwhinnie usually goes for the former. It is owned by Diageo, and its two main expressions (Dalwhinnie 15y and Winter’s Gold) are very prevalent. The whisky is considered to be light and floral, and it is very hard to find expressions released by independent bottlers.

We checked in quickly for one of the standard tours, with a very nice lady who, however, was keen to clarify that she didn’t like whisky (which sounded a bit weird). Honestly speaking, we don’t remember it as a memorable tour, although we do remember the relaxed atmosphere created by the very friendly staff. It looked like a nice work environment. Probably, being in a such visible spot, the distillery suffers from being excessively geared towards mass tourism. The drams (the aforementioned two, plus a sip of the Game of Thrones House Stark release, suspiciously similar to the Winter’s Gold…) were OK but they didn’t prompt us to purchase. So, after a homemade lamb-chop sandwich eaten in the parking lot, we hit the road towards our next stop.

Fewer distillery pictures, more landscapes.

From Dalwhinnie, instead of going back to the A9, we drove westward following Loch Laggan and passing by the village of Spean Bridge: the landscape is truly amazing over there (well…as in most parts of Scotland). We arrived at our destination in the afternoon, just in time for the tour: Ben Nevis distillery, in Fort William. After the nice tour, Gianluigi had only one dram and Teresa four (well, she saved some for the evening). The distillery looked a bit decadent: the decor in the visitor centre reminded us of an early 90s ski resort, giving us almost a nostalgic feeling. At the time we didn’t know that the distillery is owned by the Japanese Nikka, who use Ben Nevis in some of their popular blends (did someone say “Nikka from the Barrel”?? We didn’t…).

And this is the only picture we took here.

For us, this was a totally new experience as, unlike Dalwhinnie, we had never heard about Ben Nevis before booking the visit. The whisky was a great surprise too. While we weren’t too fond of the Nevis Dew Special reserve blend (the one with the red label), we loved both the blended malt Glencoe 8y (cask strength, now long gone unfortunately) and the single malt Ben Nevis 10y. In our understanding, we missed the cask strength version for just a few weeks, and the Mac Donald Traditional Ben Nevis wasn’t available. Being naïve in the whisky world, we bought the slightly cheaper Glencoe (at the time around 25-28 quid) instead of the Ben Nevis 10y (at the time 35-38 quid), but in hindsight, we should have got both…and a couple of bottles of each too: back at the distillery in 2021, we found out that the release of Ben Nevis 10y would cost us 50 quid, and that the Glencoe was discontinued!

After Ben Nevis, our trip continued towards one of the most westerly points of mainland Scotland: the never enough celebrated Ardnamurchan peninsula! And with that, we also discovered a very typical Highlands feature: single-track roads! Unavoidable, we guess, and now we are kind of used to them…but let’s say that the first time we weren’t so happy about it. We stayed in a self-catering accommodation very close to the Ardnamurchan distillery, and after dinner, thanks to still very long days, we managed to visit the lighthouse: such an amazing spot!

We guess by now you know about our plans for the day after, so stay with us until next week, Slainte!

Distillery Links

Dalwhinnie: https://www.malts.com/en-gb/distilleries/dalwhinnie
Ben Nevis: https://www.bennevisdistillery.com/

#23.2 On the run again: Dramathon 2022

Back to the Glens
(Grant and Garioch)

TL;DR: The day after the Dramathon we took advantage of being in Speyside to visit two distilleries we’d only had tastings at: Glen Grant, in Rothes, with their unique rectifiers, and Glen Garioch, in Oldmeldrum, which has been recently renovated. Both worth returning.

(missed Part 1?)

So, after a (not so) resting sleep in Dufftown (guess why), we found ourselves with a spare Sunday (the drive home is about 3 hours only): plenty of time for some whisky stuff! Deciding which distillery to visit in Speyside and its surroundings, however, is becoming more and more difficult. Despite being the biggest single malt producing area, most distilleries are closed to the public, and a bunch of them are closed on weekends. Let’s also say that we already had the opportunity to visit a few of them (ehm, ehm, ehm, ehm).

Nevertheless, because we’ve been there also around Covid times, we only saw the visitor centre or the tasting room of some distilleries, so this was a good occasion to catch up with the production tours we hadn’t done yet. First off: Glen Grant! We’d been there for the first time in July 2021: at the time we could only visit their marvelous Victorian gardens (if it’s a beautiful day, they are worth the price of the ticket alone), have a quick tasting at the shop, and an Illy espresso at the café (spoiler: this time the café was closed, so no Illy, ouch!).

