The reason that we drove South last night was because we had received an invitation to visit a very new distillery in the lowlands. This distillery has been in production for about four years and is just releasing its first expressions (over the course of the past six months or so). But they’re not open to general visitors, with no plans to be. So, you might ask, how did we get ourselves an invitation?
Funny – we sort of wondered that too.
Well, we didn’t. Our friends at ImpEx Beverages (working with a friend of theirs at an independent bottling company) got us an invitation. The ImpEx folks were in Scotland a few weeks ago and visited this distillery (as it’s now part of their portfolio). Our MN rep, Melissa, reached out to John to say she was sure she could get is a peek inside on our trip if we wanted. We didn’t really think there was much hope; after all, we’re just this couple of guys, you know? If it did come to pass, we planned to do our best to represent the Souls; but in the grand scheme of whisky things, we’re not big hitters, so we weren’t counting on anything coming of it.
Therefore, as is pretty much always the case, Melissa came through. Sweet! We still weren’t really sure what to expect, but we can talk a pretty good game at least.
And so we got the invitation: the Commercial Manager would be delighted to show us around and chat about their whole place, process, and product. Remember what I said about being nice to people? Wowsers. So we literally re-arranged our trip around today’s invitation.
Now I want to – and need to – be a bit careful here. This was a private tour of a new farm distillery that does everything themselves (much like Kilchoman), during which some details were shared that really shouldn’t reach the general public. Or the limited public. Or competitors. So I’m not going to share details. Just some highlights.
Highlight one: we got to see the barley storage area. Now this may not sound like much, but it’s not something that you normally get to see; either the barley is brought in from offsite suppliers, or it’s tucked away. There’s something a little awe-inspring about seeing an entire season’s grain, and therefore an entire season’s whisky run, piled up around you. We didn’t roll in it… I mean yeah, I wanted to jump into it like a dog into a pile of leaves, but I was good. Inside this shed we noticed that the tractor tires had left a very distinctive pattern on the floor; almost barley like. Pure coincidence, but it did turn out to lend itself rather well to, say, bottle design.
Highlight two: we got to see their first warehouse mid re-organization. They’d just finished building their second on-site warehouse, and so were moving some stock around. A lot of their initial stock had been crammed in to their first warehouse, and was now getting ready to spread out a little more.
Highlight three: when a whisky legend walks in on your tour, says hello, and just starts chatting with you about the new distillery. Seriously. The distillery manager comes from a world famous distillery, with 30 years experience under his belt. The line of casks that were sitting open, one of which we had somewhat presumptuously huffed, were his current project: he was finalizing the recipe for their next release. He wasn’t expecting us – no reason he should, our host was the Commercial Manager – but he was kind enough to chat with us for a good 10-15 mins. (Full disclosure: both John and I had met him before when he visited the US, myself once, John several times)
Highlight four: I’ve now seen a blood tub. If would almost be more fun just to place that there… but I won’t. This is a very small cask, not commonly used, and named because it very quickly imparts color to the spirit. Due to its size it can also be used to test maturation in a bit of an accelerated way: there’s a higher wood to liquid ratio, which is what matures the spirit, so it happens faster. Like peeking into the future.
Highlight five: their mill is neither a Vickers Boby nor a Porteus, it’s custom made. For good reasons, that I’m not gonna share.
Highlight six: learning the differences between clear and cloudy wort. It’s all about the stirring. Leave the barley alone in the mash tun, you get clear wort, which generally produces a fruitier spirit. Rake the barley up while it’s bathing, you get cloudy wort, which generally produces more cereal notes in the sprit.
Highlight seven: when the Production Operator walks past a couple of times, then just stops to join in your conversation and chats about how they worked through their yeast selection. I have about a half dozen questions that I dearly wish I’d asked him, but by this point on the tour I was overwhelmed and maybe even had a bit of imposter syndrome going on.
Highlight eight: how you warm up your still to the final desired temp makes a notable difference in the end result. Not just the final temperature, how you get it there. Alchemy!
