Kicking off a sweltering Father’s Day weekend with a selection from both storied and upstart distilleries
When: 13th June 2025
Where: The Yard, Ely
Host: Elliott Drinks Whisky
It was a very hot, humid night in our whisky tasting room. We had plenty of water to help hydrate us as we sampled the assembled whiskies, but the other major effect of the heat was as an added factor to our experiences with the whisky itself.
I try to make the effort, at every tasting I host, to point out that we’re each unique in our ability to taste and smell, and even unique to ourselves from day to day. When we drink the same whisky next to each other, we’ve all been through a different day of foods and drinks, taken journeys past different scents, and all of that on top of lives full of different flavour associations. The environmental temperature is yet another factor in that list of things which affect our body’s reaction to and capacity for getting the measure of a whisky – and each person will react differently.
Of course, the whisky being a good few degrees warmer than it is normally enjoyed in the UK represents an important component in characterising its profile. The evaporation rates of the water & the alcohol, and the relative states of the different chemical components in the spirit, all mean the notes we made that night could be wildly different to another day we’d tried those whiskies. Our own days and years of experiences leading up to each dram, and the external environmental factors beyond our control all combine together to give us brand new experiences with every whisky, every time!
The Whisky
(Click on the images to buy a bottle)
Balblair – 15yo
Highland single malt Scotch whisky – 46%
Justification: Old distillery, reasonable age
Starting with something old in both spirit and distillery age. The current Balblair distillery sits half a mile from where the original was founded in 1790. The move, in the close of the 19th century, was in order to place it on a railway line to better source coal and barley. However, they are still, to this day, using water from the stream source of the original distillery.
In 2019, Balblair swapped from vintage releases to age statements; the consumer can see, a little more clearly, what they’re getting from a bottle on a shelf with an age statement. The entry-level expression is a 12yo aged exclusively in American oak, whereas this 15yo is finished in first-fill spanish oak (sherry wood).
Notes: Caramel, toffee popcorn, aniseed touch, white pepper. Dates, figs, raisins, sticky toffee pudding.
Woven – Pastures New
Blended English whisky – 49.1%
Justification: First all-English blend
Two things excited me about this bottle, and they both fit nicely within the theme of the event. Firstly, Woven are a fairly young blending house, trying to bring some experimentation to their industry, from the historic home of blending, in the Port of Leith, Edinburgh. Secondly, this is a blend of 100% English whiskies – the first of its kind for the young new-world whisky nation.
Woven have been around since 2021 in their Leith home, and with the help of their London studio, have been releasing blends that include components from Scotland, New Zealand, Germany and several nordic countries. The first English whisky for 100 years was released in 2006, and the number of active distilleries has now exceeded 60. Both Woven and the English whisky industry are actively looking to push whisky forward with new ideas, whilst still satisfying people with great drinks.
This is a blend of whisky from White Peak Distillery in Derbyshire (aka Wire Works), Adnams in Suffolk, Copper Rivet in Kent, Cotswolds Distilery in Warwickshire, Cooper King in Yorkshire, and Fielden now in Yorkshire, but likely using spirit from its former life in Oxford. There’s barley, rye, wheat and oats, pot and column stills, and all manner of casks.
Notes: Fragrant apples, bread spice, alcohol fire, some peach, skittles/jelly beans, lime humbug, ending with a touch of ash.
Signatory 100 Proof – Cameronbridge 16yo
Lowland single grain Scotch whisky – 57.1%
Justification: Oldest working grain distillery
Cameronbridge is the oldest working grain whisky distillery in Scotland, and the largest in Europe. Opened in 1824 in Fife, near Leven, its gone on to become somewhat of an important home base for Diageo. Even back in the early 19th century, it was built to be big, but by 1877, after its owners merged with 8 other distillers, the resulting company controlled 75% of scotch grain production. Today, it’s at the forefront of modernisation for Diageo as they push to be carbon net-zero by 2030. At Cameronbridge, that means work to cut its carbon footprint by 90% through renewable electrification.
The bottler of this whisky, Signatory, has been around since 1988. Long enough to have made some very shrewd decisions and acquisitions to set themselves up for this ‘100 proof’ line of high ABV (with the name referring to a gunpowder test for alcohol potency), but low price releases.
Notes: Alcohol fire, jammy berries, butterscotch, dark chocolate, coffee, white sherry, touch of cider vinegar. Sweet bitter liqueur like dessert wine or amaretto. Maybe apricot.
Douglas Laing Double Barrel – Bowmore & Blair Athol
Blended malt Scotch whisky – 46%
Justification: Two old distilleries & a seasoned blender
Not just old, Bowmore is the first recorded legal Islay distillery and only the second in Scotland. So, why would I present it as part of a blend? Well, it’s been blended with whisky from one of the oldest Highland distilleries in an unusual way by an independent bottler I consider as having been around for a while, Douglas Laing.
Blair Athol is an unpeated whisky mostly sold by independent bottlers, with Diageo keeping it mostly for their blends and the occasional Flora and Fauna release. Peated Bowmore leans a bit more towards distillery bottlings, but there are plenty of indies too. Douglas Laing is a family-run company who have, here, blended just those two distilleries together as part of their ‘Double Barrel’ range – a fairly unusual practice, especially in drawing attention to it.
But here, we have two fairly different distillery characters that lend different pieces to the puzzle in the bottle. With an age statement showing the youngest whisky inside is 10 years old, that puts it younger than the core distillery bottlings. Plus, it being non-chill filtered and of natural colour is another difference between distillery-bottled Bowmore. Douglas Laing will have had many casks from each distillery to marry together, and from that natural colour, presumably, there are some interesting, or at least potent, ones in the mix.
Notes: Honey, ginger, grassy, generic lynx deodorant, maple beef burger, appletiser + waft of smoke, chocolate ash, granite minerality, balsamic, drying.
Ardnahoe – Infinite Loch
Islay single malt Scotch whisky – 50%
Justification: Newest Islay distillery
In the North East of Islay, overlooking Jura, sat between Bunnahabhain & Caol Ila, Ardnahoe is named after it’s neaby water-source, Loch Ardnahoe. Founded in 2018, it was the first new distillery on the island in 13 years (since Kilchoman’s 2005 debut, which was the first since 1908). All of the distillery equipment is new, except for one 100yo malt grinder, and they’re unique on Islay in using wormtubs to condense their distillate.
Wormtubs were more commonplace before the 20th Century, but are large, open wooden tubs filled with water that sit outside a distillery, and allow for copper tubing to wind round inside them. The water-cooled, immersed copper tends to lead to quick condensation and less copper contact compared with shell & tube condensers. The typical characteristic of wormtub whisky is meatier and sulphurous, though changing the water temperature and the distillation rate can slow down the condensation, increasing the copper-contact, and thus the filtration effects.
Ardnahoe launched their 5yo inaugural bottles in May 2024, and followed that up with this NAS release in September 2024. It’s a 70-30 split of ex-Bourbon and ex-Oloroso casks.
Notes: Good obvious smoke, bbq crisps, parsnip, honey +maple, thick and sticky. Oak. Not iodine, but not floral, maybe herbal. Stuffing and gravy.
The Winners
Vote Winner: Bottle #1 – Balblair 15yo
Close Contenders: Bottles #4 – Bowmore x Blair Athol & #5 – Ardnahoe Infinite Loch
The heat didn’t affect the energy and engagement in the room, but the whisky nerd in me would love to give the tasting another go in winter, to see how it affects the notes. While the Balblair was hands down (by hands up) winner, the smokey duo earned their fair share of the vote. In the case of the Ardnahoe, people were very impressed with the amount of character to it, considering it’s young age.