#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 20^th 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 1^st of March, taking advantage of a pause in the Six Nations, we were headed to Cupar for the Fife Whisky Festival. This was the fourth time we attended as volunteers, but for the first time we skipped the opening dinner on the Friday, at Lindores Abbey distillery. Feedback from our pals was very good though, and it made us almost regret not going: among the drams that were served, there was a Gianluigi’s favourite, Laphroaig, and a 25y cask sample, wow!

Ready? Ready!

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

Busy dramming session in Cupar.

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

Keeping warm with Lady of the Glen drams.

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

Round two of the March festivals.

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

Hanging out with whisky enthusiasts…

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

…more whisky enthusiasts…

…and more!

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

Until next time, slainte!

Links

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

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

#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/

#53 Dramathon and Glenlivet

On the run yet again

TL; DR: After last year debacle due to storm Babet, this year we finally managed to run the Wee Dram, the Dramathon 10k. And while we were in Speyside, we stopped by Glenlivet distillery and visited production for the first time. The tour was a bit impersonal and very scripted, but nice to check it out anyway. Fortunately, we also went to Glenallachie, where our whisky friend Sue treated us like VIPs!

Like for the last three years, in 2024 too the second half of October meant Dramathon for us! After running it in 2021 (Wee Dram, 10k, for Teresa and the Half Dram, half marathon, for Gianluigi), and again in 2022 (Half Dram for both), last year we decided to take it easy and run the Wee Dram only, with a special guest: Gianluigi’s brother, Edo. Unfortunately, storm Babet got in the way, and although the Speyside area was not hit too badly, a red-alert flood risk in Aberlour resulted in the event’s cancellation (btw, we never received a refund from the B&B, as according to the despicable owner a red alert from the Met Office was not enough to cancel the reservation for an apartment about 150 meters from the river).

Because the race was cancelled, we could pass our tickets to this year for free. Or, we should have to – Edo unfortunately half read the email and thought it was automatic. It was not, and it was too late when we realised it, so the organiser could not sneak him into the race last minute because of insurance. Hey ho, these things can happen, so Edo ran on his own, since the path was open to the public during the race.

Welcome to “Space-side”.

But let’s get back to the day before the race: we picked Edo up at the airport, back to Scotland after the successful trip to Islay in July, and drove straight to Speyside. We only stopped at the KJ’s Bothy Bakery, near Grantown-on-Spey, to have lunch with a few tasty treats (the focaccia was greasy-ly awesome). For the afternoon, we had booked the Glenlivet Distillery Original Tour, their basic one. Among the open distilleries in Speyside, it was the only one we hadn’t fully visited yet, except for a tasting in summer 2021 (when production was still off limits because of Covid). The single-cask tasting was great, although prices of their bottlings were already quite high (and they were all 50cl bottles!). As the distillery is such a Juggernaut, with a production of 21 million litre of pure alcohol per year, we were very curious to check out the production site.

A glimpse of one of the many videos.

Our guide Emma met us in a space just below the (very nice and cosy) distillery shop and bar. After some basic information (Glenlivet means “the valley of the river Livet”), we got an introduction about the history of the distillery, and all the people that made that possible. It was George Smith that decided to get a distilling licence back in 1823 (the first one in Scotland), and to protect from the illicit distillers, he also got a pair of Innes guns, which are now on display at the distillery. Production started in 1824, marking 2024 as their 200^th anniversary: quite impressive. This introduction was almost repeated in the next room, where we watched a series of videos: some very informative, while others very marketing oriented. We then followed Emma in another room, where production was explained. We were a bit puzzled at that point, as we started to suspect that there wouldn’t be a visit to production (it was almost mid-way through the visit).

A bit of history while walking to production.

Fortunately, we were wrong, and we soon moved to the production area. The distillery saw two fairly recent expansions, in 2009 and 2018, but we only got to see a part of that. We didn’t either get to see the mill room, where they have a Bulher mill with three sets of rollers to crush the malted barley (all sourced within 70 miles from the distillery) to grist. Mashing happens in one of the massive 13.5 tons mashtuns, with the usual three waters at increasing temperature (65°C, 82°C and 92°C). The sugary wort is then moved to one of the 60,000-litre washbacks, made of either stainless steel or Oregon pine, where it ferments for 56 hours with distillers’ yeast. Then, the fermented wash is sent to one of the 14 wash stills, where it undergoes the first distillation. From the second distillation in the spirit stills, they take a cut between 74% and 62% abv. They have 28 stills in total, spread across three still rooms, and to achieve such massive production, the distillery works 24/7.

