The Speyside region. A region not really designated by natural boundaries, or clan ownership claims, but roughly defined by having access to the water coming from or flowing into the river Spey. Home to roughly 50 distilleries in the mid-east of the Highlands between Inverness and Aberdeen, hugging the North Sea coast. In the triangle…
Category: distillery
The Sound of Islay
Oh, hello! Is it another day already? We thought we were on Islay time? Normally, we would have said it slows down a bit, but it seems to have caught up with mainland time over the years. Shame! Anyway, While we want to explore the Island and not only go on another distillery hopping spree,…
Katie’s first time
Having decided to calm things down, which sort of comes natural when one is on Islay, we leisurely cruised to the Bruichladdich shop, which we had never seen this busy outside of Feis Ile. Crammed with people going on different tours, and sadly no space for us to squeeze in. Although we have seen the…
DARNLEY’S
In 2016, we visited the Kingsbarns distillery in the Kingdom of Fife for the first time. Then, they were already producing and casking single malt spirit for a whole year, which means that it has now come of age and can be called whisky. Except for an exclusive selection of their founders’ club members, it…
A WHISKY PILGRIMAGE
Driving through the beautiful Kingdom Fife, we find ourselves nearing the town of Newburgh towards a location that should be a pilgrimage for whisky lovers. Where in the old days Grey Monks grew a diversity of fruits from their own orchards, kept bees for their honey and mead and harvested barley to brew and distill…
THE BORDERS DISTILLERY
The Scottish Borders. An area in Scotland we have mostly passed through, when driving on the coastal A1, trying to reach a more northern destination when coming off the boat at Newcastle upon Tyne. Little did we know that the A696 – the “other” road leading north from Newcastle, would merge with the A68 at…
LEG TWO OF THREE
Because three weeks of touring through Scotland is quite a bit to digest in one read, we decided to gather our notes and split the trip in three more edible parts. Mind you, this second part is just a resume of what we have been doing and all distillery visits will be getting their own…
LEG ONE OF THREE
Because three weeks of touring through Scotland is quite a bit to digest in one read, we decided to gather our notes and split the trip in three more edible parts. Mind you, this first part is just a resume of what we have been doing and all distillery visits will be getting their own…
Dungeons & Eagles
In our search for the next passionate Dutch distiller, we travel to the picturesque municipality of Doesburg, where medieval monastery “Het Arsenaal” has been converted to house several small businesses. Where a Grand Café, small cinema, game store, wine merchant and whisky specialist already had found their home, a micro distillery has joined inside their…
Release the Kelpie!
Fèis Ìle, the annual festival of malt and music on the isle of Islay, where each of the distilleries have one day of festivities surrounded by arts and crafts workshops, whisky tastings, local (sea)food vendors and pop-up restaurants, community driven ceilidhs and performances from a variety of artists. Most, if not all distilleries also release…
The Foam Party
The last couple of months we have been busy filling our days with work, trying (and failing) to avoid the flu epidemic(s), study, look for a new job, read, assess and review books (which feels close to studying), taste liquors and make notes on them, setup and create pictures, visit families who, apparently, need attention…
Little Black Hill – Knockando Distillery
During the heydays of the Scottish Whisky industry in the end of the nineteenth century, dreamer, gambler and entrepreneur John Tytler Thompson decided to build a new distillery on the banks of the river Spey. He commissioned acclaimed architect and engineer Charles Doig to build him a modern distillery, the first Speyside distillery to be…
WhiskySpeller 