The Glenrothes is one of Scotland’s biggest distilleries but is an enigmatic one too,its doors generally closed to visitors and its malts relatively unknown.Dominic Roskrow visited it.
Iam halfway up a stairwell in semi darkness and all I can smell is…how can I put this politely – horse dung.
In front of me is Ronnie Cox, Whisky Magazine’s Scottish Ambassador of the Year.Behind me is former Whisky Mag editor and industry jack in the box (he pops up all over the place) Marcin Mill...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 70 published on
Knockdhu is an oddball distillery that defies categorisation.It’s owned by Whisky Magazine Distiller of the Year,Inver House.Dominic Roskrow visited it.
Some distilleries are soaked in atmosphere, and pay homage to their past.
Memories hang in the breeze, and emotions twist and turn in their courtyards.
I’m not sure whether different distilleries affect people in different ways, or whether the haunting atmosphere I experience at some places can be...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 69 published on 18/01/2008
Auchentoshan is the nearest distillery to Glasgow but it is often criminally overlooked. Dominic Roskrow explains why it warrants closer inspection.
I was visiting a distillery recently when two tourists came in and asked if they could be shown round.Actually they didn’t so much ask for a tour but demand one.And when they were told that the distillery was shut they kicked up a fuss.
This being Scotland, they were generously accommodated and a t...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 68 published on 07/12/2007
Using his knowledge and passion for wine,whisky maker John Hall is creating one of the most iconic Canadian brands, Rob Allanson went to find out why.
Nestled between the southern shore of Lake Ontario and the majestic backdrop of the Niagara Escarpment, in the town of Grimsby lies the compact and bijoux Kittling Ridge distillery.
When you take a tour with John, it’s a little like stepping into Doctor Who’s Tardis – small on the outside and seemi...
By Rob Allanson
from Issue 67 published on 01/11/2007
Pulteney takes some getting to but there’s plenty to fall in love with if you make the effort. Dominic Roskrow reports
Welcome to the Badlands. The wild North. So far North in fact that you to get here you have to out-Highland the Highlands, passing along a breath-taking route with mountainous beauty to your left, coastal beauty to your right until the land flattens once more and you cross Scotland’s equivalent of t...
By Rob Allanson
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
Dave Broom looks at the story behind this new Japanese whisky company which is upping the anté
There was a gasp around the room. It didn’t dawn on me immediately why the announcement of the World Whiskies Awards Best Japanese whisky under 12 years was so shocking. Memo to self: when in Japan stop coming at things from a Scottish perspective. In Scotch, and bourbon for that matter, awards are ...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
Situated in the heart of Speyside,The Glenlivet is a study of modern and progressive whisky making in the most historic of settings. Dominic Roskrow reports
It’s in places like this, on days like this, that you can fear most for our planet. We’re standing in the heart of historic Speyside, high above the River Spey, and the sun is warm on our faces. Far below the light flits over the ruffled surface of the river as its waters negotiate the rocks and sto...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
Three years in the making but now the latest spirit from Campbeltown is ready to make its debut
The weather had closed in and the wind and rain were starting to make their presence felt, but all this was unable to dampen the high spirits of the crowd gathered at Campbeltown’s newest distillery.
More than 70 years after the last spirit came off the stills at Glengyle, it has been lovingly rebu...
By
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
The Macallan is one of the truly iconic distilleries but it is not resting on its laurels. Dominic Roskrow went to stay there
Easter Elchies House is an imposing and impressive rural retreat at any time.
This evening, though, as it comes in to view as we walk back from the warehouses, with its walls lit up and every window ablaze with startling light, cushioned in darkness and wrapped in the last snows of winter, it is no...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 63 published on 20/04/2007
Robin Laing packs his bags and heads out to Campbeltown to find whisky production is thriving again
Back in 1098, the Treaty of Tarbert granted to the King of Norway, Magnus Bareleg, “all the western isles round which a ship could sail”. The Viking warlord immediately had his longships dragged across the one-mile neck of land at Tarbert to prove that the Kintyre peninsula was an island too. He mad...
By Robin Laing
from Issue 63 published on 20/04/2007
Jack Daniel's is bucking the trend in many markets and going from strength to strength. Dominic Roskrow went to Lynchburg to find out why
You start to get a sense of just how big Jack Daniel’s has become when you visit the main square of the pretty village of Lynchburg down the road from the distillery.