The distillery is owned by the Campari group, reason for the Italian flag in the courtyard: after Wild Turkey, this is the second distillery we visited from this owner. Glen Grant is in Rothes, almost in front of the famous copper still-producer Forsyth (also, where Caperdonich, nicknamed Glen Grant 2, was located). Founded in 1839, except for the modern and polished shop/visitor centre, it has maintained a classic distillery feel. A notable fact is that their master distiller, Dennis Malcom, is one of the longest serving workers in the whisky industry, with over 60 years of experience under his belt: impressive!

The guide of the day was Kirstie, very knowledgeable and professional. Since it wasn’t raining, her explanation of the history started in the courtyard. We swiftly (or schwifty) moved to production, where we went through the usual path: milling, mashing (closed stainless still mashtun), and (wooden) washbacks.

Mashing in progress (looks like the first water).

Here came the interesting part: the still room. Like Glenfarclas and others, the room is separated from the rest of the production. As we walked in, we noted the curious shape of the wash stills, with a copper cylinder-ish bulge at the bottom of the neck, rather than the usual round one. The spirit stills have a classic round bulge, but the most fascinating characteristic, however, is the rectifier installed at the end of the lyne arms, looking like another small still. This was an intuition by John “the Major” Grant, who took on the business in 1972, and their purpose is to allow only the lightest vapor to be condensed. To produce a light spirit, they also set quite a short and high cut for the spirit heart: from 73% down to 68%.

Have you seen a rectifier like this before?

We then visited the warehouse before the self-guided tasting at the visitor centre. At the time of booking, we asked if we could pay more to upgrade our drams: not because they are bad (because they are not, in our opinion), but just because we had had the very same drams during our 2021 visit (Arboralis and 10y). Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible, which was a pity because it would have been a simple but relevant improvement to the experience, in particular for more experienced drammers (other distilleries do it), but oh well.

Bottles on display (we tasted the middle ones).

After sipping (Teresa) and nosing (Gianluigi) the two drams, we went back to the car and drove towards the Aberdeenshire for the second distillery of the day. While driving we did some distillery spotting, first Glentauchers and then Strathmill, in Keith, reached after a nice short walk along the river Isla (the day was truly gorgeous!).

Glen Garioch is in a very different setting: even older than Glen Grant (it was founded 1797), it is almost stuck in the village of Oldmeldrum (near Inverurie): it looks like the village grew around the distillery. Funnily, it was the distillery we visited after our 2021 Dramathon as well, but at the time it wasn’t possible to visit the production due to a combination of Covid safety rules and ongoing renovations, so we were quite excited about the tour!

Our guide Iona started the tour from the new malting floor, one of the parts under renovation the previous year. There was one originally, but it was dismissed back in the day when industrial maltings became too convenient to be ignored. This happened across the entire industry, so that now only a handful of distilleries malt their own barley in a malting floor (Benriach, Balvenie, Kilchoman, Laphroaig, Bowmore), and to our knowledge, only Springbank/Kilkerran do it for the 100% of their production (waiting for Dunphail), so bravo Glen Garioch! They also re-introduced the use of peat in their kiln, to get peated malt from time to time.

We moved on to follow the phases of whisky production: milling (classic red-painted Porteus), mashing (again, closed stainless steel mashtun), and fermenting (stainless steel washbacks). In the still room, we saw the other result of the renovations: they removed one of their three stills, and the spirit still is now directly fired (a flame is burning below, heating the still, instead of the usual steam coil inside it). Again, this modification is a step back into the past of whisky production, as direct-fire stills aren’t usually as efficient as steam coils. Their cut is wide, 73% to 63%, which contributes to giving body to the spirit.

This is reflected in the malts that we sipped in the tasting room, back at the visitor centre (after a wee tour in one of the warehouses). The 12y is a solid whisky, but the Founders’ Reserve (NAS) is good too. Similar to last year, the visitor centre offers a choice from their core range, the Renaissance range (a series of four expressions, the youngest 15y and the oldest 18y), the American cask trilogy (single casks sourced in Missouri, Minnesota and Kentucky), the virgin oak finish (a vatting of multiple casks), and a couple of distillery exclusives (see below).

Again, another very interesting visit, to a distillery that made efforts to bring back some features of the original production. We know that, with the re-discovery of flavours in single malts, there’s a question about the effects of each part of production. While most of the flavour has been attributed to casks, now people started exploring the effect of other factors, such as malting and distilling, and doubts about more recent modernisations have arisen. For us nerds and geeks (and generally consumers), this exploration is quite exciting as it brings us a lot of new (or old?) flavours!

Until next time, sláinte!

