Annandale Distillery visit and tasting

We must have passed @AnnandaleDstlry tens of times going up and down the M6 & A74 to Scotland but have never had the time to visit the distillery.

This time however @MrsMaltMusings and myself had a lazy few days booked in Glasgow and had time to visit on the way up!

A bit of history first:

The distillery was originally built in 1830 by George Donald, a former excise officer from Banff in Aberdeenshire, the distillery was established in 1836, making it one of the earliest ‘legal’ whisky distilleries in Scotland. The Donald family ran the distillery for almost 50 years producing a peated style of whisky using traditional techniques and equipment.

Johnnie Walker and Sons bought the distillery in 1893, it is believed they used the spirit from Annandale Distillery as a source of peated whisky for their blends. The iconic Charles Doig pagoda roof was added to the distillery in the 1890s. This specially designed structure is an iconic part of many distilleries in Scotland but is one of only five known originals to survive. The tall brick chimney was also added in this period. Johnnie Walker expanded the warehouse capacity by building an extra story on top of the original brick dunnage warehouse.

Production ceased shortly after the end of WW1 in 1918, due to the difficulties in maintaining production. The once abundant resources that had drawn Johnnie Walker to buy the distillery had started to disappear, and the global market for whisky was crashing as a result of the many post-war temperance movements. Johnnie Walker kept the distillery buildings and site until 1924 but dismantled and removed most of the machinery and some parts of the main building.

In 2007 Professor David Thomson and Teresa Church bought the distillery site, and began an extensive restoration. They spent £17.5 million restoring the buildings and converting them back into a fully functional, working distillery using plant designed by the late Dr Jim Swan. On 9th November 2014, the first spirit came from the stills, which was filled into cask number 1 on 15th November 2014 to be matured in the original 1830s warehouse.

The historic pagoda roof was in remarkable condition for its age and is one of only 5 original Charles Doig pagoda roofs left. (As far as is known, only Annandale, Knockando, Cardhu, Laphroaig and Lagavulin still own the roof structures originally planned by Doig and his sons). The mash house section of the main building needed some precision engineering work done to stabilise the structure of the building before renovations could take place. This involved the demolition of a section of wall in a state of near collapse. Luckily, the pink sandstone needing replaced could be sourced using what was left of a demolished building in Glasgow. This was from the exact quarry that the Donald family sourced from when the buildings were originally built in the 1830s.

Mrs MaltMusings and myself visited in mid February and had a great 'private' tour by Adele. We were given a lanyard Glencairn holder and a small branded Glencairn for the tour!

After a history talk under the pagoda roof and a dram of Storyman we moved on to the production area. Malted barley is delivered twice a week, fed through a 'Robin Reliant' style de-stoner and a 1964 Porteous Mill.

A copper topped Mash tun mixes 2.5 tonnes of grist

The wort is fermented in one of six 12,000 litre wooden washbacks for around 69 hours.

A single 12,000 litre Wash Still and twin Spirit stills distil the new make.

The draff is taken away by local farmers.

Casks waiting to be filled are stored in a lovely forest setting!

The new make spirit is diluted to 63.5% ABV and filled into casks

before being left to mature in one of the onsite warehouses.

Annandale have a Bottle Your Own facility, a choice of  two casks at a reasonable £50 for a 375ml bottle

We went for one of each!

There is a fantastic café on site with a wide range of food, we went for soup and a sarnie followed by some scones with jam and cream and jam!

Now back to the whisky!

Annandale have two expressions: the unpeated Man O'Words and the peated Man O'Sword both matured in a range of FF and RF ex-bourbon, sherry and wine casks:

Annandale have a unique bottling philosophy - every bottle is from a single cask at cask strength:

"We believe Single Cask Single Malt is Scotch whisky at its purest and a whisky experience at its finest. That’s why we don’t currently produce vatted Single Malts. And carefully select Single Casks that express the complex character of our peated and unpeated expressions. We don’t chill filter because there’s no point and we also prefer to bottle our Single Malts at cask strength. But then, every aspect of the distillery is about doing it differently and better."

