Kingsbarns Doocot
Kingsbarns was founded in 2014 by Douglas Clement and is currently owned by independent bottler Weymss Malts, which purchased it in 2022. The placement of the distillery in the Lowland region, where there have been remarkably few active distilleries in the 21st century, was purportedly done to help provide comfort to golfers at the nearby famous courses around St. Andrew’s. The first whisky launched in 2018 and after a number of limited in development expressions, a limited core range emerged. The Kingsbarns Doocot is their flagship release and is the Scottish word for the dovecot that sits at the center of the distillery. It is a blend of whiskies matured in (90%) ex-bourbon and (10%) ex-Portuguese red wine barriques that have been shaved, toasted and re-charred (STR), both first-fill.
Kilkerran Heavily Peated
Glengyle distillery was founded by William Mitchell, one of the co-founders of Springbank, in 1872 and closed in 1925. After many attempts to restart throughout the 20th Century, the distillery finally began production again in 2004 with new stills and other equipment under the same ownership group as Springbank. The distillery sells their offerings under the brand name Kilkerran because the name Glengyle is owned by Loch Lomond and used for their blended malt. The Kilkerran Heavily Peated is a single malt that, as the name implies, is made using heavily peated barley. This is the 8th Edition and was released in May 2023. Though past bottles have listed ppm levels (phenolic parts per million), this edition does not.
Craigellachie 13 Year Bas-Armagnac
While Craigellachie exists in the Speyside region of Scotland, the distillery has long been proud of forging its own style that doesn’t always match up with its neighbors, whether that means using heritage equipment from a bygone era or adding a new twist to the production process. A new entrant into distillery’s core line of offerings, the Craigellachie Bas-Armagnac takes the distillery’s core 13 year single malt and finishes it for over a year in casks from Gascony that once held Bas-Armagnac. Translated as Lower Armagnac, it is a region in southwestern France along the border with Spain. Grapes grown in this region are blended into a specific style of brandy that uses column stills in the distillation rather than the pot stills often used in cognac production. The Bas-Armagnac region accounts for about 60% of all Armagnac production.