Frankenstillery – Loch Lomond Distillery

After a lovely evening in Wishaw, where we enjoyed a massive dinner at the Artisan whisky bar and restaurant with old and new whisky friends, we made ourselves ready to defy the Tuesday-morning traffic of Glasgow and find our way to Alexandria, where we had arranged an appointment to visit the Loch Lomond distillery. Glasgow…

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 two of three)

The first week of our 2016 trip to Scotland was a huge success. We met new people, shared a house with close (and new) friends, popped corks with complete strangers and drove around the Speyside region as if we were home. In short; we had a blast. On we go… Monday, May 2nd 2016 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…

Just act normal, that’s crazy enough… – Kalkwijck distillery

  The Netherlands. According to some, cradle of the modern spirits. Aged and unaged Jenevers, Gins, Corenwines, Maltwines, Vieux and sweet liquors, and for almost two decades already, there are also some quite decent Dutch whiskies on the market. Discovering the world of whisky, we – as many whisky enthusiasts, started with Scotland to explore…

Clan MacMorland

Wullie & Gerie MacMorland When you are alive and breathing in the Netherlands and are in one form or the other enthusiastic about whisky and passionate about good food, there is a good chance you have heard about Wullie MacMorland from Hielander Scottish Restaurant in Alkmaar. Besides running the restaurant & whisky bar, he is…

Swords and Feathers

From the Newcastle ferry, where we – as many European Mainlanders – arrive with our own car, it is an almost straight West when following the whole A69 to Carlisle, where our route turns North following the M6, towards our beloved Scotland. It only takes very little time when we cross the river Sark, which forms…

Smokes on the water of life, and a bottle of rum

We have been to several festivals in the Netherlands and love finding new festivals to go to and discover. At most events we find the same tables and selections of whiskies, and the only difference seems to be a bigger or smaller location. After a while, there is less and less to discover whisky-wise, and…

Maltstock 2015

Warning  This lengthy article covers many of the relaxed events happening at Maltstock 2015.  It may cause a relaxed jealousy, start you (relaxedly) drinking whisky or trigger uncontrolled (but very relaxed) urges to purchase relaxed tickets for the next edition (here) After the 2014 event, we (as everybody else) were offered a €25,- discount per…