Driven By Drams - Campbeltown 2025

This year's DrivenByDrams gang trip had us heading up to Campbeltown

As well as the 'must do' Dunnage Tour at Glen Scotia we had also planned Warehouse Tastings at Cadenhead's and Kilkerran.

Side by side : MoM Campbeltown 8yo

Tea-spooned Campbeltown malts from @MasterOfMalt, what's not to like?  Part of a new range of reasonably priced 'Exclusives'.

Lets try them!

Campbeltown Loch

Most will know the famous Andy Stewart song from the 60's Campbeltown Loch, some will know of J&A Mitchell's releases under this name.

This time we're trying this year's release a blend of whiskies from all 3 current Campbeltown distilleries, featuring the three Springbank malts, Glengyle and Glen Scotia.

Batches : Kilkerran 8yo (Sherry & Port)

Distilleries often release whisky in batches, the same name but subtly different recipes, ABVs, maturation types / etc. @Kilkerran2004 release an 8yo Cask Strength bottling each year, I've reviewed previous versions ex-bourbon and sherry releases here. 

This year they released two bottlings: Sherry and  Port Cask matured.

Whisky and water

How much water does it take to make a bottle of whisky? How much water should you add to your whisky? These and other difficult water related questions answered!

Let's dive in! 😉

BlindTastingOnTour 2021 : Campbeltown

After 2 years stuck at home due to Covid the #BlindTasting team finally got back on tour with a visit to Campbeltown - the boys were back in town!

GIF by @JWBassman_

John @jwbassman_, Max @mgilberties, Andy @andy_watkinson and myself  last visited in 2019 just before Covid hit, you can read about it here, so we thought it was time we went back.

Batches : Kilkerran Heavily Peated

Distilleries often release whisky in batches, the same name but subtly different recipes, ABVs, maturation periods etc. In this new, occasional series, I'm going to review a number of different Batches in my Side-by-side format to see if I can detect any differences, does each batch get better or are they to all intents and purposes the same?

This time I'll be reviewing batches #1 to #3 of Heavily Peated from @Kilkerran2004 distillery, what differences are there?

Batches : Kilkerran 8yo CS

Distilleries often release whisky in batches, the same name but subtly different recipes, ABVs, maturation typesptypes / etc. In this new, occasional series, I'm going to review a number of different Batches in my Side-by-side format to see if I can detect any differences, does each batch get better or are they to all intents and purposes the same?

This time I'll be reviewing batches #3 and #4 of the 8yo Cask Strength from @Kilkerran2004 distillery, what differences are there? In this case the are obvious maturation differences, so what similarities are there?

Review of my whisky year - 2019

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c48,000 up from 29,000 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c2,600 up from 1,700 last year).

My highlights of 2019 were:

BlindTastingOnTour : Glengyle (Kilkerran)

    

The first 'official' visit of our Campbeltown trip was to the Glengyle Distillery where Kilkerran whisky is distilled.

BlindTastingOnTour : Campbeltown

The second annual #BlindTastingOnTour started with a 4.15am alarm clock, a 4.30am taxi and a 4.55am train from home to Carnforth to meet up with the rest of the gang who drove up from further south.

Youtube clips

I've appeared in a few Youtube clips talking about whisky or doing reviews - here's an updated list of them!

The Whisky Family (Was Maltman Mike & Friends)

Glen Scotia Campbeltown 1832

Distillery Visit - Glengyle (Kilkerran)

I visited the Glengyle distillery in April '18, this was my first time!

Glengyle is in Campbeltown at the bottom of the Kintyre Peninsula, about 3 hours drive from Glasgow.