Categorie: Tom’s Dram Diaries
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The Pearl of Speyside, Polished to a Shine! The Tormore Distillery’s nickname is The Pearl of Speyside, and anyone who has ever driven from Grantown-on-Spey towards Aberlour knows exactly where that name comes from. As you glide through that glorious bend in the A95 and the majestic buildings drift past, you cannot help but gawp…
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A Visit to Glengoyne and A Massive Tasting Talk about your busy schedules! Together with two friends, I visited the Glengoyne Distillery all the way back in January, to shake hands with another good friend, Mr. Richard Brass. To us, he is a comrade affectionately known as “just” Richie. This is one passionate guy! We shared…
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A repeat visit to the now active Ardgowan Distillery Ardgowan is such a distillery that will probably stay with me forever, since the connection was established before distilling had even started. In January 2025 we visited the distillery in the final stages of construction before production commenced in May. Unbelievable what we saw then, so…
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Single Estate Bus Whisky: sipping for a better world In the tiniest of hamlets called Bus, in the Dutch province Noord-Brabant, there is a small distillery of the same name to be found. Surrounded by farmland, the story of how whisky started dripping from the still there is a remarkable one. My dear whisky-and-food pairing…
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The Springbank Stallions play around with Kilkerran The Springbank Stallions convened again, as they do every year in January, in Campbeltown. With the big bicentennial year for Springbank approaching in 2028, we are quietly anticipating the festivities. Until that time, there was and is still 2026 and 2027 to deal with for the Stallions gathering.…
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The 2016 trend in a blog: Happy 210th birthday, Lagavulin Distillery! The year is 2026, and crazy as it sounds, it means ten years have passed since the famous Lagavulin Distillery on Islay celebrated the bicentennial. No matter how much I love Ardbeg and Laphroaig, who celebrated their 200th just one year earlier, I had to…
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Peaty winner at the first Dram1 Awards 2025 A brand new and consumer driven Whisky Award was announced somewhere mid-September and I thought it would be fun to partake in this. So, when the package arrived on the first day of October, I could not wait to get started. The rules are simple and laid…
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Ardnahoe cherishes it owns Appreciation Society The Ardnahoe Distillery Appreciation Society is quite a young Facebook group which has around 750 members. The participants are enthusiastic fans of one of the youngest distilleries on Islay. On Friday 5 September 2025, the first online tasting was undertaken, with no less than 7 samples tasted and enjoyed.…
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Distillery Exclusives from the stills at Caol Ila The Islay Home of Jonnie Walker. That is how owner Diageo markets the Caol Ila Distillery and its products these days when you set foot on the island. It joins the ranks of Clynelish, Cardhu and Glenkinchie, and coming with it was a big overhaul of the…
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Back to the year 2014 when Annandale was resurrected Annandale Distillery was a true gem to behold when I visited the location in 2014, ahead of a week in Campbeltown and on Islay. We were lucky to be received by Malcom Rennie (pictured), who was involved in starting up this long lost Lowland distillery in…