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…
Category: Distillery in depth
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…
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…
The Road to Craigellachie
The Road to Craigellachie starts with Hans sipping his first whisky in 1974 and falling in love with the spirit put in front of him. From this moment on, Hans’ adventures into the world of whisky starts with his first trip to the UK after his studies, not exactly knowing what to do next and…
The Can-Dhu-Spirit
On many occasions in the last few years, we have shared our stories traveling through the Speyside region with its omnipresent distilleries. It seems that every week, another of the existing ones are opening their doors to the public, create visitors’ centres and install good kitchens and lunchrooms to attract many visitors to the distillery…
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