Blackness Bay Distillery
What a Pearl on my doorstep.
As you can imagine, I, like many Whisky lovers, have been on loads of distillery tours and to a certain extent, their practices in the production of Whisky are very similar. I decided to take a drive to a local artisan distillery just to have a look and see what they are about.
This impromptu visit was one of the most charming and delightful, not to mention interesting, visits I have ever made. For those who don’t know where I am talking about, it’s Blackness Bay Distillery. The setting is stunning, overlooking the River Forth. The distillery itself is tiny and housed in a really old building, apparently the oldest building in the village and within there are loads of antique artefacts. Apparently, originally the building had been a brew house and bakery serving Blackness Castle, which is within walking distance.
The distillery and village pub, The Lobster Pot, are jointly owned. Unfortunately, we did not have time for lunch, but it is a venue that we will visit in the near future, as said wife is partial to lobster.
We were shown around the Distillery by the charming owner, Colm O’Rourke. This was not an organised tour, we just popped in but ended up getting a tour of his extensive gardens with the variety of historic statues, including one of Rabbie Burns, who had stayed at the property for 18 months.
We saw the washback, mash tun and stills as you would expect, and a small warehouse accommodating a selection of small barrels.
This distillery specialises in Whisky & Rum. My wife sampled some of the spiced rum and their honey rum. Her preference was the honey rum, and I suspect she will be acquiring a bottle soon.
Mr O’Rourke kindly gave me a sample of his Virgin Mary, which is a new-make spirit. I found this to be very interesting, unlike many new make spirits, this had a good colour (polished pine). This spirit was also quite easy on the palate
The selection of products are:-
Mary Queen of Scotch, single malt currently maturing in the warehouse in oak bourbon barrels.
Virgin Mary, new make spirit, now available.
Rums, now available
Blackness Bay Single Rum. White Scottish rum
Flower of Scotland Pink Rum. Heather, rose and thistle infused
Jacobite Outlandish Rum. Dark spiced rum.
Sheena’s Raspberry Rum. Distilled raspberry rum, raspberries collected from the distiller’s garden.
Blackness Golden Rum. Aged in oak barrels.
Blackness honey rum Liqueur. This was Whisky Boy’s wife, Jacqueline’s favourite.
I would highly recommend that you go visit this truly fascinating little distillery; it is like stepping back in time. My wife was really impressed by the charm of the place, right down to the statue of a cat looking over the river from the roof of the building. If I didn’t know better, I would have expected Jamie Fraser from Outlander to come walking through the door.
A big thanks to Colm for making time to give us a great insight into his distillery,warehouse and gardens and a couple of tastings and a 20cl sample of his new make spirit.
The Whisky Boys wish you the very best and do not change the distillery layout; it is quite unique and totally delightful.