Glen Grant Tour

Price: £7.50 pp (October 2022), including the Victorian gardens

Duration: 1hr 10min

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

Target: Anyone, but geared towards tourists and novices

Value for money: Very good

Highlights: The still room and the rectifiers

Things we did not like: The very limited tasting options…or “option”

Distillery Exclusive: Glen Grant 13y (2008-2021), 56.5%, single cask (NCF, NC) 50cl for £120

Recommended: For the price, definitely yes

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

Glen Garioch Founder’s Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (October 2022)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 2 drams, Founders’ Reserve (NAS, 48%, NC, NCF) and Glen Garioch 12y (48%, NC, NCF)

Target: Anyone, but whisky geeks might appreciate it more

Value for money: Good

Highlights: The new malting floor and the direct-fire stills

Distillery Exclusives: Glen Garioch 1991 (single ex-bourbon cask, 46.4%, NC, NCF, £325) and Sherry Cask 2009 (1^st fill ex-sherry butt, 58.3%, NC, NCF, £130)

Recommended: Yes

Link: https://www.glengarioch.com/

#23.1 On the run again: Dramathon 2022

Visiting Glenfarclas before a run-y day

TL;DR: Oops we did it again…the Dramathon! After all the fun we had in 2021, back in October 2022 we participated for the second time. This year we both ran the half-marathon, always quite a challenge, but we rewarded ourselves with 3 distillery visits: first off, Glenfarclas!

First of all, Happy New Year! We hope you had a great start of 2023 and that your year will be as good as you wish, full of joy and (possibly) great drams! We just started a 4-week dry January-ish which, after a couple of weeks back in Italy and the New Year celebrations, we both felt was much needed.

Last year was full of drams and great whisky experiences, so for the first post of 2023 we are going back a few months, in mid-October. Following the great experience we had in 2021, last year we decided to run the Dramathon again. However, this time we both decided to run the half-marathon: Gianluigi with the objective of improving his 2021 timing, Teresa with the objective of completing her first long race.

Similarly to the previous year, we left on the Friday morning to sneak in a distillery visit in the afternoon. You know, while in Speyside…Because of our multiple trips, there are no many distilleries left to visit in the area, but we were still missing a very special one: Glenfarclas!

This distillery is famous for a few things: still family owned, it was the one that converted Pip Hills, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society founder, to whisky appreciation, which in turn led to the Society foundation. They mature almost all their stock in ex-sherry casks (a few exceptions in ex-bourbon are mostly for independent bottlers), and all their doors are painted in red (and no, we didn’t want to paint them black).

The drive there was mostly uneventful. We only realised too late that on the road from the A9 exit to the distillery, the main Speyside road, there are very few places where you can get a warm meal. Fortunately, another distillery came to our help: the Lagmore Cafè at Ballindalloch was open, and it was a very nice one too: lovely staff, good food and reasonable prices (we’ll be back!).

Unfortunately, the distillery is open to visitors only during weekdays, so it’ll have to wait (and tours are a bit pricey too). After lunch, we arrived at the distillery and checked in. We were a bit early, so we had time to scout the shop: we were glad to see that they are maintaining reasonable prices (in spite of the increase of their 25y from £125 to £220) and that they are quite competitive compared to the speciality shops prices.

First distillery visit of the weekend, yay! (Yes, one of us needs a haircut.)

The guide of the day, Rosie, started the tour in the milling room, where barley is grinded into grist (with a usual component of 10% of flour and 20% of husk), in this case by Milly the mill, a more modern looking machine than the usual Porteus ones.

We proceeded to the closed mash tun and the 12 wooden washbacks. The temperature rose substantially as we walked into the huge still room, where some of the 6 bulged directly fired stills were working. Rosie explained that their cut for the distillation “heart” (i.e. the middle part of the run that will be effectively casked) is 74% to 54%, quite large compared to other distilleries we visited.

We then moved towards the warehouses, with the signature red doors. At the visitor centre, our tasting was ready with two very well-known drams: their 10y, still today one of the few whiskies bottled at 40% that, in our opinion, still hold, and the 15y, probably the yummiest of their core range, together with the 105…which of course is not 105 years old, the number refers to the imperial proof (corresponding to 60%abv). Because of the race the next day, we didn’t drink them right away, we put them in our sample bottles brought from home (always with us!) and we went to the shop. There were many of their celebrated “family cask” expressions on display, with vintages of every year and bottled at cask strength. Even for recent vintages the prices are a bit steep, but the selection is very big…A pity we couldn’t try any!

