Tag: Scotland

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

The Wolf(burn) is loose*

 

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

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

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

  • Where’s the sea?

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

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

  • Right place, on time. Yay!

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

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

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

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

  • Good to see everything is signposted.

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

  • The unmissable selfie with the stills.

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

  • Warehouse 1, bigger than we thought.

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

  • Quite the display for a delicious tasting.

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

  • Bottle-your-own.

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

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

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

Wolfburn Classic Tour and Tasting

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

Duration: 1hr 30min

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

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

Highlights: the tasting

Target: everyone, both occasional and seasoned drinkers

Value for money: great

Recommended: yes

Link: https://wolfburn.com/

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

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

  • © imago images/Gonzales Photo/Terje Dokken

We’ll miss you Brent, crazy guitar genius.

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

Pushing north: 8 Doors distillery

 

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

(missed Part 1?)

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

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

  • Such a nice day to head to a lighthouse.

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

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

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

  • Ready for another distillery tour.

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

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

  • The repurposed mashtun.

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

  • Fermentation check.

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

  • Sorry we’re covering the second still.

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

  • A peek into the warehouse next door.

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

  • This will satisfy our thirst.

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

  • Not a bad spot for the night.

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

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

8 Doors Distillery (bespoke tour*)

Price: £23.33 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

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

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

Highlights: the location and Ryan’s knowledge

Target: casual tourists and whisky geeks alike

Value for money: very good

Recommended: yes

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

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

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

Pulteney: the old one in Wick

 

TL; DR: Another long weekend this summer, this time up to the Northmost North of the Northern Highlands. And we have a special guest, Edoardo again, Gianluigi’s brother and whisky enthusiast. First off, the oldest distillery in the area: Pulteney. A nice tour ending with a decent 4-dram tasting. 

It’s slightly windy at the Ruthven Barracks, but not cold at all. The night is very clear, and if it wasn’t for the midges we could have spent some time outside. Instead, we retread immediately inside Mr Vantastic, accompanied by the distant noise of vehicles driving on the A9. We arrived directly from Glasgow, the two of us and Edoardo, Gianluigi’s brother. He was supposed to land in Edinburgh around lunchtime, and the idea was to go visit Glasgow where he’d never been despite his many travels to Scotland. However, the flight was delayed by over 90 minutes (thanks Easyjet), plus another 40 to wait for the luggage, which meant that by the time him and Gianluigi parked the van in Glasgow, it was already late afternoon. On top of that, it started pouring rain, so not much sightseeing happened that day. Instead, the two brothers sheltered at the Pot Still, waiting for Teresa to come out of the office. After a spicy meal at the Rosa’s Thai, we left towards the destination for the long weekend: the Northern Highlands.

As we were saying, we stopped for the night at the Ruthven Barracks car park, near Kingussie. It is slightly uneven and there are no facilities, so it was ok for one night, but probably next time we’ll search for an alternative spot. The next day we had an early start anyway: the 3-hour drive was interrupted only by a 15-minute break in Aviemore for coffee and roll. We had an appointment at a very old and popular distillery, that somehow, we never came across during our trips: Pulteney, in Wick. It belongs to Inver House, together with Balblair, Speyburn (both visited), Knockdhu and Balmenach (both closed to visitors, so naye). The single malt, Old Pulteney, is famous for being a coastal dram and their basic expressions are very prevalent in supermarkets (Harbour and 12y, both 40%abv).

  • A long drive to get here, but totally worth it.

Pulteney distillery will turn 200 next year and is currently stretching the silent season to allow some renovations in time for the celebrations. In the mid-1880s Alfred Barnard approached it, and the Royal Bourgh of Wick, from the north, travelling along the rugged coast, on his way south after spending some time on Orkney. Instead, we arrived from the south, on the smooth A99: things must have changed quite a bit in the last 140 years. The distillery is in the southern part of the village, before the Wick River, and between the main road and the coast. We parked Mr Vantastic near the Pulteney community centre, just next door. You can tell the old from the new buildings around, as the former are all blackened by the Baudoinia fungus, digesting away the alcohol in the “angels’ share” (i.e. evaporating). We got in a few minutes earlier to check the shop before our tour started: the front part is very small, but in the back, they have a bigger lounge decorated with memorabilia, and a spacious but cosy tasting room. We chose the From the Source tour (£40.00pp), which has an improved tasting compared to A Taste of Old Pulteney (£20.00pp, 2 drams), but not as expensive as the Flagship Experience (£125.00pp!!!, 6 drams).