It’s not that there’s anything small-scale about the distillery itself. It occupies land that stretches for acres. But because much ...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 62 published on 01/03/2007
Ballantine’s is one of the world’s top blends but it is in need of a dose of loving and who better for that than the French? Dominic Roskrow reports
The way in which French drinks giant Pernod Ricard picked up a raft of new brands from Allied last year, assimilated them in to its company portfolio and has set about giving them a polish has been ruthlessly efficient and highly impressive.
Normally when a company falls apart and its carcass picke...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 61 published on 19/01/2007
Laphroaig on Islay is one of the iconic distilleries. Dominic Roskrow visited it
When it comes to stunning views on Islay, it’s a toss up between the one from the wall at Bowmore and that on the craggy shores of the island’s South Eastern distilleries.
When the wind’s up and the sun’s out, the seawall at Bowmore takes some beating. Here the light flicks off the mini waves that ...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 60 published on 10/11/2006
The Scapa Distillery is producing spirit regularly again after a two year renovation programme. Dominic Roskrow reports
It’s the stillroom at Scapa that you remember most, and in particular the large window at one end of it, and the still at its heart.
Chalk and cheese really; the window providing vantage across the Flow, and bringing much needed respite to the intensity of the isolated and library-like room; the st...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 59 published on 11/10/2006
After 200 years,George Washington’s distillery has been restored to its former glory, Charles K. Cowdery looks at the history and takes us behind the scenes
George Washington’s distiller was from Scotland, so Prince Andrew cut the ribbon at the restored distillery’s grand opening in Mount Vernon, Virginia, on September 27. A thin reed, perhaps, but His Royal Highness, The Duke of York, also was acting in his capacity as the United Kingdom's Special Repr...
By Charles K. Cowdery
from Issue 59 published on 11/10/2006
Royal Lochnagar is an iconic distillery that ticks all the whisky lovers’ boxes. Ian Buxton visited it
Imagine one of those ‘50 things to do before you die’ lists. ‘Visit a distillery’ would have to be right up there (even for non whisky drinkers). But which one?
Well, we will all have our favourites, but a very reasonable case could be made for Royal Lochnagar. If you could only ever visit one dis...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 58 published on 30/08/2006
Dave Broom is writing a book on distillery-related walks. Here he confronts Goat Fell
Arran is a compression of an already compressed country.
Scotland distilled.
Its northern hills are the equal of the best of the Highlands, its southern grasslands as gentle as those of the Ayrshire countryside only a few miles away across the Firth of Clyde.
This day was to take in both. Euan Mi...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 58 published on 30/08/2006
Gotemba Distillery enjoys special status in Japan. Dave Broom visited it
It is hard for any westerner to understand the role which Mount Fuji has within the Japanese psyche.
The highest mountain in Japan, it is the archetype of what a mountain should look like, rising from a plain in a perfect cone. Yet Fuji is about more than just aesthetics. It is a sacred mountain, ...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
Glengoyne,close to Glasgow and not quite Lowlands or Highlands,is a charming but under-rated distillery. Ian Buxton returned there 30 years after he first visited it
Imust confess an unnatural fondness for Glengoyne. It was, after all, the very first distillery I ever visited and, as that happened during my first and, so far, only honeymoon, it left quite an impression.
So going back after nearly 30 years, I was prepared to be disappointed. It surely wouldn’t b...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
Deanston Distillery is something of a hidden gem. Ian Buxton visited it
“We need to work smarter,not harder”
That’s the view of Graham MacWilliam, Inver House’s Distilleries general manager, and you can’t argue with that.
After all, in Speyburn Inver House has taken a distillery largely under-exploited by its previous owners and built sales in one of the most demandi...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 55 published on 14/04/2006
Deanston is the least-known of Perthshire’s six remaining distilleries. Ian Buxton visited it
Once, Perthshire was a major distilling centre. One researcher has listed more than 140 distilleries that were active in Scotland’s ‘Big Country,’ some working well into the 20th century.
Today there are just six. You’d be hard pushed to name them all though.
Aberfeldy, Edradour and Glenturret mi...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 54 published on 03/03/2006
Jura makes no economic sense. But when it comes to putting quality before profit it stands like a beacon. Ian Buxton made the long journey
Burning money is boring. Official.
