Dougie’s Campbeltown Whisky Dash 2024: Part II

Read Part I of Dougie’s Campbeltown Dash 2024 here

What we thought was the new Warehouse Tasting Tour building is, in fact, the new bottling hall for Cadenhead’s. Not sure where to turn, we head for the shop to ask directions, and are instead told that we have arrived. Someone will be along soon to take us to the Warehouse.

Someone does arrive, clad in fluorescent orange and wearing a beanie hat, he looks around the gathering and asks who is excited to join him on the Warehouse tour? We are half-cut so cheer with gusto; the others shoot side-eyes with concern; they might have to spend their time listening to two idiots witter on about whisky smelling like table tennis bats or the tin-foil seal from a jar of Nutella.

We’re all led in single file to an inconspicuous set of battered wooden doors, where our man Aly is unbolting the hasp and showing us into a small room. Inside this dark, windowless brick cell rests a bunch of upended casks, atop which sits bottles of water, glasses and some pipettes. On the floor in front of our cask tables sit 5 hogsheads, each one marked with numbers but without any indication of what rests within. Behind me is a huge butt, thank you for asking, and behind that butt is a bigger whisky butt. To my right is another giant cask and we start to get excited by what might be sleeping in this little room.

Aly calls us to order and he has the most magnificent accent I’ve heard in a long time. He has a fabulously dry sense of humour too, and we’re immediately having a hoot. An Irish family complete with little wispy dog are to our left; an American family are to our right. “It’s time to have fun!” says Aly as he reaches for the persuader to remove the first bung from the first cask.

This first dram is a blended whisky made up of 3 Speysiders - a 12yo Aultmore, a 24yo Glenrothes and a 12 yo Dalwhinnie, we think. 54.9% ABV and to be honest, I’m not into it. Aly feels the same and throws his back onto the cask, and I follow suit. Uncle is enjoying it and finishes his. We get chatting to the American family who are from Austin TX, here on a whisky voyage around what seems like the entirety of Scotland.

“Who’s ready for the next one, hey?” shouts Aly and we’re swishing out our glasses with water in readiness. Uncle ask Aly where he hails from and Peru is the answer. We’re all listening intently as Aly explains his history, how he left Peru because Covid is still running amok there and he wanted out. Moving to Campbeltown he found a job at Springbank via Facebook and has fallen head over heels in love with Scotch whisky. We ask what the local aperitif is in Peru and he tells us it’s called Pisco, distilled from grapes akin to brandy; some liken it to Grappa, others to Tequila. Aly says it’s good but the Pisco Sours are the main attraction.

Aly is a great showman, and it must be the final shift of his day because he’s drinking along with us and enjoying these whiskies too. The second cask is more up our street - Glentauchers 16yo in a Sherry hoggy, but at 49.4% it must have been a leaky auld cask. Again it’s ok but not really setting me on fire - it feels a bit generic sherry red sweetie.

Third cask is another Speysider and we jest with Aly that this is just a tour of Speyside. A Glenburgie Madeira cask zips our funny faces, and is really bloody good. 12 years old and 57.5%, it drinks like danger whisky and gives us pause for contemplation. A potential purchase I think.

By now we’re all chatting freely, loose lips sink ships. Uncle is deep into the American family's history by now, but I’m keen to listen to Aly and see what he’s saying. He’s explaining the different types of sherry and how they’re fermented, made and used, to the Irish family, who have spent their time so far knocking back the drams and yum yumming. Everything is permitted in Aly’s house of magic.

“Who’s ready for the next whisky?” and we all cheer. “Ok, this one is from Speyside…” and he shoots a look at us. I love this! And by all accounts so does Aly, who uses a long steel valinch to suck up that wonderful whisky from the cask and give us a sneak preview before he drops some into our eager hands. “This one is a good one, hey?” he says, swishing the valinch around inside the cask to demonstrate how low the volume is. “It’s from a distillery called Glen Garioch”.

You can probably guess my reaction, but I turned to see Uncle’s face mirror mine exactly. We are both huge Geery fans, so this was a bit of a boon for us…so long as it’s one of those Geery’s that’s not fiddled with. “It’s 11yo, sitting at 58% and from 2020 was matured in an Amontillado hogshead.” My mind flicks up the Glen Scotia Amontillado Seasonal Release and I’m starting to sweat.

It arrives in the glass and within the time it takes for the vapour atoms to pass my rubber lips I know it’s going to be a belter. A musical dissonance washes over the room as everyone groans in unison, accepting that whisky that has descended from the lap of the gods smells and tastes like this.

