Fourth-generation family business Gordon & MacPhail run by the Urquhart family since 1895, has been building up quite a volume of well matured whisky stock of their own quality casks they filled over the years at numerous distilleries throughout Scotland. With this stock, they are conserving a piece of history which they now have decided…
Category: speyside
Discovering the Secret – The Speyside Distillery
On the edge of the Cairngorms, close to where the river Spey flows towards the last whisky distillery which uses its waters, we discovered a hidden gem – the Speyside distillery. Coming from the south, the easiest way to reach the distillery is to take the Kingussie exit on the A9, drive through the village…
The Meeting Place – Dalwhinnie Distillery
Dalwhinnie, or “Dail Chuinnidh”, Gaelic for “the Meeting Place”, is beautifully situated north of the Drumochter pass, on the south-western edge of the large Cairngorm National Park in between the Ben Alder and Creag Meagaidh mountain ranges. History tells us the location was often used as a place to rest weary travelers’ legs or meet…
120 Valves – Ballindalloch Distillery
Just about the first thing we did when we knew we were traveling to the Spirit of Speyside whisky festival 2016 was contacting Brian Robinson, distillery host at the Ballindalloch distillery to see if we could arrange something during or around the days we would be in the area. Coming from the A9, following the…
Chivas’ new Crown – Dalmunach distillery
Pitlochry had been good to us overnight, so bright and early we drove up North to go to the Speyside region where we had made an appointment with Ann Miller and Trevor Buckley to be shown around Chivas Brothers / Pernod Ricard’s newest 24/7 and highly energy efficient distillery; Dalmunach. Coming from Pitlochry, we used…
Spirit of Speyside Festival 2016
After an eventful three week trip to Scotland (week one, two and three for the lazies), that we specifically planned around the Spirit of Speyside festival, annually held in the last week of April. Information about this festival is – except for the info on their website, hard to find sometimes, and for first…
Epic Scotland Road Trip 2016 Diary (part three of three)
Springtime songs performed by the birds in front of our sleeping room window, a distant sheep baaahs a good morning to the world while the early morning sun is chasing the mist away from the fields, creating pearls of morning dew on the sprouting barley. There are worse places and moments to wake up, as…
Epic Scotland Road Trip 2016 Diary (part one of three)
Monday, April 25th 2016 As you might have read, we started our trip fresh off the boat at the Lakes Distillery in Cumbria, in the Northern region of England, only just a few kilometres South of Scotland. We drove up to Wishaw to meet up with the #whiskyfabric in the Artisan. Derek and Fiona had put something…
the Beast of Dufftown
Over the past few years, we have tasted our fair share of Mortlach whiskies, and except for the rare Diageo bottlings, most of them were only available from independent bottlers, and most of the ones we have tasted we in private collections other than our own (hence the lack of proper notes). Times change; Diageo announced mid…
The Spirit of Speyside Bake Off
The Whisky Shop Dufftown recently ran a competition to find the best Speyside whisky inspired Cupcake of Muffin. Contestors had to think whisky, and invent a whisky inspired cupcake or muffin. Of course a (well available) Speyside whisky had to be either in the cupcake, or had to fit the recipe in a pairing. After a couple…
WhiskySpeller 