Scotland/England '22: Day 8

Just a Couple More Distilleries

Scotland/England '22 Gallery

Grassmarket, Edinburgh

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Glengoyne & Deanston

Yes we’ve left Speyside, but there is whisky down here too and today was a tale of two distilleries. Glengoyne, the smallest distillery (1 million liters a year) we visited on this trip, and Deanston, which is still a modest distillery making around 3 million liters a year.

Glengoyne made a real effort to welcome their guests and seemed very proud of their traditional methods. Their staff is really small (under 10 people actually making the whisky) and their whisky was nice. Some 18 year is coming home with us. They are considered a highland whisky, but just barely make the cutoff. Just across the road, where they store their casks is considered lowland. I mean literally just across the street. They even pipe over their spirits under the road for filling the casks.

Family shot with the stills

Barrels on display

Glengoyne Distillery

Deanston by comparison was probably the worst tour, though there were still some interesting bits. Tour guide was kind of phoning it in and totally rushed our tasting. Practically had to gulp the damn stuff ;-). Unlike any of the other distilleries, they use an open topped mash tun (see photo below for the red mash tun). They also leave the fermentation stage going for twice as long (around 100 hours) as all the other distilleries we visited. Of coarse, all the guides try to spin it in a way that says this makes their whisky distinctive. But really, I didn’t get any hint of more complex flavors at all from the 3 whiskies I tried.

Deanston was created in 1966 in an old mill

Unfortunately for Porteus, they made their milling machines too well. They ran out of clients to sell to because they never needed replacing. We saw many and all were decades old and usually bought second hand by the smaller distilleries.

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The Kelpies in Falkirk - they’re big and right along the side of the highway

Hay is everywhere in Scotland

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Whisky Scoreboard:

++ Distillery Tour/Tasting

** Distillery Bar (no tour)

• Glenfarclas 15 (++) - thumbs up, kind of spicy (bringing some home)

• Macallan 12 Triple Cask (**) - so so

• Macallan 12 Double Cask (**) - so so

• Macallan 12 Sherry Cask (**) - not bad, I would buy it.

• Macallan Edition No. 2 (**) - decent, alcohol forward, then kind of spicy

• Macallan Edition No. 4 (**) - decent - grasslike quality, don’t ask me what that means.

• Macallan Edition No. 6 (**) - ok, I’ve been drinking all day, it seemed ok now in hindsight

• Speyside Braden Orach - not bad, alcohol forward

• Singleton 12 - definitely drinkable

• Knockando 12 - not bad

• Glenrothes Whisky Makers Cut - after so many whiskies I’m not sure what to make of it. So different than the others, it is hard to be objective. Different for sure and I think decent. Might have to try again!

• Ledaig Sinclair - I like this one and it seemed to be perfect to go with a Smokey BBQ. It was Smokey for sure, but I like those kinds of whiskies.

• Caol Ila DE - Smokey but not a lot of body. There are better options for something similar. Still drinkable though.

• Singleton 12 (Dufftown)(++) - ok, tasted better before trying the nest 2 on the list

• Singleton 15 (Glendullan)(++) - the best of the 3 Singletons we tried at the distillery.

• Singleton Celebratory (Glen Ord)(++) - great nose, kind of spicy, only 3 thousand bottles made, would be nice around the holidays

• An Cnoc (Knockando Distillery) - Smokey and nice!

• GlenGrant 10 (++) - Not special, but also not bad. I’ll drink it if you serve it to me.

• GlenGrant Arboralis (++) - Light, perfect for summer Scoth drinking, if there is such a thing. Also really inexpensive for the bonus (bringing some home)

• Dailuaine 16 - Nice but not awesome. Alcohol forward then the sweetness from the sherry casking

• BenRiach 12 Sherry - We have drive past BenRiach so many times this week it seemed necessary to try this one. I actually liked this better than the Dailuaine 16.

• Glenfarclas 105 (++)

• Cragganmore 12 (++) Decent, great nose, modest flavoring compared to the others we tried (bringing some home)

• Cragganmore Distillers Edition (++) - Like this one and bought a bottle (bringing some home)

• Cragganmore Distillery Reserve (++)- Liked this one as well but it is a higher proof which I do not prefer

• Glengoyne 12 (++) - Decent but not overly flavorful

• Glengoyne 18 (++) - Really nice, we’re bringing some home

• Deanston 12 (++) - Alcohol hit upfront and on the backend, decent but again having trouble rating because my taste buds are getting confused

• Deanston Virgin Oak (++) - Did not really care for this one. It was made using a blend of 16 yr and 6-8yr

• Deanston 18 (++) - Drinkable, but felt like a decent 12, not an 18