Black Isle & Alness: Brewing in Nature's Lap - Justerini & Brooks

The Black Isle is an area of land in northern Scotland surrounded on three sides by bodies of water : The Cromarty, Beauly & Moray Firth. This peninsula is renowned for producing some of the best quality barley in the country. Combine that with a huge amount of water and it doesn’t take a massive leap to end up at whisky. The most famous distillery in the area is Glen Ord founded in 1838 and one of the only distilleries in Scotland to malt 100% of its own barley. The area has become more famous since the popularisation of the ‘NC 500’ with many people starting here and working their way round the north coast of Scotland to see some of the best scenery in the world.

You don’t see much Teaninich around at all as the vast majority of it finds its way into blends. But The Singleton of Glen Ord 40-year-old, pushes boundaries of cask experimentation, with an eyewateringly-bold 28 year secondary maturation (for context, the average is between 3-12 months). To enhance the base notes of dark chocolate and sun ripened fruit, these whiskies were married in previous Solera casks of Zacapa XO and Royal Rum. This whisky was laid down in 1982, and was almost surely a risk, but what Maureen Robinson did with this is nothing short of indulgent liquid magic.