A Scot on Scotch visits the new Kingsbarns Distillery in Fife and samples Wemyss Malts’ Batch Strength blended malt Scotch whisky, The Hive.
Origins…
Kingsbarns Distillery was the brainchild of Douglas Clement, a former caddie at the nearby golf course of the same name. After witnessing first-hand the enormous interest in Scotch whisky amongst his worldwide client-base, Clement hatched a plan to bring distilling to Fife and targeted an old farm steading on the Cambo House Estate as the ideal location.
Planning permission was secured in 2010 but raising the capital required proved more difficult. It wasn’t long, however, before the project attracted the attention of the Wemyss family, themselves no strangers to the whisky industry. Work finally began in 2013, with the first spirit run taking place in March of 2015.
A trip to Kingsbarns…
I paid Kingsbarns a visit on a cold, clear day in November and was instantly smitten by its coastal location. The whole site seemed to have been blasted clean by the fresh north sea air and the old farm buildings looked majestic in the cool Autumn sunlight. Visitors are greeted by a large entrance lobby with a welcoming cafe to the right, while a little further on is an impressive bottle shop peddling new make spirit, Darnley’s Gin and a selection of Wemyss’ single casks and blended malts.
The visitor experience begins with an introductory video that left me under no illusion as to where the tourist income lies here. I had no idea what the definition of a links course was until I visited this distillery. There can be no mistaking that one is in Golf country here.
Golf education aside, the tour moved on to a fun interactive sensory experience that invites you to identify a range of different odours, before offering a taste of the distillery’s water, bottled direct from the bore-hole onsite. The effect water has on spirit is debatable, but so noticeable was the high mineral content on the palate, that it leads me to believe it must surely play some role, even if tiny, in the final character of the whisky.
The industrial nature of the distillery almost came as a shock after the pristine visitor centre and the worn aspect of the stills made them look 30 years old rather than 3. I must confess, however, that I quite like to see a grimy still. Their dark, grubby appearance was a pleasing contrast to the gleaming copper of the Clydeside and Lindores Abbey distilleries which I visited the same week. While those projects were very much in their infancy, Kingsbarns has been operational for a couple of years now and it shows. For all their courting of golf tourism, this remains very much a working distillery with the goal of producing a fine quality single malt at its heart.
The Hive Batch Strength Review
Back at the shop, I decided to take home a bottle of the Batch Strength version of Wemyss’ blended malt, The Hive, which was bottled at 54.5% and cost just £45.00.
Tasting notes: On the nose there’s honeycomb, heather, shortbread, malt and caramel while the palate has a wee touch of chocolate and honeycomb – like Crunchie Bars! – some breakfast cereals and some orange liqueur.
Thoughts: Credit where it’s due, Wemyss have released these batch strength versions of their core range blended malts without too much of a markup in price.
I’m a fan of Wemyss’ blended malts and have already reviewed the limited edition Kiln Embers, but of their core range, The Hive is normally the least appealing to me. This batch strength expression, however, seems to offer a lot of flavour. The character remains very much in the same style as the original but the higher alcoholic strength adds new depths and intensity to the overall experience.
Blended malts continue to represent some of the best value for money on the market today and this is yet another fine example from Wemyss Malts.
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