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…

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…

Black sheep Red sheep

Friday the 13th, 2018. A day people seemed to handle with extra care, avoiding dangerous situations, seeing ladders as serious death threats and black cats as fierce mountain lions. Many doomsday scenarios were composed fitting any Guillermo del Toro silver screen adventure. On this very day we decided to travel to Bunnik, a little town…

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…

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….

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 Land Between Two Rivers – The Edradour Distillery

It doesn’t seem to matter if the weather is dreach or the sun is out on its highest peak, the Edradour distillery seems to attract busloads of people every day during the season. Not so strange really, if you take a look at the tiny bridges over the rushing cooling water of the Edradour burn,…

WhiskySpeller – News Update

A lot has happened since our last update at the beginning of November. Next to the stories we usually share about our trips and distillery visits, we have added book reviews to our revamped site and started sharing tasting notes on a daily basis from the Drinks by the Dram Advent Calendars. On top of…

The Oyster Catcher – Inchgower Distillery

At the end of April 2016, during the Spirit of Speyside festival, a cold freezing wind and a watery pale sun remembered us we were closer to winter than we were to summer. We enjoyed a good sturdy home made breakfast in our rented cottage in Cullen, cleared the car of the night frost and…

Speyside Collection

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…

Impeccably Crafted

After the Classic Malts of Scotland range was released in 1988 to represent six distilleries from six different Scottish areas, the success was followed by the Rare Malts Selection in 1995 where more exclusive bottlings, mostly from closed distilleries and aged for at least 18 years, were presented to the public. Annually new bottlings were…