After the visit, we drove to Dufftown, to register for the run and check in at our accommodation, the Commercial Hotel. We decided to have dinner at the hotel (not before a short warm-up run for Gianluigi). In spite of us booking about 9 months in advance (and paying 90 quid per night!!!), we were given the ‘cursed room’, room number 5. No, it’s not the plot of a horror B-movie, and no ancient burial ground was involved: it’s just the room directly above the pub, including their juke-box machine with questionable music selection and no soundproofing whatsoever. That meant that until the bar closed (11pm), we couldn’t sleep. The music wasn’t that loud in the corridor, and in fact in one of the bartenders accused us to be the first complaining…well, not according to other reviews on Booking.com, but we appreciated that the issue might be for this room only.

Finally, race day! As we reached the buses that would have brought us to the starting point (the Tamdhu station), it started pouring rain, so we mentally prepared for a wet run.

However, as soon as we got there, the rain stopped, and the run was quite pleasant. We both reached our goals, Teresa finishing her first (hopefully not last) half-marathon, and Gianluigi shaving a couple of minutes from his 2021 timing (not getting below 1h and 20m though, one of his goals).

After the run we had a well-deserved early dinner at the local French restaurant, the Seven Stills: it was truly great, yummy food and delicious wine. As a dessert, Gianluigi had a crème brulée, with the French chef coming to the table to light it on: bravo!

We went back to the Commercial hotel for some drams…Teresa was falling asleep in the pub, so we went to bed. The issue of the night before was still there, but Gianluigi decided to go put a few bucks in the juke-box: “if I have to stay awake listening to some sh*t, I want to listen to my sh*t!”. Probably some people felt puzzled when Slipknot, Nirvana and Tool started to play, so whoever walloper was in charge decided to skip the rest of the selection (Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam) only saving No One Knows by the QOTSA. Not cool at all. In the morning we complained with the manager about the noise (not about the skipped songs), who agreed to discounting 15 quid per night. It was nice but still not ideal, so we won’t be back unless we really have to, in which case we will ask not to be put in room 5.

Anyway, going back to the tour at Glenfarclas, we had selected the basic one because we knew in advance we wouldn’t drink. It was excellent, but we are both very keen to go back and do an experience with a more comprehensive tasting. Slainte!

Glenfarclas Tour

Price: £7.50 pp (October 2022)

Duration: 1hr 15m

Tasting: 2 drams, Glenfarclas 10y (40%) and 15y (46%)

Target: Anyone

Value for money: Very good

Highlights: One of the prettiest we’ve seen

Distillery Exclusive: Several bottlings of the family cask range, depending on which is available

Recommended: Definitely!

Link: https://glenfarclas.com/our-home/

#22 Goodbye 2022, see you soon 2023

A very dramming year

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

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

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

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

Moments before the best warehouse tasting ever.

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

Deanston WinterFest: that’s happiness after three tastings.

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

The direct-fired Glen Garioch spirit still.

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

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

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

Enjoying a break between the two Fife Whisky Festival sessions.

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

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

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

Happy holidays and see you next year! Slainte!

#20.3 Feast on the East

Back to a traditional experience: Cragganmore

TL;DR: The last distillery in this trip was Cragganmore, producing a malt we were not too familiar with. It was the most traditional whisky experience of the weekend, of course in a good way. We just wish they’d improve the whisky presentation and move away from the 40% and chill-filtering, to allow this good dram to fully express!

(missed Part 1/Part 2?)

After the visit to Macallan, we were almost bamboozled by being back in the daylight. We drove to Aberlour and had a soup and a coffee at the Gather’n Cafe, officially our go-to place when we are in the area. We also sneaked in the Walker’s cookies shop a few meters down the road, another one of our must-go in the village.

Back to the car, we drove directly to Cragganmore distillery, in Ballindalloch. Unlike Tormore, or the new Cairns (which we spotted several times just driving around Speyside), Cragganmore is quite hidden in a narrow valley…you really want to be there to see it (well, not as much as Nc’Nean!). It does make sense, however, that so many distilleries in Speyside popped up in such hidden places, given the history of distilling in the region, in particular pre-1823 (date of the Excise Act, for more info check out the dedicated episode of the Liquid Antiquarian on YouTube).

Second distillery of the day, of course we’re happy!

We didn’t know what to expect: Cragganmore is one of those many drams we came in contact with after the beginning of our whisk(e)y journey, when we were already members of the SMWS and had already visited a few distilleries. Because of this, and because of its 40% presentation (and it’s probably artificially coloured and chill-filtered) we never got into it, we had just tried it once or maybe twice in bars. Well, it’s kind of nice to discover a new whisky, isn’t it?

We arrived at the distillery 10 minutes before the tour start, so we took a look around to admire old-style buildings. The visitor centre didn’t go through much renovation (unlike other Diageo’s distilleries, like this and these two), just enough to make it pretty.