Famously (or should that be notoriously?), musicians and art pranksters the KLF burnt a million quid on Jura in August 1994. In cash. There were bundles of 50,000 stuffed into the flames like a guilty confession.
Journalist Jim Reid watched the whole thing for Th...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 53 published on 12/01/2006
Oban is a wonderful but compact distillery in a picturesque port town. Ian Buxton visited it
After 37 years in the business, it seems churlish to deny Oban’s manager Kenny Gray an easy commute to work. After all, he’s worked man and boy for Diageo, starting out as laboratory assistant to the renowned Dr Magnus Pyke, who might have modelled for the original mad scientist.
However, having me...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 52 published on 30/11/2005
Karuizawa is one of Japan’s smaller and lesser known distilleries.But as Dave Broom found out, it’s producing some fine and unusual whisky
The landscape is strobing past the train window. The concrete of the city has been left behind and we’re climbing.
House:tunnel:field:tunnel:orchard:tunnel: cliff:tunnel:bridge:tunnel:river:space.The sudden change from cluttered urban plain to mountain takes you by surprise. Part of this is down to...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 51 published on 07/10/2005
Ian Buxton goes among old friends and visits Aberfeldy
They say confession is good for the soul: so here goes... I know the folk at Dewar’s pretty well. From time to time I do consulting work for them, and (back in the last millennium) I was heavily involved in the design and construction of their visitor centre at Aberfeldy. So naturally, I think it’s ...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 50 published on 09/09/2005
Ian Buxton travels North of Inverness to the remote distillery at Clynelish
Clynelish’s significance in the history of Scotland might not be fully appreciated by the casual visitor. After all, everything is peaceful enough today in the small northern Highland resort of Brora – but its name is written in infamy, wreathed in myth and clouded by decades of propaganda, spin and...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 49 published on 15/07/2005
Bruichladdich reopened some four years ago and has been trail-blazing ever since. Ian Buxton visited it
It’s never particularly hard work to go to Islay. In fact, you have to remind yourself this is actually work, and you’re not just here to enjoy yourself (though I did).
But my arrival was low key. Heavy, driving rain obscured the view across Loch Indaal; even moving between distillery buildings ens...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
Producing whisky in the middle of the North Sea is one long struggle but the results make it worthwhile. Dominic Roskrow visited Highland Park
Cutting peat in late April on the undulating hills high above Scapa Flow on Orkney isn’t for the faint-hearted.
You have to make your way to the heart of the 2,000 acre estate that Highland Park owns, navigate bumpy lanes and walk along a pathway littered with muddy pools and then, as the sharp win...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago public access to a distillery was rare. Now many offer tours or tastings and they’re becoming increasingly sophisticated. Dominic Roskrow reports
Later this year Whisky Magazine will publish its 50th issue and we’ll be taking a look at how the industry has changed in that time.
Almost certainly among the scores of new and successful launches and the distillery sales, closures and takeovers, the rise and rise of the visitor centre will featur...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 47 published on 05/04/2005
Elsewhere in this issue we’ve looked at four distilleries a couple of years after they were given a new lease of life. Here Ian Buxton updates in tow new faces
There’s something of a renaissance going on amongst small distillers. Not only have a number of Scotland’s distilleries passed back into private hands, but a few brave pioneers are starting out from scratch.
Though many of us dream of starting our own distillery, in the cold light of day it doesn’t...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 47 published on 05/04/2005
Ian Buxton visits the picturesque and constantly surprising Glen Grant distillery in Speyside
One of Glen Grant’s more obscure claims to fame is its name. After all, it should logically be called Glen Rothes, after the small Speyside town where it is to be found.
And it does have first claim on that title, having been founded nearly 40 years before the distillery that actually carries the n...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
Adelphi distillery, the top-of-the-market independent bottler, has been bought by a couple of landowners in Argyll. Charles MacLeanlooks at the company’s history and asks the new owners about their plans.
The first thing you notice about an Adelphi bottle is its minimalist labelling: a rectangular postagestamp, fixed low down on a clear glass standard liquor bottle, with an equally small back label telling you, in type so small you need a magnifying glass to read it, where the whisky comes from, its ...