Dram	Man O'Words Bourbon	Man O'Sword Bourbon (Peated)	Man O'Words Sherry	Man O'Sword Sherry (Peated)
Characteristics	Single Cask Ex-Bourbon 60% ABV	Single Cask Ex-Bourbon 60% ABV	2017 6yo Single Cask #1036 2yr seasoned Oloroso butt 60.8% ABV	2017 6yo Single Cask #1091 2yr seasoned Oloroso butt 60.7% ABV
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line in the glass, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.	Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line in the glass, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.	Bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line in the glass, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.	Bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line in the glass, take an age to bead up and eventually fall as slow thin legs.
Nose	Huge vanilla notes to start, a little rum and raisin ice cream and some white chocolate. A little time in the glass reveals honey, shortbread, tropical fruit and lemon zest.	Medicinal peat smoke to start, plasters, crispy bacon and a little salinity. There's a nod back to the unpeated bourbon with rum and raisin ice cream and lemon zest,	Huge dunnage funk - sherried dried fruit, dates, prunes and figs. There's some vanilla, toffee, stewed apples and ice cream notes but I'm not getting the citrus.	Again dunnage funk - sweet peat smoke, not as medicinal as the bourbon cask. All the sherried fruit and toffee notes from the unpeated version are here.
Palate	Thick sweet arrival, honey and tropical fruit: pineapple, kiwi and mango. There's some peach notes and sour grapefruit - yummy! A big bite of dry peppery spice as the the liquid lingers on the tongue and some salinity as it disappears. A few more sips ups the tropical fruit notes, but it's still a little dry, and adds some lemon zest and a little nutty coconut.	Again a thick sweet arrival, slightly oily,  but it's the smoke which takes charge here - medicinal and thick - you could easily be on Islay. There's some tropical fruit notes, some salinity and a bite of citrus zest. It's a very juicy dram, not dry like the unpeated one until right at the end as the liquid disappears and the smoke comes back with a little dry shortbread note.	Thick buttery arrival, sweet, all of the dried fruit, dates, prunes and figs from the nose with some added sweet toffee and berry notes - blackberries, blueberries and some balsamic vinegar drenched strawberries. Another hugely juicy dram filling the mouth with moisture. There's some latte coffee notes, milk chocolate and a little spiced walnut.	Thick sweet fruity arrival, initially the same as the unpeated version, juicy, and then the smoke blankets everything! Again the toffee and sherried fruit notes are here but it's the smoke which takes over and dominates this dram It's not as medicinal as the bourbon version - a little sweeter, a little bitter, a little salinity. A nice peppery spice note and more smoke as the liquid disappears.
Finish	Lingering lemon zest, vanilla and shortbread with a little peppery spice.	Medium length citrus, spice and thick medicinal smoke.	Medium length, sweet and fruity - berries and cherries with a nice spice note.	Medium length, smoke, fruit and a little peppery spice.
Overall	The Man O'Words Bourbon is one half of the distillery's character - what you get from their unpeated new make spirit in a 'plain' ex-bourbon cask and to be honest it's very good! The high ABV is very well integrated and you don't know you've been drinking it until the next day! The other half of the character is the Man O'Sword, again the 'plain' ex-bourbon version is very good - you could easily think you were on Islay. It's a very juicy dram with loads of tropical fruit and citrus. The sherried versions retain some of the distillery character but 6+ years in an Oloroso butt has really changed the spirit - dried fruit, black fruit and berries on the both the unpeated and peated versions. The unpeated sherry was my favourite of the four but the peated sherry has got just a little confused for me - too many big flavour notes battling it out, not as peaty as the bourbon version though. All four drams are around the 6 year old mark, or younger, but you'd never guess that - there's no new make notes at all. I'm loving the single cask cask strength only releases, WhiskyBase is going to fill up very quickly! The only other distillery anywhere near this is Henstone. You can drink at cask strength or dilute a little so suit your palate. I've always been put off by the prices of  the Annandale release, always north of my £100 limit but they have come down now, the 'standard' releases are around £85 - very reasonable for 6yo single cask, cask strength bottle. £50 for a 375ml Bottle Your Own is also very good value. For an order I'd go Man O'Words Sherry, Man O'Sword (Peated) Bourbon, Man O'Words Bourbon and then Man O'Sword (Peated) Sherry.