  • Reading about the history of the distillery before the tour.

Our guide was Tim, who used to work in Glasgow before going back to his native Wick during the pandemic, and it was a small tour: the three of us and another person. Tim started with the usual history of the distillery – founded in 1826, initially was only accessible by the sea, and it was acquired by John Dewar & Sons in 1924, which in turn joined the Distillery Company Limited (DCL, Diageo’s precursor) in 1925. After prohibition started in Wick in 1922, the distillery was closed in 1930 and reopened in 1951, four years after prohibition was abolished. The distillery than went to Hiram Walker’s (1954), Allied Distillers (1961) and finally to Inver House (1995). During the Hiram Walker period, Pulteney malt was a component of Ballantine’s blended Scotch.

  • A classic Porteus mill.

The malting floor, dismissed decades ago, was above the visitor centre, while the cooperage used to be in one of the visitor rooms. Nowadays they bring in malted barley from Inverness, in 30ton weekly batches. They have a bright red Porteus mill for grinding the malt, and water comes from Loch Hempriggs (to the south of Wick) in a stream system engineered by Telford, that we’d see later. Each mash is done with 5 tons of grist, in a copper-lidded mashtun, which was replaced about 20 years ago. They do four rounds of water at increasing temperatures (60° to 90°C), with the last two ready for the next mash. The (cloudy) mash is then pumped into one of the seven washbacks, while the draff is sent away for cattle feed. Fermentation lasts 60 hours normally, 100 for the batches going over the weekend, and is triggered by 25 kg of distiller’s yeast which is added to the 23,500 litres of wort. At the end of the process, they get an approximately 8.5% abv wash, which is then sent to the wash still.

  • The mashtun from above.

They have two stills: the wash still has the top clearly cut off (it was too tall for the building) and has a massive bulge in the middle, much bigger than usual; and the spirit still lyne arm is almost entangled – definitely a unique pair of stills. Each still is equipped with a stainless-steel squared worm tub condenser, with a 110m copper pipe inside, placed outside the still room. In the second distillation the foreshots usually last 16 minutes and the first cut is taken depending on the temperature, while the second is taken at 68%.

  • The most unusual wash still…
  • …and a slightly less unusual spirit still. Look at that lyne arm!

After the still room, we went back outside in the courtyard, and then into the filling store: they cask onsite but also fill tankers, in particular for the distillate that is sold to third parties, mostly for blends (still Ballantine’s? The Inver House blend is the Hanky Bannister though). After checking out the biomass boiler, we visited the warehouses: 10,000 casks are stored on their side in rows 3 high in a warehouse (but not dunnage, as the floor is concrete), while other 14,000 are in the other buildings, mostly racked. However, they are in the process of building another four warehouses, to accommodate for Pulteney production of about 1.2 million litres of alcohol per year. The mostly fill ex-bourbon casks from Jim Beam, but inside the warehouse we spotted other casks too, sherry in particular.

  • Terror in the warehouse.

It was time for the tasting, in a very cosy and wide room. We started with the classic Old Pulteney 12 (40%), mostly matured in refill ex-bourbon cask. It’s a very decent malt, possibly a bit thin. We can’t just help wonder how increasing the abv to 43% or 46%, and not chill-filtering it, would improve it. It was followed by the 15y and the 18y, both bottled at 46% (yay!), and both with a similar double-maturation (or finishing?) concept: they spend 13 and 14 years in ex-bourbon casks, and they are then re-racked into Oloroso sherry casks. They’re solid and tasty drams, benefiting from the saltiness of the spirit and the dark fruitness (is this a thing?) of the cask finish. Finally, our last dram was supposed to be the distillery exclusive (as it was advertised on the website, see below for the specs), but apparently they’d finished their “tasting stock” (whatever that means in corporate BS language, they still had many bottles in the shop), so instead they gave us the second expression of their Coastal Series, matured 5-6 years in ex-bourbon and then 5-6 years in Ruby Port seasoned cask. Not bad, but a tad too sweet.

  • Nice display for the tasting.

When Teresa and Edoardo finished their drams, we went back to the shop and quickly left. Overall, the distillery was super interesting, the tour was fine, the tasting was decent, and Tim was a knowledgeable guide. Being in such a remote place (about 5hr driving from the Central Belt) you’d think they could do something a bit more special, but it was along the lines of the Balblair tour we did back in 2023. So, unless we’ll be in the area for their 200th anniversary, we’ll hardly go back…Never say never, though.