By Charles MacLean
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
Say the word ‘Cardhu’ and it stirs up images of underhand dealings. But the distillery intrinsically linked to last year’s scandal is charming and impressive, and its staff outstanding. Ian Buxton reports
Cardhu may have been around for the best part of 200 years, but it’s a fair bet that more has been written and broadcast about this Speyside distillery in the past 12 months than in all of the rest of its
distinguished history. Not that this blizzard of opinion, rumour, spin, gossip, innuendo and in...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 45 published on 21/1/2005
Ian Buxton visits Balblair
As the internal arrangements and vessels are like the other distilleries in the district, it is not worthwhile to recapitulate them” commented an
unusually blunt Alfred Barnard on his visit to Balblair.
Though we might admire the brevity of this approach, Alf’s somewhat taciturn description belies ...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 44 published on 25/11/2004
Dave Broom travels to the Sendai Distillery near Tokyo
We all have our obsessions. Some have more than others. One of mine is always carrying a number of books, no matter how short the trip. They’re not necessarily read, but they act as a sort of comfort blanket.
The selection usually comprises a novel, some non-fiction and a volume of poetry. Somethin...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 43 published on 23/10/2004
Girvan isn’t your normal run of the … er… mill distillery. Ian Buxton paid it a visit
Here’s a curiosity. This article celebrates a distillery you’ve probably never heard of; whose whisky you’ve never consciously drunk and which you can’t visit. It’s a mere 40 years old, located in a region without any recognised distilling tradition and it’s very proud of the precision of its comput...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 42 published on 3/9/2004
Ireland isn’t normally associated with single malts, but at Bushmills they’re investing heavily in producing outstanding whiskeys. Dominic Roskrowwent there
At the start of every week Colum Egan goes on the internet, looks up his list of oil suppliers, picks up the phone and plays broker for a few hours. And right now, with pressure on oil prices unlikely to ease up, Monday mornings are becoming increasingly important and significant.
Colum is master d...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 42 published on 3/9/2004
At Yamazaki the distillery and church stand next to each other in harmony. Dave Broom witnesses whisky making at its noblest
Jet-lag does weird things to the brain, makes it seem as if you are existing in some dream state.
Though you’re screaming with tiredness, you’re wide awake. The mind is subtly dislocated from reality, making it seem as though you have slipped into a familiar but totally alien world.
I felt like a ...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 41 published on 16/7/2004
A high proportion of Caol Ila whisky is used for blends. But as Ian Buxton discovered, Diageo is making some excellent single malts available from the enigmatic Islay distillery.
How pleasant is the process of exploration when performed in fine weather and in company with good companions.” So observed Alfred Barnard, the original Colossus of whisky writers, on the occasion of his visit to Caol Ila, Islay in 1887.
Well, my companion (your editor) had abandoned me earlier on ...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 40 published on 4/6/2004
Longmorn is a blenders’ favourite. But as a single malt it’s both wonderful and frustratingly hard to get. Ian Buxton adds his voice to the Whisky Magazine clamour for more of it
I arrived at Longmorn in a swirling snowstorm, quite worried about the directions I have been given.
“Pass the Shougle turn,” they had told me “right through Fogwatt and then turn right.” Shougle? Fogwatt? Perhaps I was to be lost forever in the Elgin Triangle: was this some Beachcomber fantasy, I ...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 39 published on 1/5/2004
Ian Buxton braves the ghosts and investigates the roots of lowland malt Glenkinchie
It’s hard to believe that just 15 miles from Edinburgh Castle you can find a real live distillery.
I left the city behind and seemed to move to a more timeless place as I passed through the rolling East Lothian countryside.
Just out of the little village of Pencaitland, virtually hidden in a fold ...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 38 published on 7/4/2004
Once just William Grant’s ‘other’ Dufftown distillery, Balvenie is starting to build a big reputation for itself. Ian Buxton went to pay homage
Dufftown is a kind of Valhalla for distilleries. In this land of castles and stills, long-silent ghosts, such as Convalmore and Pittyvaich, haunt its streets, while the force is still strong at Dufftown, Mortlach and Kininvie.
But best known amongst this hall of heroes are the two distilleries buil...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 37 published on 23/2/2004
Glenrothes has a formidable reputation as a single malt and is a key component in the internationally renowned Cutty Sark. Tom Bruce-Gardyne visited the distillery
Glenrothes single malt from Speyside slipped onto the market fairly late in the day. It was only in 1987 that the decision was taken to release a limited amount as a 12 year-old.
The big names of the region, whiskies such as The Macallan and The Glenlivet, were by then fully established and start...
