][1]With exports booming, these are joyful times for Scotland’s whisky industry and the entire sector seems to be fizzing with activity.
Formerly mothballed distilleries such as Tamdhu are being brought back to life and new distilleries are being built in places like Kingsbarns, Fife.
Birthday party
If you want a taste of what it is all about, the Deanston Distillery is celebrating the first birthday of their visitor centre this weekend with a mini-festival.
The fun kicks off at 7pm this evening with a screening of The Angels’ Share. Many of the scenes in the brilliant Ken Loach film were actually filmed at Deanston and the screening will give fans a chance to go behind the scenes.
On Saturday, the distillery is hosting an open day from 11am. You can see the full line-up here but the event includes lots of specialised distillery tours, tastings and even a blending course. A bake-off, craft stall and kids’ activities complete the line-up.
][7]Time travel
There is also the chance to travel back in history using the Deanston Time Machine. I’m guessing here but I assume that this is a dress-up and be photographed scenario rather than an allusion to whisky’s time-altering properties.
How many of us have had good intentions to be home before midnight only to find that, after a couple of drams, the clock seems to have magically sprinted ahead to 2am?
Special edition bottling
Collectors may be interested to know that Deanston has produced a festival exclusive – 500 special edition bottles of their first-ever cask strength 12YO.
In addition, the distillery is launching a new ‘fill your own’ bottle. For a limited time only, visitors can fill their own bottle with a rare Deanston cask strength whisky which has been matured in an oloroso sherry cask and hand selected by Master Distiller Ian MacMillan.
Hand-crafted
The distillery itself is interesting. Originally, it was a cotton mill which dates back to the 18th century. It was turned into a distillery in 1966. Unusually in an age of highly automated distilleries, there are no computers used in production at Deanston. The Deanston craftsmen prefer to rely on the ancient art of distilling and do it all by hand.
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