Kingsbarns Distillery
Travel:
Bus: Edinburgh – St Andrews (x59) – 2 Hours
Bus: St Andrews – Kingsbarns (95) – 20 min
Walk: 10 Mins
Directions
I took the X59 bus from Edinburgh bus station to St Andrews bus station and then connected onto the 95 towards Leven. The No 95 bus does take a coastal route along the coast, and the distillery is only around 20 minutes outside of the town, get off just past the town of Kingsbarns. The bus stop (highlighted above) is a bit in the middle of nowhere, and from the road, you have around a ten-minute walk through a couple of fields towards the distillery, but there is a road which is easy to follow.
I also purchased a Fife East Coast day rider ticket for the trip, as that ticket allowed me to get from Edinburgh to Fife and then have unlimited travel within Fife for the day, so as I was taking multiple bus trips, this was a cheaper option at £12.
NOTE: There is technically a quicker route to the distillery as you can take the train to Leuchars, then catch the 99, which runs every 10 minutes into St Andrews, where you will then be able to catch the 95 as above. I opted not to take this route as i wanted a slightly cheaper and more direct route (i.e. fewer changes).
Location History
The distillery is still relatively new as it only opened in 2014, and they are hoping to have their first ten-year-old single malt available this year. The distillery is independently owned by the Wemyss family, who had previous experience in the whisky industry with blended malts. The site is a listed building which was previously sitting derelict before being restored.
At the Distillery
There is a small café/bar area at the Distillery just to the right of the shop where you can get some light bites to eat, such as sandwiches and soups. There is also a pretty decent bar menu for whisky, with all the expressions of Kingsbarns whisky and some whisky tasting flights available at a decent price. When I went a flight of 3 whiskies was only £12. If the weather is good, there are also some benches outside where you can drink or eat.
My Tour (The Classic Tour)
The tour starts in the reception area with a meet and greet and then heads through some doors into a section which details the history of Fife and Kingsbarns’ role in the whisky-making process. The tour focuses initially on the area, but it is quite informative; there is a short video about Kingsbarns whisky, and you also get to see the first barrel ever bottled at Kingsbarns, which is on display in the Dovecot. Outside that room are also some horns where you can test your sense of smell, which is useful for when trying to identify flavours during the whisky tasting later on in the tour, although I have to say I was equally bad at both. Then, through the next room, you get a seat while you are taken through the main ingredients of the whisky making process and you also get to see a pretty good wall illustration of the entire process which is laid out in a flow chart and is ideal for whisky novices to gain an understanding of how water is turned into whisky.
The next part of the tour is seeing the washbacks and stills, and this is where you realise how compact the distillery is, as there are a couple of stills and some metal washbacks all held in the same room, a few feet from each other. The size of the site also means that several parts of the whisky process are done off-site, such as malting, bottling and storage of barrels.
The tasting
The end of the tour takes place in the tasting room, and on the classic tour, I was offered three different expressions of Kingsbarns, each of which was very different. The first whisky was the Doocot, which is finished in a bourbon cask, then I got the Balcomie, which is matured in Olorosso casks and finally a unique tasting Coaltown, which is finished in ex-peated casks from Islay. The whisky is naturally quite sweet but very drinkable, as I do favour more sweet-tasting whiskies, so these were ideal for me. I think my favourite was probably the Balcomie as it is matured in a sherry cask, and so you get a fruity flavour with a hint of chocolate on the palate. The most intriguing dram for me was the Coaltown, which was finished in ex-Islay casks. Although you don’t get a massive amount of peat, there is a nice hint of peat on the palate, which means it is perfectly drinkable even if you are not a peat fan. The one slight issue I had with the tasting was the small samples; I would have preferred more of the whisky to try, as the samples seemed a lot smaller than the usual 15ml that are the standard on other distillery tours. This is a shame, as the whiskies do seem nice. I was fortunate to have a sample of the Distillery exclusive at the café before the tour, and it was fantastic, but that was a 25ml sample, so I could get a proper taste!
Summary
Tour Price: £25
Tour Duration 1 hr
Samples: 3 Samples
