Chain Pier Distillery: an Uncharted whisky oddity
Chain Pier Distillery is going to be a very rare specimen in the history of Scotch whisky. The small setup was active only for a few months in 2018 and 2019. No more and no less than 39 casks were filled and the sole purpose of the distillery was to test distilling techniques for the then yet to open Bonnington Distillery in Leith, Edinburgh. We tasted an expression from that distillery here. Chain Pier has the distinction of being the location where whisky was distilled for the first time in over 100 years in Edinburgh. This is one for the history books!
During our visit to the WTF (Whisk Tasting Festival) Utrecht, we met up with Dana de Vos and Jack Breslin who founded the Uncharted Whisky Company. We were charmed straight away by this very friendly duo, not in the least because they bottle interesting whisky under amusing names. The names refer to song titles. We have seen quite a few Beatles tracks mentioned, but as a Bowie fan myself I am now happy to see the incredibly funny pun of “Speys Oddity”
At their stand, I was happy to discover an expression of Chain Pier Distillery in the wild. Who would have thought! Only six bottles have been put into the Whiskybase, and only three of them are done by independent bottlers. One by Milroy’s of Soho, and two by Uncharted. They previously released a virgin oak matured expression, and in March the new one. Talking to Jack and Dana about this “Malt Mill of the future”, they told us they have two more casks waiting that are just not ready yet, and these are maturing on Jack Daniel casks. We look forward to those! As it is, today we sink our teeth into a wine cask matured Chain Pier Distillery!
Chain Pier 2019, bottled at 57,6 % abv by Uncharted Whisky Company
First things first: Distilled on 19 April 2019, this rare Chain Pier was bottled in March 2025 after maturing for 5 years (almost 6) in a first fill French red wine barrique. Cask # 8, with inhouse reference UC045. Only 294 available.
Upon Sipping: Always nice to take a first sip of a whisky from a distillery you have never tried anything from. Sticking my nose in the glass, the red wine hits you hard right from the start. Sour raspberries, wet wood, plastic table cloth on which you spilled red wine, all in all a lot of cask and not much malt, which is a pity. Not an unpleasant nose, to be clear, but it is omnipresent and takes away spotlight from the spirit. We accept out fate in this wine-driven whisky world. We go in for a sip then, only after realizing we did taste the Inaugural Release of Bonnington Distillery when we were in Edinburgh in December 2024, and it seems indeed similar. (That one was port matured.)
This is much more satisfying. The spirit feels silky soft on the tongue, and the palate is covered with a lot of red fruit. We do pick up some warm bread, croissant and butter, which clearly points toward the malted barley ingredient of this product. Moving towards the finish, the red wine cask is again putting a big stamp on the experience. With water, the nose reveals a more rubbery note. The liquid gets delightfully oily and remains very supple. Because of the cask influence, I am reminded of some eau de vie experiences. Rather sweet and nice, but the tannins of course also take power from the water, and this Chain Pier Distillery turns a bit dry towards the end.
Word to the Wise: Let’s be honest here: this experience is like watching a lunar eclipse (like I did one day before writing these tasting notes). You can see the moon, but it is cloaked. In the case of this sample of Chain Pier Distillery, we can smell and taste the whisky, but it is cloaked under a too heavy layer of wine influences. There are a lot of redeeming qualities in the spirit, but we will wait for a more suitable expression (as is promised by Uncharted Whisky) from a different cask.
Score: 77 points.