Stefan van Eycken

Dec 12, 2023 | whiskymag.com | Jason Thomson |Felipe Schrieberg |Stefan van Eycken

For 225 years, the whiskies of Highland Park have shouted, “ORKNEY” – a bold yet simple assertion that cuts through the lore and myth of a distillery with a storied past. Still, every drop of Highland Park, soaked in the wildness of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, recounts a thousand legends.

Dec 12, 2023 | whiskymag.com | Felipe Schrieberg |Stefan van Eycken |Moa Nilsson

When hunting for distilleries in Scotland there are often clear signs that one is close by. It could be a pagoda on a roof, a red-brick chimney poking over the brow of a hill, the blackened wall of a warehouse, or the sweet aroma of hot mash in the air, but there is almost always a signal. They rarely sneak up on you. Holyrood Distillery is different.

Nov 9, 2023 | whiskymag.com | Moa Nilsson |Gavin Smith |Stefan van Eycken

On a rainy afternoon a few months ago, the staff office at Tormore Distillery was in an uproar. Distillery manager Polly Logan and assistant manager Sam Douglas were hunting everywhere for a small handheld pump to help them move liquid used for samples. “We don’t know what it’s actually called,” says Logan, “so we’re going with the technical term ‘whisky sooker-ooper’ because that’s what it does, it sooks the whisky oop.”“We’re trying to describe what we need to the team,” Douglas laughed.