Next up a much much nerdier experience, so stay tuned! Until then, slàinte!

Pulteney ‘From The Source’ Tour

Price: £40.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

Tasting: 4 drams, Old Pulteney 12 (40%), 15 (46%), 18 (46%) and Coastal Series Port cask matured (46%), plus a complimentary glencairn

Distillery exclusive: D.E. French Cask matured (NAS, 53%, £85.00); Distillery Hand Bottling ex-Sherry cask (13y, 2010-2024, 62.5%, £130.00); Distillery Hand Bottling ex-Bourbon cask (18y, 2006-2025, 58.4%, £150.00)

Highlights: the shape of the stills and the site in general

Target: whisky curious, the tasting was a bit too basic for the enthusiasts

Value for money: ok

Recommended: for Old Pulteney fans

Link: https://oldpulteney.com/visit-pulteney-distillery/

#62 The EWG trips are back

Glasgow is hot!

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • The spirits range.

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

  • the 1770 Glasgow range.

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

  • A nice setup behind us.

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

  • Getting ready for a delicious dram.

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

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

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

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

The Glasgow Distillery Experience

Price: £45.00 pp (July 2025)

Duration: 2hr

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

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts and geeks

Value for money: very good!

Highlights: the variety and quality of single malts

Recommended: definitely

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

Jackton Distillery Tour

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

Duration: 1hr

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

Target: everyone

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

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

#61 Ben Cumhaill distillery (and a peek into Bladnoch)

A rainy day in the south of Scotland

 

TL; DR: On a weekend in mid-June, we drove to Dumfries and Galloway to check out a couple of distilleries. First, we visited the good folks at Ben Cumhaill, a new distillery (almost) ready to go! Then, we visited Bladnoch for their Wave II release event. Everything good, except for the weather obviously.

This year (2025) has been a busy one so far for us, on both the work and family fronts. We had to call off our usual winter weekend away (2022 Dumfries and Galloway, 2023 Ardnamurchan and Tobermory, 2024 Skye and Raasay), and we didn’t manage to go on a distillery trip together until the Spirit of Speyside (although Gianluigi went back to Campbeltown and Arran with his pal Roberto). Also, we only did another campervan trip with Gianluigi’s parents, around the Scotland/England border. Hence, when Justine (from Kask Whisky) asked us if we wanted to join her for a day away with the campervan, we were very happy! The occasion was provided in mid-June by the event Bladnoch distillery organised for the release of their Wave II expression in the Master Distiller’s collection. The event is a sort of open day, with food vendors, music etc. Because it was on the way, we (meaning Justine) got in touch with Ben Cumhaill distillery (pronounced Ben “Cool”) owners, for a cheeky visit before reaching Wigtown.

On the Saturday morning, we left a very quiet Leith early, ready for the two-hour drive. We would meet Justine near Ben Cumhaill, on a lay-by nearby (which is also a secluded enough to maybe sleep one night in the campervan, noted for future occasions). As we (meaning Gianluigi) missed the right exit on the A74/M6, we stretched our trip by about 15 minutes. However, in the detour we found a lovely wee cafè near Dalswinton: the coffee was good, and the cake was amazing! While we were there the rain intensified, and by the time we were arrived at destination it was “pishing doon”! Which is the reason why Justine was, very unusually, a bit late. As soon as she got there we drove to the distillery: we were welcomed very warmly by Jess and Jeff, the distillery founders and owners. The site is on the A76, in the stretch between Thornhill and Dumfries, immersed in a rural landscape but yet very visible, as the name of the distillery is painted on the main building roof.

  • Hard to miss it.

They have a sizeable courtyard, between the road and two main buildings: the distillery, which used to be a post office first and a restaurant later, and the house. Right after the gate, to the right, there are two other smaller buildings, a cabin currently storing construction material and a prefab that was supposed to be an office, but it’s currently Jess’ art studio and lounge: she paints and sculpts.

  • Office…no, more of an art studio.

We sat there all together, and had Border cookies (Gianluigi’s favourite and the official Mr Vantastic biscuits) while Jeff went to get coffee for everyone. They started to tell us the story of their project: a few years ago, during the pandemic, they decided to start a distillery after experimenting with a wee still. They sold their house and property in the Cairngorms (a way too expensive area for a distillery) and found this lovely place down in Dumfries, where property prices are more affordable. After acquiring the old building (part of it might date back to the 1700s), they started to renovate the site themselves. They kept a nice record of all the main milestones, including the renovation, on their blog/website.