One of the three still rooms.

We followed Emma in a dunnage warehouse near the car park. They have also racked ones on site, less romantic but more efficient to manage casks. In the warehouse, we saw the usual exhibitions to explain maturation, but we could also smell the whisky maturing in different cask types, which was nice.

Nice display in the dunnage warehouse.

Finally, it was time for the tasting, which was a bit rushed since we were slightly late. We got three drams: the flagship Glenlivet 12 (40%), a 14y from 1^st fill American oak which was bottled to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the distillery (48%, the best of the bunch), and finally a double matured 16y, Distillery exclusive (nice, but not as the 14y in our opinion). Back at the visitor centre, we didn’t stay long as we drove straight to Dufftown to the register for the race. The day ended at the Parkmore campsite, where we had dinner and went to bed early.

Got there in the end – the tasting.

In the morning the weather was quite nice, so after breakfast we slowly walked to the Glenfiddich car park, where the bus would pick us up to go to the starting line, in Aberlour. Edo got a public bus instead, and we met him at the starting line. The race went quick (it’s only 10k after all), and although at the awards Gianluigi was announced as second in his age category (40-49… although he was still 39 at the time and wants to remark this!), it turned out a few days later that he actually got first, second total. He picked up his prize, a bottle of Glen Moray Sherry cask, weeks later at Royal Mile Whiskies, and he happily shared with his colleagues at his work Xmas party.

Got first, actually!

After the race, we went to Dufftown CoOp to buy some meat to grill, as we’d decided that the weather was perfect for a barbecue! By the time we had dinner it got quite chilly, so we sheltered inside Mr Vantastic, while enjoying some Springbank tasting packs. A great way to end the day!

As opposed to the sunny Saturday, Sunday was rainy and miserable. After breakfast, we went to the Glenallachie distillery under a heavy rain, to try some drams at the new distillery bar! Our friend Sue, who works there as a tour guide, gave us great recommendations, and we had a great time. She also kindly offered Teresa some coffee, as she was on driving duties (*sad trumpet*…but we got some drams for her to enjoy home).

Guess who’s driving.

That was another successful Dramathon weekend under our belt! Probably next year we’ll skip it, as there are other whisky events we’d like to attend in the same period, one up in the Highlands in particular. Good we could finally visit Glenlivet production. The tour was not memorable, mostly because visiting only part of the site, we didn’t fully appreciate how big it really is. Anyway, at least we got to try different expressions, definitely tasty.

Until the next time, slainte!

Glenlivet Original Distillery Tour

Price: £25.00 pp (October 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 3 drams, Glenlivet 12 (40%), 200^th Celebration 14y (48%, 1^st fill ex-American oak, £75), Distillery exclusive 16y (48%, 1^st fill American oak finished in refill European oak, £95), and a complimentary wee glass

Distillery Exclusive: Glenlivet 16y (see above), Fill-your-own (12y, £55; 15y, £70; 18y, £140, all cask strength), various 50cl single cask bottlings from Glenlivet and other Chivas Brothers distilleries

Target: tourists and whisky novices

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the massive production site

Recommended: if we could choose a basic tour in the area, it wouldn’t be this one

Link: https://www.theglenlivet.com/en-gb/

#51 Jackton Distillery

Driving West to East Kilbride

TL; DR: Another Friday afternoon, another distillery in the Central belt, this time just outside Glasgow. Jackton started as a gin distillery, but now they are making whisky as well, in a lovely setting.

As we said in our earlier posts, the Central belt of Scotland, the region between and around the two major cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, became a fertile land for new whisky distilleries. After Blackness Bay and Falkirk, it’s time to move closer to Glasgow. In September, we visited Jackton distillery in East Kilbride, in a neighbourhood carrying the same name. This company, whose brand is Raer Whisky, had been on our radar for a couple of years, since we spotted it on the Scotch Whisky Association distillery map. Thanks to our whisky pal Graham, we learned that they’d opened the visitor centre earlier this summer. We jumped on it and booked a visit in late September, taking advantage of a bank holiday weekend.

We left Leith early in the afternoon, right after lunch: not a great move, as we got stuck in traffic, and a wrong turn costed us an extra 20 minutes. Fortunately, we were the only attendees, so they waited for us despite being 10 minutes late. The neighbourhood looked residential at first, until it suddenly turned rural as we reached the distillery: this suggested a new development. The site is very nice and tidy, with mostly new buildings. In the courtyard, across from the distillery, there is a row of low building: we’ll learn later that they are flats ready to accommodate visitors on special occasions.

