Yet again another month is struck off the calendar, and the distillery is back up and running after finishing our bottling campaign. July was an exciting time for us as we distributed our single malt whisky around the world.
How can you top that? However there was one thing on the horizon that had my full interest – Fife Organic Malt! Last year we worked hard to secure 10 tons of organic barley from Falkland Estate. It was then malted by the Crafty Maltsters at Auchtermuchty, very much a first for Fife. We ran this malt through the process several weeks ago – and as soon as we were mashing in, you could tell you were dealing with a different raw material. It has an incredible sweetness and cleanliness to it and coupled to our use of what I call the summer yeast, the new make spirit is quite different. I asked our Blender and sensory analyst Lorena to put a few notes on it and this is what she found:
LAD Organic NMS Profile Nose: Very mellow, aromatic and full of fruity aromas on the nose Palate: A beautiful cocktail of tropical fruits like ripe pineapple and mango, reminiscent of coconut oil; with a hint of wild gorse.
We filled the spirit into thirty-two Bourbon barrels that are covered in signage – letting anyone within 50 yards know that they are filled with Organic Malt Spirit! You will see them in the warehouse on the right hand side as you go in the door. We don’t want this great spirit being lost or misused.
The team as always are very busy between making spirit, filling casks, bottling, exporting cased goods: its an upward learning curve for everyone, but the Team are accepting the challenge head on.
I know you always enjoy hearing what casks we have been filling into, but at the moment it’s our standard filling: lots of Sherry, STR and some bourbon being filled into our staple, and the casks that make up our whisky. Coming before the year end however, we have some fillings of Champagne, Tokaji and Bodegas Sherry Casks. As per usual we have a couple of other fillings that I cannot tell you about just yet! But they are very exciting, and you will get to hear more on them later. So from myself and the distillery team, take care, stay safe.
Slàinte
Gary Haggart
Distillery Manager
