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…
Category: speller
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…
The Viking Legends
“Hello. My name is Highland, and I am a Viking.” Alas, we, are not Vikings. We have sold a small piece of our soul to the Orkney Islands, but we shall never be as Viking as Highland Park, the Orcadian whisky who have never hidden their rich Nordic heritage from the islands North from Scotland,…
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…
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…
Whisky Weekend Twente
Whisky Weekend Twente 2017, what a great festival this was. Old familiars, well known acquaintances and new, yet to explore friendships and drams. A great atmosphere, created in the vip lounges of the local football stadium in Almelo, which was for the fourth time converted into a cozy whisky gathering of mostly local whisky enthusiasts….
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…
Villa de Varda
From time to time, we love to step out of our comfort zone whisky provides for us, and look closer at another distilled product the world has to offer. Last Christmas we were challenged to go a little deeper into bourbon and cognac, we recently discovered a new Dutch moonshine and we are no strangers…
The Jameson Experience
In last week’s article, we told you about what we have experienced with Irish Distillers’ Method and Madness brand launch in Dublin, the Q&A tasting the next morning and the visit to the archives and micro distillery with all their mad ideas in Midleton. Having some spare time before our plane would bring us back…
The Angels’ Share
James Markert recently contacted us to let us know about his latest book The Angels’ Share, a novel where he combines his passion for bourbon with his background in history. During his first tour to a bourbon distillery, he knew then and there the two needed to be combined into this book, bearing this title….
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