Late, but here we are!

As we walked in, Colin welcomed us. He usually works in the marketing department but for today he was our guide, as their main tour guide was on holiday (probably the reason why it was just the two of us, they pulled the tour after we booked… very nice of them not to cancel it). Like other new distilleries, they started with gin, but since February 2020 they’ve been producing spirit to become single malt scotch whisky. Since November 2021, they are a fully farm-to-glass distillery, as they are malting on site the barley from their farm in Ayrshire. Unfortunately we couldn’t check out the small drum malting, as it was operational while we were there. They have a modern mill, which can process one ton of malt in 18 minutes, and are currently using Belgravia malt.

Crappy picture of a modern mill.

They mash one ton of barley per day, together with 5000-litre of water. The mashing is slightly more complex than the usual: they have three separate tuns, with the last one for beer. As a matter of fact, they also brew beer, although we didn’t manage to try. They add water at 63.5°C for 30 to 40 minutes, then at one degree Celsius higher, than again a second water at 78°C for 5 minutes before moving it to the lauter tun, where it is filtered to obtain a clear wort. Fermentation happens in one of the six (only five in use) stainless steel 7,000 litre washbacks, and it is quite a long one, seven days!

A wall of washbacks on the way to the stills.

Next phase, distillation: the stills (the whisky pot stills and the gin still) were made by the German company Kothe. For the whisky, the wash still is 5,000-litre big, while the spirit still is only 2,000. From each distillation they collect approximately 350 litre of spirit, a cut from 74.9%abv to 64.9%. In our understanding, their single malt will be marketed as Raer, the same brand with which they currently released a series of blended scotch. The ones released for the UK are all 40% – the Original Blend, and three expressions finished in Amontillado, Oloroso and PX sherry casks. They also have one finished in French red wine, to cement their collaboration with the wine producers Chambord. Bottled at 46%, unfortunately it’s only available overseas. Bottling is done on site as well, using a very manual machine.

Quite a unique setting for the still room.
That’s a wee bottling line.

After production, we went to their lab, where all the samples of all their casks are archived. There, Colin let us nose a few from a variety of casks: not that we could tell much, but what we smelled seemed very promising, looking forward to their release!

Wanna a Raer?

After that, we went back to the bar and shop for the tasting, but we decided to take our samples home. We chose one of each of their available blends, plus a couple of other spirits. We also bought a sample of their Something Blue gin, which has a very good story: it was a brand Colin and his wife came up with, for their wedding (“bring something blue…”). After he started working at Jackton, he brought this to a staff gathering and people liked it. As a result, the company asked them if they could start making it at the distillery, they accepted and here we go: very serendipitous, but also showing what being a good company looks like.

A few days (ehm…actually weeks) later, we tried their blends: the Original Blend is quite inoffensive but drinkable. We liked the sherry finished ones, again very drinkable. Not something overly complicated, but a decent mouthfeel and experience overall. Something Blue was very nice too, quite different from other gins we tasted.

Visiting Jackton was refreshing: we loved the distillery, we loved the tour, and the company seems on a very good track. They have a very interesting process, and a great care for details (the bottle is very cool!)…Now we are just waiting for their first single malt!

Another couple of weeks, for our last Central belt distillery visit (for now): a new but old distillery, you might have guessed it already. Until then, slainte!

Jackton Distillery Tour

Price: £34.00 pp (September 2024), plus £2.04 transaction fee

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: 3 spirits of choice among Raer Orginal blended scotch (40%), Rarer Oloroso finish, Amontillado finish, PX finish blended scotches (all 40%), London dry gin (40%), Rose gin (40%), Something blue gin (39.5%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: a tad pricey

Highlights: the nice setting and the great staff

Recommended: yes

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

#49 Blackness Bay

The craft distillery with a pirate twist

TL; DR: On a lazy mid-September Saturday afternoon, we did a last-minute trip to a distillery we’d only recently found out about: Blackness Bay, near the famous castle.It was a very fun tour, one of a kind, and the distillery is a little gem.

The resurgence of the scotch whisky industry, started towards the end of the 90s after the downturn of the 80s, led to a high number of distilleries being built. It was, and in some extent it still is, a boom of new distilleries in almost every part of Scotland, including the most remote ones like the Shetland islands.

