But this afternoon we have something different planned - a trip to Moffat distillery. As the crow flies or the fields could be walked if drier it's probably not much more than half a mile away but the roads make it almost three times that (curiously almost exactly the same distance as my house to the Steel Tank Alehouse)
Although the distillery has been blending other whiskies, mainly Speyside, for a few years the owners only actually acquired the distillery building last year and it was less than a month ago that the first clear spirit emerged from their still.
And it has two claims to fame, with just a tiny 200l still it is clearly the smallest distillery in Scotland and also it is the first to be powered entirely by wood fire.
So, although they are a distillery they don't yet sell any whisky they've distilled themselves, just the stuff the have blended for others and gin and liqueurs (again though, not from spirit from their own still I don't believe)
They offer two tastings, a regular one (gin, fruit liqueur, and two readily available blended whiskies) and a rarer whisky one (four whiskies that may not all be available any more). We opt to do both!
Now my expectation was that we'd be presented with a couple of trays each with 4 tasting (probably about 10cl, just under half measure) measures on each, plus the usual palette cleansing water and a dropper with water to 'soften' any whiskies that might warrant it.
But no, it is a tutored tasting and so after a few minutes our hostess Erin, one of the co-founders puts a few bottles on our table and comes to join us
Rather than do the two tastings separately Erin swapped between the two proffering us drinks in the order to least confuse the palette.
The London gin was beautiful, dry with a slight bitterness. The first whisky Erin poured was what she delightfully referred to as "breakfast whisky". Love it! It was their base blend called Doomhammer and it is incredibly light, both in colour and flavour, event lighter than my lightest Japanese whisky. Very easy drinking. I won't bore with tasting memories of the rest, but of course the star of the show was the 26 year-old single malt: vanilla, caramel, strong wood tones, barely any hint of the bourbon that it was first-fill casked in. A joy to experience something that old. And it was cask strength; normally cask strength for say a 10 year old whisky is a pokey 55% or so, but the angels had reduced this to a barely stronger than normal 45%. Aged spirits are interesting.
Erin was a mine of information - the still is so small that they had to scour manufacturers in Serbia, where the small batch Rakija producers create a demand for such. And the 200l still will only fill 5 quarter-casks, so Moffat whisky is bound to be a luxury (i.e. expensive) whisky when it hits the streets. Wonder if I'll ever be able to find and afford it!
Moffat whiskey - if you look carefully at that photo one of the whiskies is called The Moffat. Not any more it isn't. It was their first blend and so naturally got that name to put Moffat on the whisky map. But it fell foul of the Scottish Whisky Association rules that a whisky can only be named after a distillery if it is actually distilled there. Apparently it was such a small run they didn't need to recall those already sold but it isn't on sale any more (because it's all gone!)
Remember that 26 year-old Speyside single malt well they got it .... No! I'll let them tell the story themselves
https://www.moffatdistillery.com/2023/10/21/bottling-at-the-moffat-distillery-26-year-old-spey-single-malt/
A really pleasant way to spend an afternoon, education, entertainment, and a couple of drams (plus a couple of bottles to take home)
Here's about the best picture of that tiny still I could get through the glass, you can see it was pleasant weather for the stroll too.