Albeit much smaller, it reminded us a bit of Lagavulin’s one, as it mainly consists of a shop and a very cozy tasting room, with a fireplace, sofas and chairs. The tour we had booked is “A Taste of Speyside”, and it is still the only available one (for the very reasonable price of £16, still at the time of writing). Our guide for the day was Gary, a former firefighter which instead of dully retiring, decided to work part-time at the visitor centre (something we observed a few times around distilleries). Anyway, we started the tour by gathering at the centre of the courtyard, and after the usual health and safety instructions, we moved to the production area.

As usual, we started from the milling room with its red Porteus mill (and as usual, we got told the story of Porteus company running out of business because their machines were too robust and never broke… maybe at the time the evil programmed obsolescence was not a thing). We rapidly moved on to the copper-lidded mashtun and the washbacks, where the distiller on shift “fished” a sample of fermented wash for us to see and smell (not drink, fortunately).

Before moving to the stillroom we could spot from the window the box containing the worm-tub condenser, one of the features of the distillery. The distiller came with us to the whisky safe, where the spirit from the 4 stills goes through and gets checked. There, he gave us a very detailed explanation of the distillation process. Although it is computerised now, the lever to start collecting the second distillation heart (from 68% to 62%, much lower than Macallan!) is still manual…Interesting! We then moved outside to check the warehouse, only from the outside, unfortunately.

Partial (very partial) view of the still room.

In the tasting room, three drams were already waiting for us, poured in tiny glasses: their flagship, Cragganmore 12, the Distillers Edition (commonly across Diageo’s distillery, this is the same age of the main core release but finished in a different cask, ex-Port cask for Cragganmore), and the Distillery Edition (a more recent release quite common across all Diageo distilleries, usually a batch of few-thousand bottles non-age stated, bottled at 48% and priced between 85 and 100 quid, a bit pricey, but apparently casks are selected by the distillery personnel). The drams were quite nice, despite the watery presentations (in our opinion): a shame for such a potentially robust and rich of flavour malt. We even got something to include in a future tasting…we won’t say anything else, but stay tuned in 2023 for more!

Overall, it was a pleasant visit, and Gary was super nice as a tour guide, and of course him involving the distiller on shift was the cherry on top. Compared to the other distilleries we visited during the same trip this was the most traditional one, what probably you’d expect when thinking of Scottish single malt distilleries. It was a very interesting comparison though, with Fettercairn being still old-style at core, but with a more modern visitor centre, and Arbikie and Macallan being definitely among the most modern we visited. We believe that this is reflected in the philosophy of the whisky production, and indeed Cragganmore feels very traditional, in every sense.

Until the next time, Slainte!

Cragganmore: A Taste of Speyside

Price: £16.00 pp (September 2022)

Duration: 1h

Tasting: 3 drams, Cragganmore 12y (40%), Distillers Edition (40%), Distillery Exclusive (NAS, 48%)

Value for money: good (10% off on anything in the shop if you attended the tour)

Highlights: the old-style distillery atmosphere

Target: anyone

Recommended: yes

Things we did not like: samples are super tiny (10ml? Definitely no more than 15)

Distillery only expressions: Distillery Exclusive (NAS, 48%), £85

Link: https://www.malts.com/en-gb/distilleries/cragganmore

#20.1 Feast on the East

East of Scotland bonanza: Fettercairn and Arbikie

TL;DR: On our way to Speyside, we stopped by two distilleries along the way. One old, Fettercairn, and one new, Arbikie. We liked both tours: while Fettercairn was more of a classical distillery experience, we appreciated Arbikie forward-thinking and innovative spirit. Fettercairn Warehouse 2 drams were outstanding!

Here we are again, mid-September, early Friday morning, on a bus to Lochrin Place, near Tollcross, where a car is waiting for us. We had booked it at McNicoll – following the increase in rental car prices due to the pandemic, they are now quite competitive and their service is generally much better than most of the other ones. That morning Teresa, the designated driver for the weekend (Gianluigi: “AH-AH”), drove us up north towards the Highlands, but then turned eastward on the road to Aberdeen.

Our first appointment of the day was with Fettercairn distillery, at the bottom of the Cairngorms mountains (which is the meaning of the name). This distillery is owned by White and Mackay and has a long history. Founded in 1824, it was one of the first to get a distilling license.

Here we are, ready for the tour (not so much for the wind).

Recently the brand underwent a restyling, so although the 12y and the 12y ex-PX cask (a travel retail expression) stayed at 40%, the 16y moved to a more natural presentation: from 40 to 46%, not chill-filtered and no artificial colour additions, just what we enthusiasts want! They also added the Warehouse 2 series to their portfolio, usually younger expressions at a higher abv from a vatting of casks selected by the distillery manager, each different from the previous one.