Among the whisky regions, as defined by the SWA, one that saw the biggest increase in the number of distilleries is the Lowlands. Until a few years ago only two malt distilleries were constantly producing, Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie, with a third one seeing periods of alternate fortune, Bladnoch. Nowadays, both Edinburgh and Glasgow could theoretically claim the “region” status as both have more than three malt distilleries each (Bonnington, Holyrood, Port of Leith, and the nearby Glenkinchie the first; Auchentoshan, Glasgow, and Clydeside the latter). Similarly, Fife went from one grain distillery only (Cameronbridge) to one grain and six malt distilleries currently producing, or about to (Kingsbarn, Inchdairnie, Lindores Abbey, Daftmill, Aberargie, Eden Mill). The Central Belt, stretching between Edinburgh and Glasgow, where a lot of the Scottish industrial production is concentrated, is no exception: a lot of new distilleries came online decades after the closure of St Magdalene (1983) and Rosebank (1993, now rebuilt). In this and the next few posts we’ll talk about some of these new distilleries in this area, all visited in September 2024.

View of the castle from the beach.

The first one is by far the smallest one of the bunch, as a matter of fact one of the smallest in Scotland: Blackness Bay distillery. It is quite a novelty, as they started producing whisky only about a year ago (October 2023), while also making rum. Being that new, it doesn’t feature in the SWA map yet nor in the malt whisky yearbook. The distillery is in the middle of the Blackness village, home to the famous Blackness Castle is (we still have to watch Outlander, btw), but not much else. Despite being relatively close to Edinburgh, reaching it by public transports is a nightmare, so we just drove there (Teresa got the short straw that day). We arrived at destination a bit early, just enough time for a stroll along the beach to get some of the refreshing sea breeze.

We could hear Colm tuning his bagpipe…the tour was about to start.

The distillery, a long and low building, is part of a complex including a pub, the Lobster Pot, a big stone house, and a large garden in the middle of the three. The two founders, Colm and Sheena, acquired the whole complex about 15 years ago. More recently they stopped managing the pub/restaurant, so they decided to set up this small distillery, in the shed that used to be a bakery and brewery for the pub. It took two years for the project to complete.

It was the wrong door…Now the tour is really about to start.

Sheena was the one who gathered us, about a dozen people, in the pub’s courtyard. We could already hear Colm playing the bagpipe, that accompanied us in the short walk from the pub backyard to the distillery. That was unexpected! Then, he welcomed us and started telling a very peculiar version of the history of Blackness, all the way from the Roman settlements, the castle, and whisky in Scotland. It was genuinely funny and entertaining, and we all had a good laugh. This happened inside the distillery building, a cozy area with a bar and the shop. While Colm gave us his introduction, we had a sip of their products, starting with the Blackness Bay Flowers of Scotland Pink Rum, then the Jacobite Spice Rum, the White Rum, the 6-month-old oak-aged malt spirit: this is called Virgin Mary, a hint to the future realises of scotch whisky that will be called “Mary Queen of Scotch”, name that caused some dispute with the trademark office.

Smelling what goes into rum.

We soon moved to the production area, located in the same building, all in a big space. They get pre-milled barley from Crisp, in Alloa, so they don’t have a mill (it would be hard to fit one in there). So they proceed directly to mashing, with local tap water first warmed up to 70°C in the kettle, before sparging (done by hand) Fermentation lasts 6 to 7 days, and the wash is then distilled in the wash still, Lucifer, and re-distilled in the spirit still, Lilith. From the second distillation they take a cut from 80%abv to about 63%, in our understanding. Rum production is similar, with molasses brought in, fermented for longer (10 days) and distilled in the same pair of stills twice, or three times for the ones with botanicals, after cleaning the equipment. At this point, we got some new make spirit to try, which tasted very caramelly, with a good mouthfeel a not too much burn despite its high abv.

A wee distillery…and a museum!

We then moved next door to check out the small warehouse where casks are kept: mostly ex-bourbon barrels, some ex-Islay to introduce some smoky element, and some hogshead and quarter casks. At this point the tour was mostly ended, with people slowly moving towards the Lobster Pot pub, while we had a chit-chat with Colm and Sheena. Unfortunately, we didn’t book the tour with the dinner included, so after finding out that there was no free table at the pub, we went back to our van and left.

The smallest, cutest warehouse.

A very interesting visit overall, they are a lovely couple, and their tour was definitely an experience. Their spirit is nice too, but of course we need another couple of years before trying their scotch whisky, so we’ll patiently wait. In the meanwhile, we might pop in again at the Lobster Pot, possibly with a booked table, to enjoy what looked like a very nice pub!