  • The spirit still…

They had to change plan more than once in our understanding, mainly when they were asked by the Scotch Whisky Association to add another still, as in Scotland it is not allowed to distill using one still only. Therefore, other than the beautiful 1,000litre still (with a cooling jacket) they bought from MacMillan, in East Lothian, they added a Hoga still from a Portuguese company, being the fastest solution. This one will be used as wash still.

  • …and the wash still added to comply with the SWA rules.

They have also a 1ton mashtun, and a wooden washback. To get the steam for the stills they will initially use LPG. But which type of whisky are they aiming for? An interesting thing is that Jess being Irish and Jeff being Scottish, they are aiming for a mix of the two styles. On their website they also talk about triple distillation, which would be very interesting. Overall, they are after a spirit-forward whisky, of course something produced in small quantities, but with lot of care for all the production steps: similar to other distilleries such as Daftmill (but without the farm and the cows).

  • The mashing & fermenting equipment is ready!

As the rain calmed down, we walked to the distillery building: part of it, the one dedicated to the future visitor centre (with a window on production) is still very much a work-in-progress, but the production equipment is there. They aim to start distilling around the end of summer, so by the time of writing they should be almost there: exciting times! After that, we went back to the lounge for another wee chat, together with their lovely dogs, before finally saying goodbye. We look forward to going back and seeing the distillery in action!

  • Always happy when in a distillery.

After Ben Cumhaill, we drove straight to Wigtown, where we parked our vans and walked to Bladnoch distillery, 20-25 minutes away. Unfortunately, we missed the only tasting with Nick Savage, their master distiller, who presented the Wave II expression. While that was the only tasting of the day, the bar in the garden was still open, as well as two food carts. In general, the event seemed a bit subdued, probably because of the heavy rain that kept falling. We paid a visit to their visitor centre and shop, where a very kind tour guide made us try a few drams. As we remembered from our first trip here, it is generally very good whisky, priced a tad too high in our opinion. Standouts were the 13y old, matured in ex-bourbon casks, and the 8y old, fully matured in American oak red wine casks: this reaffirmed what we thought during our Australian trip, that American oak red wine casks might work better than French oak, at least for young-ish single malts.

  • Some of the drams tried at the distillery shop.

In the evening, we had a wee meal in the campervan, not before a pint at the pub next to Bladnoch distillery. In the meanwhile, it started raining again, so we spent the evening chatting while sipping samples in the van. The next day was also very wet, so all the hiking plans went in the bin, and we slowly drove back to Leith.

Stay tuned for the next day-trip action, it will be a juicy one! Until then, slainte!

Ben Cumhaill distillery
Link: https://bencumhaill.co.uk/

Bladnoch distillery
Link: https://www.bladnoch.com/

#60.2 Another Spirit of Speyside

The casks of Glen Moray

 

TL; DR: After the Cabrach, we drove straight to Elgin, for a last-minute tasting: Cask Origin Stories at Glen Moray! The distillery is an old acquaintance (fourth visit!), and as the previous three times, we had a great time with a range of delicious whiskies paired with a glass of what was in the cask before newmake or whisky. One for real whisky nerds! 

(missed Part 1?)

The tour at the Cabrach lasted less than we thought, so after a short stroll around the distillery under an overcast sky, we were on the road again. Since the afternoon unexpectedly opened up, as soon as we had some phone signal, we phoned a well known distillery to ask if they still had places for a tasting we’d spotted, but until that moment we thought we could not make it on time. The tasting was the Cask Origin Stories, at Glen Moray, in Elgin.

Glen Moray is an old acquaintance. At the start of our whisky journey, we mostly saw their entry level expressions at supermarkets, a brand among many, possibly anonymous. However, thanks to Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), it didn’t take long to mark the distillery as one of our first great “discoveries”. We found some of their single casks remarkable, and our second bottle ever from the SMWS was indeed a Glen Moray – St Bernard’s barrel, 35.232, finished in an ex-wine barrique, hidden in the elusive Spicy & Dry category. We were definitely sold after we visited the distillery during our first trip to Speyside in December 2019. There, we had two whisky flights: the travel retail version of the core range (Elgin Classic, NAS, the 12y and the 15y: all not chill-filtered and bottled at 48%) and the bottle-your-own drams. It was a wee while ago, so we don’t remember all the details, but Gianluigi still regrets not buying a delicious ex-Rye whiskey finished expression. We went back there in 2022, during the Speycation with the Edinburgh Whisky Group, for a full distillery tour and tasting, and again last year for a Star Wars themed tasting on May the fourth.