By Tom Bruce-Gardyne
from Issue 36 published on 28/12/2003
Islay’s meant to be all about tranquillity. But when Ian Buxton visited Bowmore it was anything but
Islay is supposed to be quiet. Very quiet. The island’s image is of great peace and tranquillity; empty open spaces, washed by clear skies, a deep silence broken only by the cries of distant seabirds. Indeed, Bowmore’s latest corporate DVD is an elegiac tribute to Islay’s special
tranquillity, vivid...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 35 published on 17/11/2003
Four Roses has thrived since it was bought by Japanese brewer Kirin. Stuart MacLean Ramsay found out why
You never know what’s round the corner on the back roads of Kentucky.
Three years back I was meandering alongside the Salt River by Lawrenceburg, searching for Julian Van Winkle’s over-worked bottling plant.
I crossed the river, drove by a cluster of whiskey warehouses and stumbled onto Four Roses...
By Stuart MacLean Ramsay
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
Dave Broomtries to discover the secret of Nikka by visiting its North Japanese Yoichi distillery
There’s a difference to the light. Clear, sharp. The sky is blue but it is a chill blue. The trees on the roadside hills are thin-trunked, their ranches making fine tracings on the sky.
The ground seems thin. There are spruce and fir covered mountains in the distance, and a cold sea beside us as we...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
Speyside’s most eastern distillery is something of an enigma, but it’s not without
influence. Ian Buxton paid it a visit
The towns of Macduff and Banff are located in the North-East of Scotland, on either side of the banks of the River Deveron, reputedly a “first-class, second-class salmon river”. Both are ancient settlements, today characterised by attractive architecture, spectacular cliff scenery and two busy harbo...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
Ian Buxton discovers the charms of Royal Brackla, also a RAF base at one time
Few, if any, distilleries can claim the historical importance of Royal Brackla, yet few are as little known. Located right in ‘Macbeth country’ (Cawdor Castle is less than a mile along the road), around four miles from Nairn, Brackla was founded in 1812 by Captain William Fraser, owner of nearby Bra...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 33 published on 25/9/2003
Gavin D. Smith tells the story of Highland distillery Glendronach, which has a happy ending after all
In May 2001, Paul Porter-Smith, managing director of Allied Distillers Ltd, re-opened Glendronach Distillery by ceremonially driving home the bung in the first cask of new spirit to be distilled on the premises after six years of silence.
The re-commissioning of the Highland distillery at Forgue, n...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 31 published on 9/6/2003
Pip Hills looks at who owns what in the world of whisky
A friend of mine, who teaches economics at a university, tells me that he often uses the Scotch whisky industry as an example of what he calls the post-modern economy. I don’t much like the description, which smacks of daft literary theory, but I take his point. The ownership of Scotch whisky exhib...
By Pip Hills
from Issue 29 published on 24/3/2003
Ian Buxton provides a rare insight into a Lowland distillery not currently open to the public – Auchentoshan
If, in the words of that great old Scottish air, you take the high road to the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, then you’ll be able to look down upon Auchentoshan as you go. Just before the Erskine Bridge, as the A82 leaves Clydebank on the outskirts of Glasgow, you’ll glimpse the distillery on...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 28 published on 16/1/2003
Bunnahabhain is the foil to Islay's claymore, finds Ian Buxton
I once threw my dinner in the sea at Bunnahabhain. Staying at the distillery, I befriended some local fishermen and swapped the contents of their creel (two fine edible crabs) for luxury shortbread.
All went well until the procedure for preparing the delicacy was explained to my children, then four...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 27 published on 16/11/2002
Stuart Maclean Ramsay enjoys a whiskey tasting and tour at the imprssive Buffalo Trace Disteilery in Franklin County, Kentucky
It’s not every afternoon you’re surrounded by 300 years of whiskey know-how. But that’s where I was on a humid Kentucky afternoon in July, sampling whiskeys with eight bourbon-making stalwarts in the Buffalo Trace Distillery Clubhouse. We were there to select the best bourbon for a bottling of Georg...
