It’s well known that that the Scottish Highlands and Islands offer the gold standard when it comes to single malt scotch whisky. However, a relative newcomer in whisky terms, Annandale Distillery in Dumfries and Galloway is gaining notoriety for its award-winning single malts.
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Yet, despite its lowland location, it’s the world class whisky of northern Scotland which has played an important role in its development.
Since 2014, Annandale Distillery has been producing single malt scotch whisky that has found favour with both the industry and public alike. But with just a decade of operation, it may seem like a new kid on the block.
Saving a distillery with 180 years of history
However, the roots of the distillery go back to 1836 and feature an eventful history. This includes three generations of whisky ownership and production before 90 years of dormancy which ultimately saw the distillery fall to ruin.
In 2007 the distillery was bought by current owners, husband and wife team Prof. David Thomson and Teresa Church, who undertook its extensive restoration to safeguard its future and bring it back into production. In doing so, a unique opportunity presented itself. They were able to engineer from scratch the characteristics of the spirit they wanted to produce.
This approach led to a departure from the typical characteristics you would expect of a lowland malt whisky to something more akin to the those of the northern regions.
We spoke to James Rogerson, bulk inventory and compliance specialist at Annandale Distillery, to find out more.
Reverse engineering the spirit
James told us what makes Annandale different: “It goes back to how the distillery was designed in 2007. We are a lowland distillery, and the lowlands of Scotland have a very specific style of whisky. However, it’d be fair to say the more sought-after whiskies tend to be those produced in the Highlands.
“The owners of Annandale Distillery have a background as flavour chemists and in consumer research, and they used that experience to design the spirit of Annandale. They reverse engineered the whole process.”
James continued: “They started off with the end consumer in mind, running 65 whiskies through a sensory panel and plotting them on a sensory map. From that research, they decided that the whiskies of Islay and Speyside were a style of whisky they wanted to produce – not replicate or mimic – but produce our own style of an Islay and Speyside single malt in the lowlands.
“That information was taken to the manufacturers of the stills, and they built the production equipment around that specification. And it really did work. When the spirit came off the stills it came off very close to the spec they were looking for.”
Twin spirit still distillation
Annandale produces both a peated single malt, named Man o’ Swords after Robert the Bruce, and an unpeated counterpart titled Man o’ Words in honour of Robert Burns. Both share the distillery’s flavour profile that James describes as a combination of orchard and tropical fruits with a sweet, light characteristic.
To achieve this fruity lightness, the way Annandale distil the spirit is different to many other distilleries. James explained: “Most distilleries have a wash still and a spirit still, and everything out of one goes into the other. But we split the content of the wash still between two spirit stills.
“The copper of the stills binds with impurities in your spirit, and because we’re using twin spirit stills our spirit gets more copper contact which results in a light fruity spirit coming out the stills.
“For numerous distilleries, their whisky isn’t drinkable for eight to ten years as it’s so fiery having just gone through only one distillation process. Because we use the twin copper stills we’re even able to bottle the pure new make spirit in its own right, as it is drinkable at cask filling strength which is 63.5%.”
A spirit so pure it’s drinkable from the still
If you’re curious to try this neat new make spirit, it is available to buy online from the website as Rascally Liquor in two different versions. James told us more: “We do the full-strength (63.5%) version and a version at 46%. I’d liken it to a Scottish tequila – it tastes almost like grappa or eau-di-vie with a nice fruitiness.
“It’s really versatile, especially the 46% version which is a great base for cocktails. We also find a lot of whisky aficionados like to compare the full strength spirit in a before and after with our malts. It makes a great quirky gift for whisky lovers.”
There are a multitude of factors that go into creating the unique characteristics of each and every single malt scotch whisky, from the yeast to the stills, to the water and the barley. However, at Annandale, the cask plays an especially important role as the distillery use a ‘single cask single malt’ approach.
Single cask single malt scotch whisky
But what exactly does this mean? James explained: “We can have two barrels that are filled with the same spirit, seconds apart on the same day, and yet, as they mature there will be subtle differences between the two spirits as each barrel has been coopered uniquely.
“They may have been toasted slightly differently, or charred slightly differently, or they’ve sat at different location in the warehouse – there’s so many factors that affect each cask.
“Other single malt distilleries blend or ‘vat’ their casks together to create consistency in the flavour. But, at Annandale, we like the variability of casks and the subtle differences between one cask and another.”
“…as natural as whisky can be”
James added: “By not vatting our whisky our single cask single malt is as natural as whisky can be. The only thing we do to it is we filter it.
“We have lots of followers of Annandale who like to compare casks. You can keep an eye on the website to see when the cask changes, or you can keep up to date on our mailing list.”
So, can a lowland whisky compete with those of the Highlands and Islands? There’s really only one way to find out. A visit to Annandale Distillery is thoroughly recommended if you are in the area, as is indulging in a whisky afternoon tea in the distillery café.
However, all of Annandale’s whiskies are available to buy online, including Man o’ Swords, Man o’ Words, and Storyman, an award-winning blended whisky produced in conjunction with actor James Cosmo, alongside the Rascally Liquor ‘new spirit’.
One thing is for sure, whether made in the north of Scotland or the south, discovering a good dram is always something to savour.
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