SCOTLAND
Bertie’s Whisky Bar, the Fife Arms
Right: The Fairy and the Fiann, a cocktail made at the Fife Arms with Murmichan absinthe
As you enter from Angus, one of the first foodie highlights is The Newport, located on the waterfront of Newport- on-Tay. The restaurant with rooms is headed up by BBC’s MasterChef: The Professionals winner Jamie Scott. A 10-minute drive east along the banks of the Tay
takes you to the tiny Tayport Distillery, launched in 2017 by Kecia McDougall, whose ambition was to create a Scottish version of eau de vie. Today, the distillery produces the award-winning Never.25, available in four flavours and made using McDougal’s own base spirit (made from malted barley infused with Scottish fruit). The range also includes raspberry liqueur, blackcurrent liqueur, vodka and wild rose gin. After years without a single distillery to its name,
Fife is now home to several innovative drinks brands, including Eden Mill, a producer of whisky, gin and beer. The company is set to open Scotland’s first carbon- neutral distillery and visitor centre in 2022, set on the University of St Andrews’ Eden Campus. Power and heat for the stills will come from the university’s biomass plant and solar panels, while the carbon produced in making the spirit will be captured and used by St Andrews’ chemistry department. Further south, there’s Futtle. Set up by Stephen
Marshall and Lucy Hine in 2018, Futtle is an all-in-one organic brewery, distillery, taproom, bottle shop and music venue that operates out of a farmhouse on the Balcaskie Estate. The couple also run a small record label and store, Triassic Tusk, from the same premise. I’m particularly curious about their East Neuk organic spiced rum, which I’d first stumbled upon at the
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Kinneuchar Inn, a nearby pub and restaurant with great food and an onsite butchery. There, alongside delicate slithers of cured pork jowl, I’d sampled the spirit in a fiery cocktail with lime juice, ginger beer and mint. Futtle’s East Neuk is an aged Paraguayan rum infused
with foraged seaweed. “Some seaweeds add a delicious minerality and texture, like dulse and bladderwrack,” Lucy explains. “We’ve spent a long time experimenting with distillations, macerations and fermentations. Hogweed is another great one for flavour and aroma — it’s spicy, aromatic and orangey, so it’s delicious with rum. “Before lockdown, we had a fully organic, foraged
cocktail menu: rebujitos, martinis, shrubs,” she adds. “Our most requested drink at the bar was our rum shrub, which is made in-house with seasonal ingredients and paired with our spiced rum.” Stephen pulls out a jar from behind the bar and pours
me a glass of sea buckthorn shrub. It’s gloriously tangy and tart, the berries preserved in vinegar and sugar. Both Stephen and Lucy used to work in the whisky
industry, but yearned for more variety. At Futtle, variety is the watchword. For example, the company’s beer is brewed with foraged ingredients, meaning no two batches are the same. “We don’t have a core range as we never repeat the same recipe twice,” Stephen explains. This year, their wild distilling journey has started
with the help of heritage grain expert Andrew Whitley, founder of Scotland the Bread. “We’re thinking of experimenting with oats,” Stephen muses. Original thinking, old-school know-how and a can-do attitude — that’s the Scottish spirit right there.
ESSENTIALS
HOW TO DO IT The simplest way to explore the distilleries of the northeastern Scottish coast is via car. You can get the train to Edinburgh, Dundee or Aberdeen and launch your DIY road trip from there. Alternatively, direct flights connect Aberdeen and Edinburgh with a number of UK cities, including London, Birmingham, Bristol and Belfast.
WHERE TO STAY The Fife Arms has double rooms from £358 including breakfast.
thefifearms.com
MORE INFO
visitscotland.com
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