As we get to the (renewed) visitor centre, we are welcomed by our guide for the day: Kirsty. She illustrated very clearly the historical context of the late 1700s and early 1800s, around the time that Fettercairn got its license.

We then moved to the Forest Flow monument outside the visitor centre, a testimony of the distillery’s sustainability plans. For example, they planted oak trees on the Fasque Estate, an 8,500 acres land nearby. Another long-term but extremely interesting plan is a collaboration with the farmers in the area around the distillery, which will lead to single-farm expressions: exciting times!

Moving to production, Kirsty showed us the water recycle system they have in place to minimise water waste.We were then shown their copper lidded mashtun, their Douglas Fir washbacks, and finally, their 2 pairs of (vapour coil heated) stills with their cooling ring. This was one of the most interesting features: the ring is a circular tube spraying water on the neck of the still, cooling it and therefore increasing the reflux. In our understanding, this makes some particles drop back into the still, allowing only the lighter ones to go up. So cool(ing)!

We checked out the warehouse and finally went back to the visitor centre for a taste of the two 12y expressions and the 16y (we opted to pay and extra fiver for a third sample). The two 12y were tasty compared to other 40% basic drams, but the stand-out was the 16y: a nutty storm, truly delicious. Kirsty was very kind and gave us also two wee samples of the Warehouse 2 collection, batch 3 and 4 (1 and 2 were gone): the #4 is a more classical, rich and fruity dram, while the ex-rum cask influence on #3 gives it a tropical and flowery perfume, one of the most floral drams we ever tried. Both amazing.

Overall, a nice visit, which we’d repeat, particularly because Kirsty told us that they are planning to offer new tours, including warehouse tastings and some Warehouse 2 series focused, looking forward to it!

We had lunch in a café close to the famous arch in Fettercairn, and then moved to the next distillery: Arbikie. This is a quite new distillery, founded in 2013 by the Stirling brothers, originally farmers in the area. They started by producing vodka with potatoes they cultivate, and soon moved to gin and later to whisky. An interesting characteristic is that they produce whisky from 3 different grains: oat, rye and, of course, malted barley. As we parked, we were welcomed by a stunning view of the fields and the sea, truly a beautiful spot! The amazing landscape can also be enjoyed from the very nice café and restaurant.

There were works going on to build a new semi-open conservatory to improve visitors’ experience, particularly in sunny days. It’s just the two of us on the whisky tour (they have also a gin-focused and a general tour). Our guide was Andy, very knowledgeable and whose great-grandfather worked for the Stirling family.

Everything in the distillery is oriented towards sustainability, with heat-exchangers and other features in place to minimise energy consumption. Some peculiarities are their stainless washback silos (more similar to those in breweries) and their stills: three pot stills (one for wash and two for spirit) and the column stills. While gin and vodka are exclusively distilled in the column still, for the whisky they can play with a combination of the two. For example, we’ve been told that some of their rye newmake spirit recently underwent the second distillation in the columns, as the spirit stills (normally used for the second distillation) were under repair. Unlike most distilleries, they currently don’t have a dunnage warehouse, everything is palletized. On top of the usual ones, they have a variety of casks, including ex-Armagnac, ex-rum, and ex-red wine.

Back at the shop we tried some of their rye whiskies, the first ones officially released in Scotland in over 100 years. We had two expressions, the one that can be defined their core range (which we had already tried via Whisky-Me), and a single cask finished in ex-Armagnac casks. The second was better, but we weren’t huge fan of either: too herbal, almost a hybrid between a gin and a young rum. Very pricey too, £90 for the first and £250 for the second. It must not be easy to find your feet for something so uncommon as a Scottish rye whisky, where, unlike single malts, there is no “blueprint”. So, we are confident that their product will improve over time, in particular as more aged stock becomes available. Also, we’ll be very curious to try their single malt, once released.

Back to the car, we took the “slow” but very scenic road across Speyside to reach Fochabers, where we had our hotel booked. After a nice dinner at the Gordon Arms Hotel, we went to bed ready for the next day.

Fettercairn Tour (with extra dram)

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2022, £15 without the extra dram)

Duration: 1h 30min

Tasting: 3 drams, 12y (40%), 12y PX-finish (travel exclusive, 40%), 16y (46.4%, NC, NCF)

Target: anyone

Value for money: Very good

Highlights: the cooling ring system on the stills

Recommended: definitely!

