Thursday, 3rd of January
Dunna dunna dunnawww…….. THEY SAY ITS YA BIRTHDAY!!!
Dunna dunna dunnawww…… IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YEAHHh!!
Except it’s really not. I’m not even sure if that’s how the song goes. Y’all know what I’m talking about? No??
Right. So it was Haitham’s birthday!
In true Clarissa style I made him a cake and unveiled his present—-the night before. Because I literally can’t wait to reveal surprises. No control, honestly.
My gift to Haitham was a framed map of (most) of the distilleries in Scotland. Being as there’s over 120, they couldn’t exactly fit every single one of them on there–but they got a lot! Anyway, it’s no ordinary map–it’s a freakin SCRATCH OFF MAP. So when you’ve been to a distillery you can mark your territory forever. Brilliant, if you ask me!
As we were perusing our area on the map, we noticed a distillery near a charming sea-side town that we’d visited for my birthday–Crail! (We went for the pottery, and stayed for the pottery cat and sea glass.) We tossed about the idea of driving up for Haitham’s birthday……… and then made it so the next day.
I’m talking about Kingsbarns Distillery.
Now, Haitham and I are no strangers to distillery tours. We’ve been to at least 10 distilleries between the two of us–not including some of the repeat offenders with friends and family! That said, there’s not much you can tell us in a distillery tour that we haven’t heard before. There’s only so many ways you can jazz up the inner workings of barley, grist, and wort (that is a thing btw).
Despite all that, Kingsbarns Distillery might just nudge out all the other distilleries. It was just………. so stinkin’ nice.
From start to finish we were impressed. This is a newer distillery, created in (I believe) 2014 out of farmhouse ruins. Everything is shiny-bright new, with clean lines and swanky old-meets-new polish. As soon as we stepped foot in the door we were greeted warmly by members of staff. The rest of the tour was no different, in that we were treated absurdly well. Considering we’ve been to some real, in-and-out distilleries where tours feel like an obligatory assembly line more than anything, it was a delightful change! Even better, when we wandered into the shop to kill some time, the extremely nice chap behind the counter began whipping out samples for us to try right and left.
They were nice samples, too. Holy cow. (And for the price they should be!) With tasting notes splashed across their labels proclaiming things like, “Chewy Pineapple Crisps” and “Ice Cream Shack” how could you possibly go wrong?
After a few nips of this and that and a yummy cheese scone in the cafe (sorry, Veganuary but we do what we must!), we zoomed through a delightful tour of the facilities! Our guide, David, was hands down one of the nicest and most engaging hosts I’ve encountered. And that’s saying a lot–after all, we’ve been to a few! It takes something else to dust off information about the distillation process. He even made a few chemistry references. As a former science student, I totally appreciate that! It’s certainly the first distillery I’ve been to that anyone even attempted to mention the inner molecular workings of whisky. Not to mention, the tour itself showcases all the interactive bits and bobs that are cleverly designed to engage.
What else can I say about Kingsbarns Distillery? Well, it may not have its own single malt available–yet. But they’re working on it! The first bottle will be unveiled in February I believe, and if you’re willing to shell out a pretty penny (say 500 pounds) you can get your own!!!
If only I had gone into a more lucrative career, ya know what I mean?
Clarissa Explains Hardly Anything 