By
from Issue 26 published on 16/10/2002
Gavin Smith coaxes this hermit crab distillery out of its shell
Unlike some Speyside distilleries, Cragganmore has to be searched for. It is certainly worth the search, however, as it remains essentially a classic, whitewashed, ‘courtyard’ construction, occupying an idyllic location in a hollow at the end of a minor road which curves Spey-wards from the main A95...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 25 published on 16/8/2002
John Lamond examines the history of this independent distillery
Glenfarclas is wonderful – it is truly magnificent! It is firmly ensconced in my top five. But don’t just take my word for it. In 1912, after a rook shoot at Ballindalloch, the great Tommy Dewar tasted a sample of the 1881. He said that it was “The King of Whiskies and the Whisky of Kings. In its su...
By John Lamond
from Issue 24 published on 16/7/2002
Gavin Smith takes a stroll by Kilchorman, the first new distillery of the millennium-and the first on Islay since 1883
The timetable is tight, but if all goes to plan, visitors to the Islay Whisky Festival in May 2002 will be able to witness spirit flowing at Scotland’s first new distillery of the 21st century.
Kilchoman Distillery, as it is to be known, is situated on the western coast of the Hebridean island, clo...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 21 published on 16/2/2002
Tom Bruce-Gardyne finds that Carneronbridge Distillery is ready to return to the public eye after years in the background of the Scottish whisky industry- all thanks to a member of the Royal family
Fife, as the world is about to discover, is a small county on Scotland’s east coast just north of Edinburgh. News of its existence is being beamed around the planet as I write by the massed ranks of tabloid hacks, TV reporters and paparazzi already in position. The reason of course is William, Brita...
By Tom Bruce-Gardyne
from Issue 21 published on 16/2/2002
Gavin Smith tells the complex story of Scottish brewing and its inextricable links with distilling
Whisky may be Scotland’s national drink, yet brewing beer predates the documented origins of Scottish distilling by many centuries, and has arguably played a greater part in the economic and social life of the nation. In 1840 Scotland boasted some 280 breweries, with around 30 in Edinburgh alone, th...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 21 published on 16/2/2002
David Stirk visits Strathisla Distillery, the home of Chivas Regal and a fine single malt. Additional words by Martin Betts
You wouldn’t be far off the mark describing Strathisla as the Queen Mother of distilleries. Old, dignified and surviving its advanced years with a certain amount of style, the distillery is also a key member of a very regal royal family.
Only a very small amount of the malt that Strathisla produces...
By David Stirk
from Issue 17 published on 16/7/2001
Home of the biggest malt whisky distillery in Scotland and the world's best-selling single malt, Glenfiddich Distillery has consistently produced whisky that consumers can't get enough of. David Stirk visited to find out why this is so.
Somebody up there likes Glenfiddich. The Gods have smiled upon this particular distillery in Dufftown, certainly a believable theory when you consider that Glenfiddich has been the biggest selling single malt whisky for more than 30 years and eases around 750,000 cases of whisky out of its on-site b...
By David Stirk
from Issue 16 published on 16/6/2001
Stuart Maclean Ramsay embarks on a perilous pilgrimage to Bushmills, home of the world's oldest distillery, in an attempt to find out why, after visiting , some people talk of reincarnation and spirituality
When I die,” says David Dorsey, the Irish and Scotch Brand Director for the Brown-Forman Corporation of Louisville, Kentucky, “I want to come back as either the manager of Ardbeg Distillery or Bushmills.”
It should be noted that Mr. Dorsey’s company imports both spirits into the United States and ...
By Stuart MacLean Ramsay
from Issue 15 published on 16/4/2001
Robin Brilleman takes a tour of the Scottish Highlands and visits the distilleries that have, over the course of time, ceadsed production but whose malts have left a lasting imprint on whisky history.
Usually I visit working distilleries on my trips to Scotland, so it’s a little strange and a tad eerie to be on the lookout for distilleries that have, for whatever reason, stopped producing. The buildings are often still standing, albeit deserted, but more often than not the distillery has, sadly, ...
By Robin Brilleman
from Issue 15 published on 16/4/2001
Gavin D Smith tells the story of Old Pulteney, a beautiful whisky from a 'ginm, windswpt fishing town.'
Some single malts feature illustrations of the distilleries from which they originate on their bottle labels and sleeve packaging, but Old Pulteney prefers a picture of a herring drifter. Pulteney’s owners, Inver House Distillers, have also chosen to use on their 12-year-old single malt bottling a q...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 14 published on 16/2/2001
Dave Broom visits Aberlour Distillery, built in a magical location that's home to some of the most knowledgable whisky folk in the world.