  • We managed to get here on time, yay!

One of the great things about Glen Moray, other than the variety of casks they like to experiment with, is that they always have three bottle-your-own expressions available at the distillery. But mostly, that two of the three are kept at a very reasonable price, conversely to most distilleries that like to charge extra for distillery exclusive bottlings. Last time we were there, two were nicely priced at £60, while the third, a more aged one, was £99 (still very affordable for a 20y malt!). This makes all the new visits interesting, and hence, once we realised we had enough time, buying the tickets for this event was a no-brainer!

  • The power of the wind on Teresa’s hair.

As we arrived at the distillery, we greeted our pal Iain, the brand ambassador and visitor centre manager. We met him during an online tasting organised by Justine (Kask Whisky), and since then we had many tastings with him (and we are also acquainted by a similar taste in music). After a nice chat, it was the time for the tasting to start, not with him, but with Fiona, who led us to the Glen Moray House. This is a lovely cottage to the right of the entrance, a multi-functional space that has been used as a tasting room as well. First, she showed us some old registers, reporting dates and type of casks filled: among the many “refill” and “sherry”, we spotted a few different wines, fortified or not.

  • A cosy tasting room.

We started the tasting with an unusual one, a Busnel Calvados (40%), followed by a vintage 2017 Glen Moray single malt finished in Calvados casks (56.9%). We moved on to the second pairing, a 10y Tawny Port from Cruz, with a 2008 (17y) single malt fully matured in a Tawny port cask (at the impressive abv of 60.2%!). These two drams were available as “bottle your own”, so it might be that at the time of writing (June ’25) they are still available at the distillery visitor centre. The third drink was a 15y Boal Madeira wine from Henriques & Henriques, followed by the Glen Moray House Exclusive whisky, a 13y Madeira matured whisky (57.8%). As the name suggests, this one is only available if you attend an event at the house. Finally, the last pairing was a single-vineyard Valdespino Inocente Fino sherry, and a peated, fully matured Fino cask whisky from 2015 (58.5%), this one available at the distillery.

  • From bottle…
  • …to glass.

It was a great line-up, and Fiona did a great job to walk us through the drinks and the drams, in spite of an unusually ‘serious’ audience of northern European men (other than Fiona, Teresa was the only woman in the room). Drink-wise, we were not too keen on the Calvados, too sweet for our taste, but otherwise we liked them all, especially the Madeira! The drams were all very tasty, showcasing a range of flavours from fruitiness, savoury and smoke. The Port-finished dram and Glen Moray House Exclusive were the two we liked the most, while in the last one the peat was ‘turned to 11’, which masked a bit the savoury notes of the Fino cask…One for true peat lovers!

  • The new kid on the block.

Back at the visitor centre we tried some of the new releases: “spirit drink” finished in Maple syrup casks, one peated (11y) and one unpeated (8y, both £90). Obviously, it cannot be “single malt” because the SWA doesn’t allow such experimental casks (but who knows? maybe Diageo or Pernod Ricard will buy a maple syrup producer at some point…). They were both less sweet than expected, in particular the peated one: was more like a BBQ-y meaty thing.

  • Not a bad spot for the night.

We soon left the distillery to find a spot for the night, which we did next to Portgordon, on the sea. There we made ourself dinner and relaxed (and Gianluigi powered through his drams, since he had bottled them all in sample bottles). It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the waves, after such a nice day and cracking drams.

Stay tuned for more Spirit of Speyside action! Until the next week, slainte!

Glen Moray Cask Origin Stories tasting (Spirit of Speyside 2025)

Price: £50.00 pp + SoS transaction fee

Duration: 1h30m-2h

Tasting: 4 drams paired with the previous content of the cask (see above).

Distillery exclusives: bottle-your-own 2017 Port cask finish (59.4%), £60; 2005 Chianti cask finish (53%), £99; 2015 peated Fino Cask (58.5%), £60 (at some point the first two drams of the tasting)

Target: whisky geeks

Value for money: very good

Highlights: a few of the drams were excellent…and Fiona was a great host!