It is a perfect example of Glen Garioch. Buttery, crumbly shortbread, salt, sugar, spice, purple up the kazoo, golden around the back, a touch of green in there and a charge of big red fruity compote at the death. It’s utterly delightful.

It’ll take a sledgehammer dram to top that. The fifth cask is a confusing one, because it very much sounded like Aly said GlenAllachie, and talked thereafter at length about Billy Walker’s penchant for exotic oaks. I mention Andean Oak, sounding very much like the learned nerd but really it’s only because Roy mentioned it on the podcast I listened to on the drive down from the Misty Isle.

In the glass it’s the colour of treacle and I’m certain it’s GlenAllachie now, but Aly moves over to his cheat sheet and says that it’s a 13yo Craigellachie that’s been finished in Oloroso for 4 years. Two words: wet cask.

If it wasn’t for the Glen Garioch this would’ve taken star whisky, but it’s just not on the same level as Oldmeldrum’s finest. Still, what remarkable colour for a finished whisky, and what compelling flavours. It’s a sherry bomb no doubt, but that meatiness of Craigellachie comes through too - I reckon we’ll need to check it out further, and a quick exchange with Unc decides it - we’ll both get the Geery without doubt, and then get one of the Glenburgie and one of the Craigellachie to split.

Final cask is an Islay peat monster and Aly asks us to guess what it might be before it’s revealed. Lagavulin is suggested, Ardbeg too. I think how rare those two are in indie land, and think that I’ve seen a bit of the old peated Bunnahabhain around lately, so I suggest a Staoisha, which turns out to be bang on - a 9yo at 60.4%. Big, young, fresh and to be honest, not quite working it’s magic. Uncle detests peated whisky so it goes very quickly back on the cask, but he still accepts that it was a very tasty detestable peated whisky.

That Geery though. With the final cask concluded it’s time to pick what we want to bottle. The Irish contingent go for almost all of them because holidays. The Americans go for a smorgasbord of a few, and we get our picks too. Aly is a bit flustered because 10 folk have just given him a Scrabble board of letters (A through F) and he announces he’ll fill the bottles as we take in our free dram across in the Tasting Room.

I ask if he wouldn’t mind filling a bottle of the Geery so that I can get pictures and he happily agrees, arranging the various things on the cask in front of us. It’s gorgeous in the glass bottle too and I’m a slavering wreck thinking about it. “Hurray! Let’s go!” shouts Aly and we’re taken over to the Tasting Room to pick from a selection of whiskies. I am desperate for a pee so beeline for the gents.

Refreshed, I can’t find Uncle inside the bar, so look around outside and see he’s sat with the American family. Orders are requested and we both go for another Geery - an 11yo green label Authentic Collection and it’s another belter of a cask - bourbon Geery is very hard to beat. I get chatting to the tall fella Tim, who is the son-in-law. He was in the Cadenhead’s shoppe earlier asking about a Kilkerran Heavily Peated they have, and was debating buying it.

He asked about our visit here to Campbeltown and I regale him with the story of our various Whisky Dashes, and how this year we returned to repeat the Blending Lab experience. I unfurl my bottle to show him the spoils and his expression switches to a frown. Then surprise. Then denial, because it turns out he’s spent most of his trip around Scotland, from Edinburgh to Inverness, Skye to Islay and now Campbeltown, reading Dougie Crystal’s witterings on Dramface.

I didn’t know what to say. I was definitely under the influence by now and so just sat and smiled, which amused him no end. What could I say? I was so chuffed that he was reading Dramface and recognised the avatars, the various writers and how passionate I am about the human element in whisky. So we spent the remaining time together talking about that very thing.

Before we were ready (or willing) to go, last orders were called. Uncle generously bought a round for us all, with me choosing a Miltonduff and Uncle going for round two (ten?) of Geery. We talked about Skye and The Old Man of Storr. We talked about that Kilkerran and how Tim should really try it before he buys, even though we both knew it would be a solid purchase. Then it was 5:40pm and I wanted nothing more than to go collect our bottles of Glen Garioch before the shop shut and we lost them.

Bidding farewell to the lovely people from Austin, we wobbled around to the shop, picking up the White Port bottling of Glen Garioch but in their new 20cl bottles, and paid our dues. Uncle got a 7-star blend too, because he’s heard it’s amazing. The Texans appeared not long after to conclude their purchases too, and we waved goodbye to another astonishingly good afternoon, spent in the company of wonderful people in the Wee Toon.