Link: https://www.fettercairnwhisky.com/

Arbikie Whisky Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (September 2022)

Tasting: 2 drams, Arbikie rye (48%, NC, NCF), Arbikie single cask rye ex-Armagnac finish (46%, NC, NCF)

Target: anyone

Value for money: Ok

Highlights: the view and the distillery setting

Recommended: mainly to fans of all spirits

Link: https://arbikie.com/

#19.2 Dramming Around Orkney

The other side of Kirkwall

TL; DR: The second day on Orkney was dedicated to visiting historical sites like the Ring of Brodgar and the incredible village of Skara Brae. On the third day, we finally managed to visit Highland Park distillery. It was a very interesting and in-depth tour (mostly thanks to the outstanding guide, James), however followed by a disappointing tasting, which made the overall experience mostly a tourist trap.

(missed Part 1?)

On the second day on Orkney, we decided to put on hold our whisky curiosity and focus on the history of the island instead. After a brief run to the foot of Wideford hill, shower and breakfast, we left the camping westward. First, we visited the quite spectacular standing stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Fortunately, it was a sunny day, albeit very windy, we even spotted a sunbathing seal!

Around lunch, we moved on to Skara Brae. This is one of the sites we liked the most in Scotland, so far. Reading about the discovery of this 5,000-year old village was very interesting, as well as finding out about all the insights on the life of our ancestors. Being a nice day, we also took advantage of the splendid view on the beach just behind the site. After our visit, we drove first to the nearby Orkney brewery, not in time to enjoy a beer there but still in time to buy some for dinner. This was after a stop at Birsay beach, where the splendid landscape was saddened by the presence of a half-dozen dead seabirds: avian flu striking again. Back at the camping, it was grilling time! The only thing we did not account for was the number of midges assaulting us: the food intake was barely enough to compensate for the blood loss (sorry, we like to be dramatic…)!

On the third day, it was finally Highland Park time. Our friends Roberto and Cecilia are not whisky nerds, but they enjoy a dram once in a while, so they were very keen to visit the distillery. Because kids below a certain age are not allowed, we had to do the tour in two shifts so that there’d always be someone with the wee one: first, Teresa and Gianluigi, later Roberto and Cecilia. Our friends opted for the basic (but not cheap) one: Honour and Pride (and prejudice?) experience (30 quid, 3 drams). After excluding the two high-end offers (eye-watering price of 125 and 325 quid), we chose the upgraded Wild Harmony Experience, 75 quid with 5 drams, placing it as one of the most expensive tours we ever did… actually THE most expensive (unfortunately, the price jumped from 60 to 75 around May). Because of this, and of the history of the distillery, we had great expectations.

Two happy kids in front of a candy shop.

They picked us up at the St. Magnus cathedral, in Kirkwall centre, saving us the 15-20 mins walk to the distillery’s gate. Our tour guide was James, a true whisky geek and expert, who didn’t limit himself to answering all the questions, but went above and beyond to provide more context and deeper explanations. The tour started with a short video, during which we tasted their most basic expression, the HP 10y (40%, chill filtered, but according to them not artificially coloured, available in supermarkets). After that, we moved on to the distillery, starting with the malting floor: similar to other distilleries we visited (so far Laphroaig, Kilchoman, Glen Garioch, Benriach and Balvenie), they malt some of their barley in house (about 20%), using peat from Orkney, resulting in a quite distinctive flavour compared to Islay or Highland peat.

The distillery has a very interesting history, and a curious layout, almost like a tiny village. It was founded in 1798 and now it belongs to the Edrington group, with a production of 2.5 millions litre per annum. They used to fill almost exclusively ex-sherry cask, although now they have several ex-bourbon cask expressions (the 10y, 15y and the Full Volume).

The excellent tour guide James explaining us Highland Park distillation.

The tasting took place in the Eunson room, named after the founder, above the visitor centre. To our surprise, the line-up was actually the core range: the widely available 12y (40% abv), the new 15y in the ceramic bottle (44% abv), the 18y (43% abv), and the 21y (2019 bottling, 46% abv). Except for the 21y, which was really good (but unfortunately overpriced at 240 pound), the others were OK drams: not dislikeable, but quite inoffensive as well. At the end, they gave us a bunch of (quite unnecessary) gifts: other than the usual glass, a booklet about the distillery (OK as well we guess…but what are we going to do with two of these?), the (n-th) tote bag and a postcard-size frame with a tour attendance certificate (probably more of a gullibility certificate for having spent 75 quid each on this tour).