Recommended: absolutely

Links: https://www.glenmoray.com/ https://www.spiritofspeyside.com/

#60.1 Another Spirit of Speyside

Discovering the Cabrach

 

TL; DR: And…We’re back in Speyside, to celebrate whisky at the Spirit of Speyside! This year we started off with a new distillery, located in the very remote namesake area: the Cabrach! A beautiful project by great people in a stunning area, definitely one to look out for when they’ll release a single malt, in a few years. 

Like the past two years (2023 and 2024), the time came for the Spirit of Speyside festival: a great opportunity to visit distilleries usually closed to public. Tickets went on sale in early February. It was the usual scrum, and at the check out the tickets for two events disappeared from our cart: the visits to Cabrach and Aultmore distilleries. We also missed out on Dalmunach and Braeval, but for another reason: Chivas Brothers used the very cheeky (not to say “shitty”) approach to couple each of them with another distillery tour (respectively Aberlour and Glenlivet, that we already visited twice, both) and put the price at an insane £200. Silly. But anyway, thanks to our friend Lenka, we understood that Cabrach could organise extra tours – she put us in contact with Euan, the distiller, and the tour happened indeed!

We left on Thursday morning, looked like we had a cloudy day ahead. Gianluigi was back from a conference in Rome the night before, so we didn’t have much time to prepare. However, Mr Vantastic is born ready, so in the morning we showered and quickly left Leith, direction Speyside. On the way, we stopped only for a coffee and a delicious bacon roll at the Glamis Corner Shop (in Glamis, recommended!), after we realised that Flour (in Meigle) was not open yet. The rest of the drive was uneventful, we left the main road to Aberdeen near Fettercairn (we crossed the village), and we stopped for a sandwich just before arriving at the Cabrach. We also had a quite hilarious small accident, but you’ll have to ask Teresa about that.

  • A typical cold spring day in Speyside…

Our tour was scheduled at 1pm, we arrived a bit early, so we parked at the Cabrach community hall, and we walked to the distillery. The landscape is very relaxing, some crops, hills and woodlands. Definitely a place to consider if you want to escape chaos. At the distillery, John, one of the operators, welcomed us and alerted Euan, who introduced himself and started the tour. He’d previously worked at the Dornoch Distillery, with the Thompson Bros, and before that at the Scotch Whisky Experience (hence the connection with our friend Lenka).

  • Tidy, cute distillery, the Cabrach.

The distillery is community owned, by the Cabrach Trust. This was set up by Grant Gordon in 2013, with the objective to revive the area and preserve its cultural heritage. At the turn of the 20th century about 1,200 people lived there, while now not even 100. WWI played an important role in the depopulation, but these trends are common to rural areas throughout Europe. Whisky was a part of Cabrach cultural heritage, as the area was famous for its illicitly distilled whisky. Now they hope to bring back people and interest, and the distillery is only a part of a bigger project: a cafè and a museum should be added in the coming years, together with a visitor centre. All of these will be fitted in the unused buildings on the site – the distillery only takes part of the original square farm built in 1849. The only intervention they had to do is to increase the height of the roof, but with wood, as the buildings are B-listed. They are also planning to use the barley grown in the big field in front of the distillery as main source for their malt, so to become (almost) a grain-to-glass distillery. At the moment they only use it for the 20% of their production (the variety was Lauriet first, now Firefox, bur Bere is in the cards as well). The malt is lightly peated (12 phenols part per million) by the Glen Esk maltings.

  • Space for future museum, cafe and visitor centre…Exciting!

The production area is very self-contained, on one of the sides of the square: only the mill (a modern AR2000) and the boiler are located in another building, with pipes going underneath. The malt silos can hold 17 tons each, but now they are only filled to 13 tons. The mill returns a grist with the very common 20/70/10 split of husks/grit/flour, but they’re looking to increase the latter. They use three waters for their mashing (in a half-ton mashtun), at increasing temperatures (65, 75 and 85°C), aiming for a clear wort.

  • Pipes under the floor, that’s new.

Fermentation is at least 160 hours, but it can go for up to a week in one of the four wooden washbacks. They allowed us to climb a ladder to have a peek inside one, nice! Distillation is where things get very interesting: first, they have two stills (wash- and spirit still) with worm tubs outside the building. Cuts are still in the experimental phase, but they were taking a large one (a spread of about 15% abv between the two, if we recall correctly).