In two weeks, another Central Belt distillery, this time a bit more far away. Until then, slainte!

Blackness Bay Distillery

Price: £20.00 pp (September 2024), £10.00 pp for drivers

Duration: 1hr

Tasting: Flowers of Scotland Pink Rum (43%), Jacobite Spiced Rum (43%), White Rum (43%), Virgin Mary aged spirit (50%)

Target: everyone

Value for money: very good

Highlights: Colm and Sheena are great

Recommended: yes

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

#48.1 Islagain

Nice drams with a sour aftertaste: Bunnahabhain

TL; DR: And we’re back to Islay for the second time this summer! After a quiet Friday afternoon, the next morning we had our first tasting, followed by a tour at one of our favourite distilleries: Bunnahabhain. The tasting was great as usual, but what happened afterwards was a major let down for us.

Driving to Islay is always a big trip: it takes about four hours to drive from Leith to the Kennacraig ferry terminal, and then the ferry trip is another couple of hours. However, once you’re on the island, you forget about all of this as the atmosphere in which you’re immersed is something else. Everything slows down and there is a sense of quiet and tranquillity. It’s a strange mix between feeling energised and relaxed, with the mind finally off the million thoughts of everyday life. Maybe this a feature of all remote places.

The excuse for this trip came when our friends Glaire and Clay asked us to join them on their trip to celebrate their friend’s birthday. That was a proposition too good to be true, so we happily accepted. On a Friday morning, we picked them up and started driving westward, first to Glasgow and then up along Loch Lomond, past Arrochar south-west, and along the Argyll’s lochs (as we write, we can almost visualise the trip). We had a wee stop for a coffee (well, and a wee) in Inveraray, at the George Hotel. We also enjoyed their morning rolls, unbelievably tasty. A pity we didn’t manage to meet our friend Ivan. The rest of the drive was uneventful, everything was on time, and we got safely to Bowmore where our friends had booked a small apartment. We parked our van not too far away and hanged out with them. In the evening, after dinner at the Lochside, we met their friends for a drink at the Duffie’s, just next door. It was a nice evening but we were very tired, so after a while we just went back to sleep.

A stroll in Bowmore.

The day after we were very excited: our first time back to Bunnahabhain, after our visit in spring 2022. Bunna is one of our favourite whiskies, and it rarely disappoints us: we both love the unpeated sherried stuff, and the peated one too (it’s actually one of the best peated malts in our opinion). So, the jolly party of three (Glaire skipped this one) left Bowmore on Mr Vantastic, and after a quick stop to check out the Ardnahoe shop, we got to our destination. The day was cloudy, a tad windy but not enough to keep the midges away, which in the minute we spent outside the visitor centre destroyed us!

Paps of Jura, we’ll see you another time.

Once safely inside, we met the guide for the tasting: Matthew, which after a brief introduction walked us to Warehouse 9, the former malting floor. We were 5 people in total, so quite an intimate tour – the first time it was 13 people and felt like a crowd in comparison. The tasting was fun, as usual, Matthew was a good entertainer and very knowledgeable, and let people draw the whisky from the cask (Gianluigi tried too).

Mastering (?) the valinch.

The first dram was an unpeated one, a 2007 ex-Muscat cask (16y), bottled at 53.7%. A very sweet and delicious dram. It was followed by a 2014 (9y) ex-Canasta sherry cask: this is a brand of cream sherry, which is a mix of Oloroso and PX. This dram was bottled at 58.4%, stronger at the palate as well. We moved on to the peated drams, first a 2011 vintage fully matured in a refill ex-Cognac cask (58.9%); the cask was used for a finish first, so the Cognac influence wasn’t too strong. It was followed by a 2013 (10y) ex-Bordeaux red wine cask (57.9%), re-casked into this only after two years, in 2015. The last one was truly stunning, a real dirty belter of a dram.

Two friends pretending not to enjoy the moment.

However, here is where things went wrong. Back at the visitor centre, we were told that we could participate in the tour because we’d drunk before at the tasting, and they could allow inebriated people in production. While we could see where this rule comes from (after all, we both did the 2-hour Scottish Training for Alcohol Retailers and Servers training, so we can see the logic), we really didn’t expect this to happen: it wasn’t written anywhere and in other distilleries (including Deanston, of the same company) we’d visited production after a tasting. There, they mentioned the T&C, which is always an “out-of-jail” card, but later that day we verified and that was not true (at the time, more on this later). We asked if we could have a refund, and here is the annoying part: they told us they couldn’t issue any! Thus, to avoid losing £40 we decided for Teresa to go on the tour on her own (she was the driver that day, so she’d not drunk at the tasting), while Gianluigi would come back on the Monday to catch up, just before the ferry back to the mainland. The following tour description is a summary of both our tours, which were given by the same guide. They were probably in training, as both tours only covered the basics, but as we said in other occasions, you need to start somewhere.