We were hopeful until the end, but nope: no distillery exclusive or limited bottling in the tasting. Back to the shop, we spotted a couple of interesting expressions that we thought could be a good buy: a 10y bottled at 46% (ambassador choice) and a cask strength bottled to raise money for a local rowing club, both around the £60 mark. We didn’t even bother to ask for the distillery exclusive: 170 quid for a 14y cask strength seemed a bit ridiculous (at the SMWS you can them for less than half of this), while the Full Volume at £80 was definitely overpriced for a non-age statement whisky (probably you pay for the Marshall amplifier shaped box…Gianlugi always preferred Orange and Fender). We asked if we could purchase a dram of the two. We were told it was not allowed because they are an off-sale only (so…what about the 5 drams they had just given us? Mystery), but we could try them at the shop in Kirkwall. Once down at the shop, they said the same, but that we could try at the Kirkwall Hotel’s bar. At the hotel, of course, they did not have those 2 drams. We went back to the shop, asking them again, but no chance we could try.

(rant mode: on)

We like to be positive in our posts, but seriously: how detached from reality do you have to be to think that whisky enthusiasts would prefer the bag of cra…ehm, unnecessary gifts to, for example, some more limited/special drams?

We usually like vertical tastings, but in this case it was very poor value for money. We were OK with getting the 12y, as it is their flagship, but the inclusion of the 10y as well was not great, as it is a mostly supermarket release (please don’t misinterpret us: the single malt selection in most supermarkets in Scotland is far better than some liquor shops in other countries, we just found strange to get that after travelling all the way to distillery). Not only the tour was super-expensive for no apparent reason (no samples from the cask, or distillery bottling, or some limited-edition release) but the fact that you couldn’t try try any other drams at the distillery nor at the shop was almost ridiculous. We believe that the only reason they can get away with it is the hordes of tourists from the cruise ships, which guarantee them some cash flow no-matter-what.

Highland’s Park bunch of (mostly) “unnecessary” gifts…definitely not worth 75 quid!

Ironically, the more basic tour was definitely better value for money: our friends did a very similar tour (albeit, not with James), and they still got to try the 12y and 18y, but instead of the 10y they got the Full Volume release. So, if you want to tick off Highland Park from the distillery list, the Honour and Pride tour is the one to go for.

As for the whisky itself, thanks to the SMWS, Cadenhead’s, Watt Whisky and other independent bottlers, we know how good Highland Park can be, so the offer at the distillery was a bit disappointing. This is a shame for all the nice people working there, first and foremost the guide James, which was one of the best ones we ever had.

(rant mode: off)

Anyway, not being able to buy a bottle at Highland Park left us with a problem: no Orcadian whisky for the rest of the trip! Gianluigi solved the situation by getting a Douglas Laing blended malt Rock Island form the local CoOp: not only very tasty (and not-chill filtered and bottled at 46%), but also with some Highland Park in it, so 2 birds with one stone and a great value for money!

The day after we explored the east: a wee coffee break at the Deerness gin distillery (soon to produce single malt), a stroll in the Gloup reserve, and a stop at the J Gow rum distillery, on our way to the Italian Chapel. We went to the shop, and guess what: they let us try their (quite delicious) rums before buying!

We really liked Orkney: we expected a quieter and eerie place, more similar to some areas in the north of the Highlands with mosses and peat bogs. Instead, it turned out to be a lovely, very rural landscape. Next time we’ll definitely try to cross to the other islands as well, but for a first taste it was a great visit!

Until next time, slainte!

Highland Park: A Wild Harmony Experience

Price: £75.00 pp (August 2022)

Duration: 2h

Tasting: 5 drams from the core range, 10y (40% abv) 12y (40% abv), 15y (44% abv), 18y (43% abv), and 21y (2019 bottling, 46% abv), probably all chill-filtered (but according to our guide, no artificial colour added)

Target: Gullible whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: Quite bad

Highlights: our guide James was outstanding, chapeu!

Things we did not like: see rant above

Distillery exclusive: 14y single cask (£170)

Recommended: NO!

Link: https://www.highlandparkwhisky.com/en

Bonus: Highland Park Honour and Pride Experience (thanks to Roberto and Cecilia)

Price: £30 (August 2022)

Duration: 1h 15m

Tasting: 3 drams, Full Volume (48% abv NAS), 12y (40% abv) and 18y (43% abv)

Value for money: Acceptable

Target: Everyone

Recommended: Only if you want to visit the distillery really badly

A day out at Deanston

Back to Edinburgh through Aberfeldy and Pitlochry

From Ardnamurchan crossing the sea to Tobermory

From Edinburgh to the West Highlands, via Dalwhinnie and Ben Nevis

Back to the Glens (Grant and Garioch)

Visiting Glenfarclas before a run-y day

A very dramming year

Back to a traditional experience: Cragganmore

East of Scotland bonanza: Fettercairn and Arbikie

The other side of Kirkwall

Back to the Glens
(Grant and Garioch)