Aberlour Distillery’s colourful history began in 1826 when it was built by the laird of Aberlour. He was the very man who gave John Smith, Glenlivet’s founder, the pair of pistols used to great effect when repelling disgruntled smugglers. The distillery then passed through a number of hands, as dist...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 13 published on 16/12/2000
Dave Broom visits Orkney, the home of Highland Park, and discovers that there is more to this timeless island than exceptional whisky
Orkney is mystical and beautiful. Made up of distinctive flat discs of green, the islands sit in a watery silver light to form a northern floating world - a magical place where the past almost encroaches on the present.
It is simultaneously familiar and strange: you can stand at a Neolithic burial ...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 12 published on 16/11/2000
It's one of the easier whisky trivia questions. Which three Scottish distilleries are allowed to append the word 'royal' to their titles, asks Gavin Smith.
The answer is Royal Brackla, Royal Lochnagar and Glenury Royal, and, sadly, there are no liquid prizes for being correct. All three distilleries date from the first two decades of the 19th century but they have experienced decidedly mixed fortunes since those halcyon days.
Brackla is located some s...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 12 published on 16/11/2000
The old Taylor Distillery is getting a new lease of life Paul Harris investigates.
Glenn’s Creek is as picturesque as anything the River Spey has to offer. The fast running waters are just as clear, although the defile is narrower and the lush vegetation overshadows the green waters in a way the Spey does not admit.
Just as the Spey cuts through the legendary land of Glenlivet a...
By Paul Harris
from Issue 12 published on 16/11/2000
What makes Lagavulin great? Dave Broom goes in search of answers at the home of one the world's most elusive malts.
The first sight you get of Lagavulin from the rolling road from Port Ellen is of a place which looks more like an austere, whitewashed Scottish baronial castle than a distillery; the sort that the writer R.L.Stevenson would have one of his heroes face some dreadful peril in.
There is something eni...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 11 published on 16/9/2000
The spirit of innovation has always been a part of distilling at Glenlivet. Dave Broom charts ahistory shot through with passion, rebellion and imagination.
And in the Highlands the A939, Cockbridge to Tomintoul, is blocked. This was the way that the onset of winter was traditionally announced in Scotland.
Travel this road and you can see why this would be the first place to be snowbound. The pine forests and fast running waters of gentle Deeside have...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 10 published on 16/6/2000
Gavin Smith retraces the resurrection of Scotland's most southerly distillery, and discovers why it is being directed by an Irishman.
It’s a sad fact that de-commisioned distilleries, like old fighters, seldom make comebacks, and the last two decades of the 20th century were not kind to Scotland’s whisky-making facilities. Overall output was reduced, ‘rationalisation’ took place, and plants were mothballed, converted, or even demo...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 9 published on 16/4/2000
Wild Turkey is an old-fashioned American spirit, full of character, with an ability to seduce all-comers. Stuart Maclean-Ramsay pays his respects.
Brand ambassadors for premium Scotch and bourbon in America come in all shapes and styles.
There’s the youthful ambassador, handsome and unencumbered by the experience of actually working in a distillery, designed by advertising agencies to appeal to the all important market of stockbrokers in Manh...
By Stuart MacLean Ramsay
from Issue 9 published on 16/4/2000
History lives at Edradour, the world’s smallest Scotch whisky distillery, where traditional whisky-making methods remain unchanged to this day. Jane Slade describes the pleasures on offer when she slipped back in time
The Black Spout waterfall is the only natural barrier that stops the wild salmon leaping up to Edradour (pronounced as in ‘sour’), an idyllic, quintessentially Scottish haven buried deep in the southern Highlands.
But while the salmon may not make it, whisky lovers are more fortunate and there is ...
By Jane Slade
from Issue 8 published on 16/2/2000
Hand-made Maker’s Mark bourbon tastes irresistibly good. Stuart MacLean Ramsay describes an enthralling encounter
with Kentucky’s alchemists
Tom Bethel is the maître d’ and resident bourbon expert at Higgins, my favourite bar and restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Like all true professionals in the business of social arts, Tom has the effortless skill of making his guests comfortable, laying the foundation for a perfect evening of drinking,...
By Stuart MacLean Ramsay
from Issue 8 published on 16/2/2000
Stuart Maclean Ramsay was totally sedcued by Kentucky's smallest distillery, which uses Scottish copper pot stills and a rare method of distillation.