The old visitor centre.

The distillery, whose name means the Mouth of the River, was founded in 1881, originally doing peated malt, but turned to unpeated later: nowadays they do both. Their flagship malt, the Bunnahabhain 12, was first released in 1979, almost a hundred years after founding. What is really hard to wrap our head around, is that until the 60s there was no road to the distillery, so everything that went there and back was by boat, quite incredible! They have one of the iconic Porteus mills since 1964, which grinds the barley usually sourced from Simpson, on the mainland. In the resulting grist, the husk/grit/flour split is 20/70/10, as usual. It is then sent to a big mashtun (full leuter and covered by a copper lid), 8.6 tonnes at the time, where it is mashed with the usual three waters at increasing temperatures, to maximise the sugar extraction in their cloudy wort. The draff, discard from mashing, is used for their biomass plant, as opposed to many distilleries that sell or give it to farmers to feed cows.

The mashtun is bigger than it looks.

Currently, they do 23 mashes per week, which are then moved to ferment into one of the six Oregon pine washbacks for 52 hours to reach about 8%abv. They have only one pair of stills, and during the second distillation they take a cut from 74% to 64%, discarding and redistilling the head (above the first cut point) and the tails (after the second one). After a quick nip to the warehouse and a look at the pier, we walked back to the visitor centre for the two-dram tasting. Surprisingly, there wasn’t their flagship 12-year old, but a dram each of the two non-age statement expressions: Stiuireadair (unpeated), and Toiteach A Dhà (peated). Meh.

An old fashioned still room.
Teresa unable to take a selfie with the still room in the background…
…while Gianluigi doing a better job.

A bit deflated, we left the distillery and drove back to Bowmore, where we had a quick meal before driving to the birthday party. There, we met some very nice people and had lot of fun, playing garden games and having delicious food. In the evening, we had a final couple of drams at our friends’ flat, before retiring in the campervan.

Honestly, this was one of the most disappointing distillery visits we had recently, which made us sad as Bunnahabhain is one of our favourite whiskies. We excused the increase in £10 for the Warehouse 9 tasting compared to 2022, although for four drams it is has became quite steep. Someone could argue that they are expensive drams, they are indeed, but the reason is that they are almost insanely priced: the 20cl bottle of the whiskies we tried ranged between £45 and £60, which is £145 to £195 for a full 70cl bottle, out of touch. Also, the choice to replace the Bunnahabhain 12 with the Stiuireadair (maybe the only bad Bunna we ever tried) in the tasting after the tour is quite a strange and cheap move. Would you imagine going to Lagavulin/Caol Ila/Ardbeg/Bruichladdich, paying for the basic tour and not getting a dram of their flagship 16/12/10/Classic Laddie? Yep, not even the Evil Empire does that.

Back to a calmer atmosphere in Bowmore.

But of course, what we really did not like was the way we were treated, and the lack of flexibility or willingness to try to fix a problem that wasn’t our fault in the first place. It’s true the staff gave Gianluigi and Clay “reparation” drams while Teresa was doing the tour, but at the same time we felt we were treated like we had done something wrong, which wasn’t true at all. At that time, it wasn’t written anywhere that we couldn’t do the tour after the warehouse tasting. Fortunately they recently changed the website (we wonder whether it wasn’t just us having this problem). Since the reservations were made under the same name/email, it would have costed the staff 5 minutes to touch base via email before. But what really made them unprofessional was that someone could have just told us before the tasting, when we checked in (and said we’d booked both tasting and tour). We would have both got drivers drams. We later complained via email, and they promised a refund for the tours (refund still not received, at the time of writing over a month later).

To wrap up this rant: will we still drink Bunnahabhain? Definitely, it’s too delicious to let go. Will we still buy from the distillery? Maybe, there are many indies out there with great Bunnas. Will we go back for another tasting or visit? Probably not for a very long time.

Stay tuned for some happier action the next day, a visit to the only Islay distillery we hadn’t visited yet…Can you guess which one? Until then, slainte!

