A stop at Deanston has now become a staple of our annual road trip to Speyside. Their tastings at Warehouse 4 offer great value for money for something that not many distilleries provide – namely, a chance to try true single cask whisky extracted straight from the cask in the atmospheric surroundings of the dunnage-style Deanston warehouse. For a small amount of time, they ran the so-called Maturation Experience alongside the more established Warehouse 4 Experience – the latter normally offers three greatly contrasting cask types, and the former was all about charting the way the Deanston spirit ages in ex-Bourbon casks. I say ‘was’ because it doesn’t appear to be available any more, which is a pity – both because I have a soft spot for bourbon-matured Deanston and because it’s very informative to be able to taste the same whisky from single casks of different ages. I actually did the Maturation Experience last year as well but never got round to writing up a report – it was one of the highlights of our Scotland trip, and so it proved to be again this time.

Deanston famously started life as a cotton mill and was only converted into a distillery in the 1960s. The old weaving shed was found to be ideal for whisky maturation with its consistently cool temperatures, and became what is is now known as Warehouse 4:

Before the tasting began, we were given a short introduction to the distillery by our guide Kenny as we walked through the warehouse. We were shown some quite unique casks – among them, a privately owned 1967 Littlemill (pictured below), as well as a Laphroaig cask whose peaty smell made it stand out among its neighbours.

Accompanying us were my wife’s aunt and uncle – her uncle and I were booked in for the tasting and, as with both previous warehouse experiences at Deanston, it was just us, which was great for asking questions and moving at the pace we wanted. My wife and her aunt were graciously invited to join us but they preferred the warmer surroundings of the cafe.

The tasting started with the cask on the right, a 2017 first-fill bourbon. It had all the qualities I expected from a young Deanston – vibrant, malty, and displaying all that fruity waxiness that Deanston’s long fermentation of just over 100 hours can produce. Maybe the exuberant youthfulness can be full-on at times, but it was an ideal starter as an introduction to the Deanston spirit.

The second cask was a different affair – a 2010 heavily re-charred barrel. Kenny showed us examples of the different levels of toasting and charring typically used, and this barrel belonged at the bottom:

The whisky actually displayed a great balance between the oaky, spicy notes that were to be expected and the orange, honey and baked goods I often find in the 12 year-old Deanston. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to conclude that the Deanston 12 has a fair proportion of these heavily charred casks in the mix.

The final cask was the star of the show – a first-fill bourbon barrel from 2001, which revealed a cornucopia of tropical fruit and honey flavours. It’s always a pleasure to taste old whisky fully matured in bourbon without any finishing, and, as with the maturation experience I did last year, it turned out to be probably the best whisky I tried on our Scotland trip. Full tasting notes will follow, but think of a particularly good batch of the Deanston 18, only amplified.

As my uncle had to drive the rest of the way up to Speyside, he only had the pleasure of nosing the whiskies and took them back to try later. As the pours were particularly generous (maybe because it was just the two of us at the tasting), I only had about half of each whisky and intended to take whatever was left in sample bottles. Kenny at this point filled up my sample bottles to the brim, which was one of many instances of the great generosity and hospitality we received at Deanston. (see picture at the end for the samples, which shows how much darker the recharred cask was)

That didn’t stop there – back at the shop we were offered samples from the current hand-fill, which Deanston have happily brought back for the first time since lockdown I believe, as well as edition 2 of Deanston Chronicles (a vatting of four casks from different decades). They were both great as expected – the hand-fill was a 7 year-old Organic Fino – and we both left with a bottle of each. Having enjoyed so much great whisky, I just about avoided following the template for the hand-fill label too closely, and I managed to include the correct date instead of writing ‘today’s date’.

After the purchases, Brian also briefly showed us the stills, pictured below:

Again, they didn’t have to do that, but it was yet another example of the people at Deanston going the extra mile and engaging with their visitors. I can’t speak for all visits or tours – and, granted, it’s easier to be more leisurely and generous when it’s essentially a private experience – but every one of my visits to Deanston has ranked at or near the top of all distillery experiences I’ve had. Even on a basic level, they do things right – free branded glass included in the tour or tasting, and £5 off to spend at the distillery shop. And of course, there aren’t many distilleries in Scotland that offer visitors the chance to taste whisky drawn directly from casks in the warehouse, among the beautiful aromas of all the maturing casks surrounding us.

• Deanston
• Distillery visits
• Whisky Tasting Notes