  • Checking the fermentation.
  • The classic picture.

However, they have a third “special” still, commissioned to imitate the illicit stills that were so popular in the area. In our understanding it can be used as wash still, a spirit still or independently to run both distillations. Very intriguing project, which saw the collaboration with Alan Winchester, former distiller at Glenlivet and expert on illicit distilling.

  • The experimental side of the distillery.

Finally, we visited the filling station and the cute, very small dunnage warehouse, with a capacity of only a few dozen casks. There, Euan gave us a nip of the newmake spirit to try: very oily, lots of caramel and hazelnut.

  • Much more whisky to come in this wee warehouse.

The tour ended there, and we thanked Euan for showing us around, and the flexibility he and the management showed, when they realised that many people were left out at the ticket sale (such flexibility is not easy to find in the whisky hospitality sector, unfortunately). So kudos to the Cabrach, we’re looking forward to their whisky!

Stay tuned for more Spirit of Speyside action! Until the next week, slainte!

Cabrach Private Tour

Price: £30.00 pp (May 2025) + £4.80 fee (per transaction) [now the tour is £25 pp, offered every Friday]

Duration: 50min

Tasting: a sip of the newmake spirit (70%) [the current tour offers a dram of the Feering “Early Harvest” Blended malt, NAS, 46%]

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the community project and the experimental still

Recommended: yes

Link: https://www.thecabrach.com/

#58 A trip to the West

Hopping to Arran from Campbeltown

 

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

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

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

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

  • Pre-dinner refreshments.

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

  • Always beautiful.
  • Two guys and three stills.

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

  • Thanks Aly!

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

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

  • That looks promising.

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

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

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

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

  • It’s not just all about whisky.

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

Until next time, slainte!

Springbank Tour

Price: £15.00 pp (April 2025)

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

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

Distillery exclusives: cage bottlings

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the whisky and the friendly staff

Recommended: yes!

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

Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Price: £45.00 pp (April 2025)

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

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

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: very good

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!

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

Kilkerran Warehouse Tasting

Price: £40.00 pp (April 2025)

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 6 drams from the cask

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: great

Highlights: the drams

Recommended: yes!!!

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

#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 1st 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/

#56.3 Dramming Down Under

The still in the Melbourne hills

 

TL; DR: Our third distillery visit of this trip, second in Victoria, was just outside Melbourne: Kinglake Distillery! A crafty distillery well hidden in the hills to the north-east of Melbourne, not too far from the Yarra Valley. We had a great time with Sam, one of the two owners, who showcased some very flavoursome single malts. 

(missed Part 2/Part 1?)

Our second full day in Melbourne was a busy one, with not one but two distillery visits. The first one was outside the city, so right after breakfast, we picked up our rented car and started driving, destination Kinglake, to the north-east of Melbourne. Years ago the area made the news as it was heavily affected by the 2009 massive bush fires. Once left Melbourne’s central business district, we drove eastward, on the busy highway going to Sydney. We soon left the highway, to get into the Yarra Valley, a well renowned wine region.

Because our first visit was after midday, we had enough time to visit one of the local wineries. Not knowing much about Australian wines (and not much about wine in general), we chose one of the oldest (and largest) producers: Yering Station. It is a big place indeed, other than the vineyard and the tasting room, they also have a bar and a fine dining restaurant. We went straight to the shop and tasting room, and chose a small tasting for us to share at the bar, which included five wines all coming from the estate for $20 (there is a cheaper tasting, $15, but with wines from their other estates or vineyards). It was a short but fun activity for wine newbies like us, and we liked the fruitiness and freshness of the products, in particular the red ones. We ended up buying a young and lively Pinot Noir with (2023 Yering Station), which we found perfect as an “aperitivo” for the coming days. Fun fact: if you buy a bottle priced over $35, the tasting is free. Some producers in the old continent should take note. Back to the car, we went to the next village to grab a sandwich before moving on.

  • Not dramming, still enjoying.

The Kinglake distillery is well hidden in the hills: as a matter of fact, it broke the record for the longest dirt road driven to get to a distillery, before held by Nc’Nean: for a moment we thought the small MG car couldn’t cope, but fortunately it did. The weather was sunny and mostly dry, so we were raising clouds of dust while driving. The landscape was quite pleasant: a mix of woodland and farmed fields, with many green fields around the distillery and a pond. From the website it’s not possible to book tours or tastings (except for one very exclusive experience), but both Sam and Chantal, the two owners and distillers, replied emails quickly and they made themselves available on the dates we suggested. As we arrived, we were welcomed by Sam, who had a Queens of the Stone Age t-shirt on. That put us in a great mood right away.

