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 in depth
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…
A 5 year itch.
A 5 year itch. January 19 2019 was our last article about a whisky distillery we visited in May 2018. A year and a bit later, in October 2020, we wrote some words about the annually released Malt Whisky Yearbook from our friend Ingvar Ronde. After that, a long silent period from us. Sorry if…
JUST GETTING STARTED…
For most whisky enthusiasts, entering the Speyside area brings something special. With over 50 active whisky distilleries – and counting, the region has become a new home away from home for WhiskySpeller, albeit for only about two weeks of the year. These two weeks, not very incidentally, always seem to coincide with the busiest time…
DEXTER’S LAB
Well, that was quite a fermentation period… At WhiskySpeller HQ we have been handling a pair of overflowing washbacks the last couple of weeks. Cutting the froth didn’t quite ehm… cut it, so we decided to switch to an anti-foaming agent to clear the schedule a little. Repairs have been done, both stills are undamaged,…
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 THREE 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, the first, second and third parts are just a resume of what we have been doing and all distillery visits will be…
De Bronckhorst
The eastern parts of the Dutch province Gelderland is known as the “Achterhoek” which translates easiest as a back-corner or, as we learned from our Scottish friends in Fife, a Neuk – which means something entirely different translated back to Dutch. The Achterhoek is a rural place with patches of forests, but mostly flat open…
#EpicIslayTrip
October 2014. A group of our friends – most of which had never been to Scotland or even a distillery, had agreed to be shown a handful of distilleries and follow our lead to our beloved Scotland. Success of our trip was great, we popped some Scotland-cherries and it did not take long before the…
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…
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