Autumn is a special time to visit the rolling hills and tree-lined hollows of central Kentucky. The distilleries are in full swing after a summer hiatus; the warm days and cool nights being ideal conditions for the white oak casks to nurse along the slumbering spirit.
About an hour’s drive from Lou...
By Stuart MacLean Ramsay
from Issue 7 published on 16/12/1999
Great whisky, great scenery, great climate. Dalmore has just about got it all, as John D Lamond reports.
Richard Paterson is a gentleman – a gentleman of the old school. He is the master blender of Whyte & Mackay, as was his father before him. Richard has a passion. That passion is the spirit produced at Dalmore distillery.
And a lovely little distillery it is, situated on the north shore of the Cro...
By John Lamond
from Issue 7 published on 16/12/1999
Powerful but elegant, Talisker is a prince among whiskies. Margaret Rand went over the sea to discover what makes the magic
Drive round the Cuillin Hills and you'll come to a huddle of white buildings looking out over Loch Harport, where the sea draws back at low tide to reveal a foreshore laced with bronze seaweed.
Surrounded by the grand scenery of Skye is the Talisker distillery, birthplace of one of the world's grea...
By Margaret Rand
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
Making whisky is all about rolling up your sleeves and getting down among the peat as Dave Broom found out at Bowmore distillery
6 o'clock in the morning! God knows when I last went to work at the same time as the sparrows are breaking wind in the trees. Still, whisky doesn't wait for lazy journalists, so it was down the road into a bright Bowmore dawn.
I've been round my fair share of distilleries, seen their workings and ...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
There’s nothing like a heady blend of sunshine, history and great hospitality to create a great drink, as Marcin Miller discovered
I'm not sure about you, but travelling around in the air-conditioned luxury of a Chrysler Voyager, driving past signs proudly advertising 'The most awesome fleamarket in the world', admiring the yard art while listening to Tom Waits' Mule Variations playing on WFPK Radio all makes for a pretty good ...
By Marcin Miller
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
Nature and native cunning have nurtured the distillery industry on the banks of the Spey. Tom Bruce-Gardyne took a trip through a whisky wonderland
Pity the poor wine-lover visiting Bordeaux for the first time only to discover the finest châteaux amassed on the dreary banks of the Gironde estuary. No such disappointment awaits the devotee of Speyside malts – for here the setting of the distilleries is truly worthy of the spirit they produce.
...
By Tom Bruce-Gardyne
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
Benromach Distillery reopened last year, for the sixth time in its hundred-year history. Jim Murray hopes that this time it's for good
It will be a stock trivia question for whisky buffs for years to come: which distillery celebrated its centenary by being reborn?
Answer: the tiny northern Speyside distillery of Benromach, located in the ancient town of Forres. And the re-opening of Benromach brought the most famous independent Sc...
By Jim Murray
from Issue 4 published on 13/6/1999
Charles Maclean takes a midnight tour of spectural distillery dogs ghostly maltmen and spirit footsteps that are silenced by the burning of boots. So draw the curtains and gather round the fire
Soon after the 1978 centenary of Glenrothes the stillman on duty noticed a silent presence in the stillhouse. He recognized the visitor by his dark complexion and long white hair – it was ‘Bye-way’, who had been a well known figure around Rothes in former times. He was a friendly presence; the still...
By Charles MacLean
from Issue 1 published on 12/1/1999
The peat-reek and iodine fullness of Laphroaig is the epitome of Islay; and it has changed little since the distillery was founded in the early nineteenth century, says Neil Wilson
Laphroaig's situation , on Islay's rugged south coast, cna only impress. Bracken-clad greenstone outcrops shield the distillery from the worst of the weather coming off the bay; beyond them, on a still September day, a heron is perched motionless by the water and a seal, some distance offshore, smoo...
By Neil Wilson
from Issue 1 published on 12/1/1999
Tucked under the roof of Balvnie is a brand new and entirely separate distillery. Jim Murray charts the progress of Kininvie, currently 8 years old and maturing nicely
This would be called the forgotten distillery, had anyone heard of it in the first place. Kininvie is that rarest of beasts, a new working distillery that goes about its daily routine almost entirely unnoticed. Every year more than 100,000 tourists pour into the Glenfiddich distillery, just a few hu...
By Jim Murray
from Issue 1 published on 12/1/1999