Highlingt nine: new cask terminology. “Select” vs “Distillery Runs”. Huh.
Highlight personal: the double-take that the Commercial Manager, a local boy, did when we introduced ourselves: “Oh… I wasn’t expecting /that/ accent!”
And then we got a couple of drams to try, in the room where their whole team gets to sample potential products and then decide, as a whole team, which will be come the desired expression. Bet your asteroids that doesn’t happen at many (if any) other distilleries. We were even gifted little goodie bags on the way out.
David was hugely generous with his time and we hugely appreciated the professional nature of the visit.
John and I talked about this tour… this invitation to share their distillery with us, a lot tonight. And I think we agree. Honestly… this was probably the most personal tour I will ever experience. Deeply personal on the part of the gent who was kind enough to give us two hours of his time, and who clearly /knew/ his distillery. Deeply personal on the part of the other two gents, qwho spontaneously joined us to chat about their work. And personal to me (us) because this was a tour just for us, and the coversation had such a professional informality to it that we were clearly being considered as on the same wavelength; that we understood and shared the passion; that we could be trusted with fascinating but sensitive details; that we weren’t just this couple of guys, you know? We got to be whisky “grown-ups” today, and that was amazing.
And the day wasn’t over. We were having lunch with David and Cindy, two former Kyudo students of John (and Carly) in Minnesota, who now teach Kyudo in Scotland. John had spent some time with them the day he arrived in Glasgow, but it turns out that they lived very near the distillery, and invited us for lunch. David works with the Forestry Commission, focusing on control of the deer population throughout a seriously large swath of Central Scotland. Lunch was, um, part of the control process. Venison: shot, butcheded, and prepared by the man himself. And let me tell you, there is no way I will ever eat a finer cut of venison in my life. It was outSTANDING. There was some stuff with it, but who cares about that. Seriously, this is a man who knows his deer.
After lunch, we were off to the Robert Burns museum, which was a relatively short drive away.
Now, I’m the grandson of Robert Burns. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: I look pretty good for someone pushing 200 years old. And you’re right, I do look pretty good for someone pushing 200 years old. How I look for a 51 year old is another matter 😉 Of course, my grandfather wasn’t THE Robert Burns and has no museum about him. This bloke was apparently some kind of poet…
Aye, OK, I know. I love Burns, and have wanted to visit this museum for years. And I want to go back and spend a lot more time there. But the real thrill for me was just laying hands on Kirk Alloway, the church at the heart of “Tam O’ Shanter”, my favourite of Burns’ work.
Francis Grose was touring Scotland, back in the day, compiling a book of Scottish Antiquities. He met and got along famously with Rabbie, who asked him to include Kirk Alloway (where is father was buried) in the book. Grose agreed, but only if Burns would include a poem or story to go with it. Burns agreed, and Tam O’ Shanter is the result. Burns himself considered it his best work, and I do love to perform it. So visiting the building – what’s left of it – was quite a treat. We wrapped up with a visit to Brig o’ Doon, the bridge featured at the end of the poem, with a gorgeous view of the Robert Burns memorial, which was sadly closed for the day. Again, I want to go back. Maybe at night. Maybe on a stormy night. To see if Kirk Alloway seems in a bleeze!
Then, after a quick visit to a particularly good whisky shop (Rabbie’s Drams), John and I bid farewell and hit the road. Back north, retracing our steps part of the way, then branching off as our desitnation tonight is Oban. Pitch dark, rain, and narrow windy roads along the north shore of Loch Lomond, then pitch dark, rain, and not-quite-so-narrow windy roads west through the highlands to Oban. We arrived at the Faite B&B, which so far is affy nice, and were settled by our gracious host, Thomas.
Tomorrow is a slow day, which will give us both time to reflect on today a little (seriously, we’re both still thinking a lot about our visit today). Oh, and we may just visit one of my favorite places on the planet.