Bunnahabhain Warehouse Tour

Price: £50.00 pp (August 2024)

Duration: 1hr 30min

Tasting: 4 drams (25ml, all natural colour and unchillfiltered), 2007, 16y, ex-Muscat cask, 53.7% (70/20cl bottles for £195/£60); 2014, 9y, ex-Canasta sherry cask, 58.4% (£145/£45); 2011 Moine (peated) fully matured in a refill ex-Cognac cask, 58.9% (£155/£55); 2013, 10y, Moine ex-Bordeaux red wine cask, 57.9% (£145/£50), and a copita to take home

Distillery Exclusive: see above

Target: whisky nerds

Value for money: a tad pricey

Highlights: Warehouse 9 is always special

Recommended: yes

Link: https://bunnahabhain.com/

Bunnahabhain Production Tour

Price: £20.00 pp (August 2024)

Duration: 1hr (almost)

Tasting: 2 drams (20ml), Bunnahabhain Stiuireadair (46.3%), Toiteach A Dhà (46.3%)

Distillery Exclusive: see box above

Target: casual drinkers and tourists

Value for money: ok

Highlights: the still room

Recommended: if you’re looking for a basic distillery tour, there are better options on the island

Link: https://bunnahabhain.com/

#47 A dip in the south

A trip to Crafty distillery

TL; DR: Since our first trip to Dumfries and Galloway, there is a new kid on the block down there: Crafty distillery. Previously producing gin and vodka, now they added whisky (well, newmake for the time being) to their portfolio. As the name suggests, their operation is quite small and…”crafty” indeed, very interesting.

Part of the fun of having a campervan is to have the freedom to decide on a trip at the very last minute, without worrying about accommodation (which in Scotland can be quite tricky, both in terms of availability and price). As usual, the idea for the trip came from a newly available whisky distillery tour, this time in Newton Stewart, in Galloway. We’d already been in the area, in 2022 for Teresa birthday’s trip, when we visited Bladnoch (and later Annandale and the Lakes distilleries). However, back then we didn’t hike nor enjoy much the beautiful landscape (also, it was March…and rainy). This time instead, we planned a few non-whisky activities too.

We left early on the Saturday morning, leaving a quiet and still traffic-free Leith. The first stop of the trip, just to grab a coffee and a bite, was Kilmarnock, the town that gave birth to John Walker and its 200 years old legacy. We found a nice spot on the high street (the Courtyard Artisan Bakery, delicious rolls!!), after which we had a short walk to snoop around…after all, this stop wasn’t exactly random. And it paid off, we found what we were looking for: JW original shop building!

It took a while but…
we found it! John Walker shop.

Back in the van, we drove towards Glen Trool, where we’d planned to hike around the namesake Loch before going to our scheduled tour in Newton Stewart. We drove south, towards Ayr, and then in Maybole we turned slightly eastward on a narrow road (between the A713 and A714). Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad choice (thanks Google!), as the road was interrupted with no previous signage before. So, we had to detour on even narrower roads, through North Balloch, Glengennet and Barr, to rejoin the A714 in Pinmore. It was an adventure, but it meant we were way too late to attempt a hike, so we drove directly to Newton Stewart instead, for a bite before the tour at Crafty distillery. Nothing really inspired us among the options we could find online, so we decided to park at the distillery, which is just outside the village, walk back and choose a place on the fly. However, we were in luck: that day the distillery had a special guest in the courtyard, Triko’s Deli (from Thornhill) with their delicious bagels: lunch was sorted! We still walked to the village for a coffee and to move our legs.

Despite the raod diversions, here we are!

Back at the distillery, it was time for the tour. The distillery is an all-in-one building, with the production just behind the shop. Given the limited space, there are no warehouses on site, but they send their casks to mature a few miles south to Whiskybroker’s warehouses, in Creetown. The tour was very small, six people including us, plus Nicky, the distillery manager, who showed us around.

A very small distillery.