  • Not the easiest drive, but we got there.

The distillery is totally off the grid, and at that time it consisted of two buildings, but in our understanding, they are building a new bar and tasting room (and their own house too). The first building we visited is split in two areas – one hosting a bar, a small tasting room, and the office, while the other production and some racked casks. The other building is mostly used as a warehouse, but it also hosts the mill. They started distilling in 2018, with a very specific plan in mind: first, trying to stick to ex-bourbon casks, in contrast with other Australian distilleries that focus on ex-wine casks to build on the country wine-producing heritage. Second, releasing small-batch bottlings rather than single casks, to achieve a house style and a consistency that is harder to get with single casks only, while trying to keep prices lower. A very sensible plan, if you ask us.

  • A bit of production, a bit of warehouse.
  • Not the classic Porteus.

Production-wise, we found their process very interesting. One of the reasons they decided to start here is the source of water, Chryser Creek, which is on the distillery property and is so clean that it needs no treatment. The mashbill consists of four malted barley varieties: distiller’s malt (Atlas La Trobe, similar to Maris Otter), Vienna Schooner, chocolate malt (only 4%, to keep balance), all sourced in New South Wales, and 25% of heavily peated malt from Scotland (Simpson malting). They mash everything together, unlike Archie Rose, for example, who mash and mature every malt variety separately. Once mashing is done in the 18,000-litre mashtun, they ferment the wort with M1 yeast in open top washbacks, not common! The open top is to allow natural yeast present in the air to contribute to the fermentation, a technique that is mostly used in rum production. Finally, both distillations happen in a single 2,500-litre still, taking a low cut deep into the feints.

  • Open top fermenters.
  • THE still.

They fill casks on site, mainly in ex-bourbon barrels from Kentucky, sometimes resized in smaller casks by a local cooperage (quarter/octave-ish). Before we started the tour, Sam gave us a taste of the O’Gradys, one of their main expressions: ex-bourbon matured indeed, bottled at 46%abv (that batch, almost exactly 3y old). The second taste, later on, was of the Doubled Wood, starting in ex-bourbon but finished in Portuguese ex-Tawny Port barriques, made of French oak (again 46%, 3y). The third one, In the Blood, was a small batch of whisky finished in River Red Gum wood, and bottled at higher abv (60%, 3y), while for the last one, Full Noise, we went back to whisky fully matured in ex-bourbon cask, but at 61% (again, 3y of age…The batch we bought though was 60%). Other than these drams they also release some limited editions, like The Bog Monster (unfortunately not tried and sold out, but sounding amazing from the description!). The drams we tried were all flavoursome, very vibrant, slightly funky, with herbaceous notes in some. We liked in particular the two fully ex-bourbon matured expressions, very creamy and fresh, showcasing how different climates can have a massive influence on the whisky (more on this next week).

  • Firey but good!

As we left the distillery, and before driving back to Melbourne, we stopped for a walk at the Wombelano Falls, just a few minutes driving away and even more hidden in the hills (so much so that at some point we thought we had taken the wrong turn). It’s not a long walk from the car park to the waterfall observation point, but still a very pleasant and quiet one. Unfortunately we didn’t spot any wildlife, only another couple who were leaving the trail to get closer to the falls in what looked like a not very safe part of the forest. We didn’t hear anything in the news the next day, so we assume everything was alright for them. Once we got back to the car park, we left to get back to Melbourne in time, for our second distillery visit of the day. Great day so far, we only wished we had more time to explore the area.

Stay tuned for more on that! Until the next time, slainte!

Kinglake Distillery Tour

Price: free (November 2024)

Duration: 1hr 15min

Tasting: 4 single malts, O’Grady Stand (ex-bourbon casks, including resized, 46%abv, 3y); Doubled Wood (Portuguese ex-Tawny Port barriques finish, 46%, 3y); In the Blood (River Red Gum wood finish, 60%, 3y); Full Noise (ex-bourbon barrels, 61%, 3y)

Target: whisky enthusiasts

Value for money: NA

Highlights: the unique process and the wonderful location

Recommended: for whisky enthusiasts absolutely, worth the trip from the city and beyond

Link: https://kinglakedistillery.com.au/