Thoughts turned to dinner. I said I’d go to Tesco and pick up a pizza for us, if Uncle would make his way, via speed stick, to the boat with our wares. Two pizzas under arm, I strode along the quayside with the glow of a day spent inside whisky lore and the prospect of a giant pizza in my face. The bags were on the deck when I arrived and, with pizza manipulated into the tiny oven, we unraveled our purchases to look at them.

The Craigellachie is astoundingly dark. You can’t see through the bottle. The Geery looks magnificent, as does the Glenburgie, and we decide to clear out a few heels to make room for our splits. A Tri-Carragh Geery is hoofed and the Craigellachie decanted loosely in half. I pour a wee bit of my split of Glenburgie out as I decant it into little bottles, and it’s hitting the spot bigly.

Uncle goes to check on the pizza and finds, to our dismay, that the gas has run out. Half-cooked pizza is tanned regardless, even if it gives us the squigglies. Uncle declares it ok given that it’s already been cooked and we’re just reheating it. I’m not so sure but don’t care enough to stop me shovelling it down my throat.

The night carries on in a blaze of magnificent whisky and we watch the football with a second wind of cheer. We had a day today. The morning at the Blending Lab was another round of fun-filled whisky guessing, reaffirming our awe at the majesty of whisky and the skills of blenders the land over.

Then the two incredible drams from Cameron, the half-loaf sandwich platter filled to bursting with delicious treats and flagons of water down the hatch. The Warehouse Tasting with Aly and his enthusiasm for life, infectious and exhilarating, the chats with Tim and family in the deckchairs outside, Aly appearing at some point to wave goodbye and feign necking one of our bottles of whisky with his giant, warm smile. What a guy.

We both awoke on Sunday feeling remarkably good humoured, given the quantity of cask strength whisky we’d inhaled the day before. Without gas we had a cold breakfast, but that was ok. Soon we were sailing out of Campbeltown Loch, around the other side of Arran and back to Largs in a day spent on a flat calm sea. Medicine for the soul, and as I lay on the deck, legs pointing in our direction of travel, I couldn’t have been more chuffed with our Whisky Dash 2024.

Cadenhead’s Warehouse Tasting

Six straight-from-the-cask drams
£40 p/p - book online in advance

Book online here: https://experience.cadenhead.scot/product/cadenheads-warehouse-tasting

The Dregs

A few days on and I’m thinking about what it all means. We tried 6 very good casks of whisky and once all is said and done, the prices of the bottles alone speak for themselves:

Cask 1: Blend of 3 Speysiders: 12yo Aultmore, 24yo Glenrothes & 12yo Dalwhinnie 54.9% £55

Cask 2: Glentauchers 16yo Sherry 49.4% £75

Cask 3: Glenburgie Madeira 12yo 57.5% £55

Cask 4: Glen Garioch 11yo Since 2020 Amontillado 58.% £60

Cask 5: Craigellachie 13yo Since 2020 Oloroso 55.1% £60

Cask 6: Islay Sherry - Blind Staoisha - 9yo 60.4% £70

I remember when we first tried the Warehouse Tasting in 2022 it was a good balance of regions and whisky types. In fact, looking back at my photos I see that we enjoyed a 12yo Glen Elgin Bourbs Hoggie, a 9yo Ben Nevis Manzanilla, a 32yo Cameronbridge grain, a 12yo “An Orkney” (HP), an 8yo Ardmore and a 10yo Caol Ila Bourbs. So that’s a Speyside, Highland, Lowland Grain, Island, Highland and Islay regions - the Cameronbridge was the most expensive at £90.

This year it was Blended Speyside, Speyside, Speyside, Highland, Speyside, Islay - not a good spread of whisky regions, but despite the heavy Speyside presence the variance between each whisky was good enough to feel like we weren’t on a tour of Speyside. The Glenburgie, Glen Garioch and Craigellachie drams were stand out fantastic, and all available for £60 or under. That’s incredible value, given the quality of whisky on offer.

Look at it this way, with the extra dram afterwards in the Tasting Room bar, that’s £5.70/dram, poured straight from cask (except the 7th obvs) and includes a take-home Perfect Measure glass, exclusive access to six unique whiskies in the Cadenhead’s Shop and the privilege of being entertained by Aly. All for £40!

If there was more cask variance it would be a 9/10. Despite that, it was still Something Special. Like the Cadenhead’s Creations - Blending Lab experience, if you’re around the Wee Toon this is a must do experience. Thanks again to Aly for a brilliant afternoon, and to big Tim for reading Dramface - hope that Kilkerran was everything you hoped it would be.

Now to review all those whiskies…

Score: 8/10 DC