The distillery was founded in 2017, and at first they made gin (Hills&Harbour, quite popular) and vodka (24 Seven), plus a gin liqueur. Contrary to other small and craft gin brands, they do everything from scratch, and don’t buy the neutral grain spirit to be redistilled. They have a column still for that purpose, from which, approximately once every 10 days, they distil a wash obtained from 100% wheat, getting a ~95%abv spirit. For the vodka, the wash is filtered and reduced, while for the gin it is redistilled with 11 botanicals from the coast and the forests around (hence, the name). Back to whisky, they get malted barley from Bairds in 15ton batches. As whisky production was a recent addition, the equipment is not placed in a way to follow the production stages – for example, the two stills are not next to each other. They do 2 mashes per week in a half-ton semi-lauter mashtun, starting with water at 63.5°C. The wort is recirculated in the mashtun to allow filtration by the grist bed, so to get a clear wort. The second water is sparged, in a process similar to brewing. The wort is then moved in one of the two iStill washbacks, each one with a 2,000-litre capacity. Fermentation is quite long, seven days, and it is activated using three types of yeast: distillers, German wheat beer and Champaign. The washbacks are equipped with a cooling jacket to stabilise the fermentation temperature, which made sense given the small building, easy to warm up. They have two stills, a 1,000-litre wash still and a 250-litre spirit still, both with tube-and-shells condensers. The second distillation starts with a 10-minute foreshots run (the head), followed by a spirit cut between 77% and 69% abv, giving about 120 litres of spirit. It is then reduced to 63.5% and put into casks. Every fermentation provides wash for two distillations, from which they get about 250 litres of newmake spirit at filling strength. Other than the usual cask types, they use small American barrels, 110-litre only, provided by the Texas Whitmeyer distillery (now closed?).

The shop and bar (no pictures allowed in the production area, sorry!)

After the production tour, we moved back into the bar/shop for the 3-dram tasting. First, the newmake spirit (63.5%), followed by two aged spirits: a 7-month old from an ex-PX octave cask (~62%), and a 6-month old from an experimental 5-litre Madeira cask…This reminded us of the approach Ardnamurchan had at the beginning, to mature spirit in smaller casks to have a rough idea of how it would be later. As a matter of fact, Nicky worked there before moving to the south of Scotland! The samples were good, of course very cask-forward, but still quite promising.

After the distillery, it was time to catch up our hike at Loch Trool. It was just a 30-minute drive from the distillery, so in less than an hour we were already on the path that loops around the Loch. Despite the car park being almost full, the path was not at all busy, so it ended up being a quiet walk. After the first bit, mostly inside a forest, the path opened up and the view on the loch was quite spectacular. It only rained for a few minutes, luckily so, as we were in the middle of the almost 11k walk when it happened!

A beautiful loch…
…full of history. Stone remembering the Glen Trool battle.

For the night, we’d found a great place to stay: Kirroughtree, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. It is a leisure centre, with different trails, a mountain bike hire shop, and a café/gift shop. However, it is possible to spend the night there (for £7.00/vehicle), and from the morning there are public toilets open with showers (well, £3 for a cold shower was not ideal, but better than nothing!). If it sounds simple, it’s because it is: almost everything can be paid by card, at any time. We wonder why other places cannot have something like this (yes, we have mainly Islay in mind, but Dornoch and elsewhere too). We’re sure there are difficulties that we cannot think of in managing a night parking, but to be honest it doesn’t look impossible.

Midges destroyed our plan to sip our drams outside.

Unfortunately, there were also some midges, not too many but enough for us to spend the evening inside the van, sipping the leftover drams from Crafty. In the morning, we went for a short run on the hill (Teresa wasn’t too happy about that) before a nice (and cold) shower and a good breakfast (Teresa was much happier then), once the cafè opened. One the way back, we did one further stop at the A.D. Rattray shop, in Maybole, because…why not.

It was a nice trip, we really enjoyed the beauty of this part of Scotland, not as popular as other ones but still fantastic, while visiting a nice wee distillery at the same time. Crafty looks on a good trajectory spirit-wise, so we are looking forward to trying their single malt once ready.

Next week it’s going to be a pause weekend, but then we’ll be back on Islay! Until then, slainte!

Crafty Whisky Distillery Tour

Price: £20.00 pp + £2 booking fee (July 2024)

Duration: 1hr 15min

Tasting: 3 drams newmake spirit (63.5%), 7-month old from an ex-PX octave cask (~62%), and a 6-month old from an experimental 5-litre Madeira cask, plus a glencairn to take home

Target: everyone, but probably mostly suited for whisky curious

Value for money: good

Highlights: a nice place to chill out even if you’re not a whisky fan

Recommended: yes if you’re a whisky curious

Link: https://craftydistillery.com/

Other points of interest in the area

Loch Trool trail: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/galloway/loch-trool.shtml

Kirroughtree, Galloway Forest Park’s getaway centre: https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/forest-parks/galloway-forest-park/kirroughtree

Whiskybroker, Creetown: https://www.whiskybroker.co.uk/?age_consent=1

A.D. Rattray shop, Maybole: https://www.adrattray.com/