Single Malt Peated 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel 'Full Cask' No 639
⏳ Drinking Window
Ready to enjoy upon release; does not mature further in the bottle and will keep indefinitely when stored upright away from direct sunlight.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Blue cheese, smoked salmon, dark chocolate
✨ Technical Specifications
Representing a bold departure from the historically light, grassy, and unpeated style of the Scottish Lowlands, this single malt from Edinburgh's Holyrood Distillery showcases the exciting frontier of modern urban distilling. Housed in a restored 180-year-old railway transit building, Holyrood pays homage to Edinburgh's rich distilling heritage—which had lay dormant for nearly a century—while actively defying tradition. This peated expression, drawn from a single first-fill Bourbon barrel (Cask No 639), marries the intense, earthy, and medicinal smoke of peated malt with the sweet, creamy vanilla, coconut, and toasted oak characteristics native to fresh American oak. The result is a complex, robust spirit that redefines what a Lowland single malt can be, combining historic location with contemporary, flavor-first distilling philosophies.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 2019 by Rob and Kelly Carpenter alongside former Macallan master distiller David Robertson, Holyrood Distillery marked the return of single malt whisky distillation to central Edinburgh after nearly a century of absence. Housed within a restored 1830s railway goods shed beneath Arthur's Seat in the Lowlands, Holyrood operates with an innovative, flavor-first distilling ethos deeply informed by Edinburgh's historic brewing heritage. Rather than conforming to traditional regional conventions, the distillery experiments extensively with diverse malt varieties—including heirloom, chocolate, and crystal barleys—along with an array of specialty brewing, wine, and sake yeast strains. Utilizing washbacks with extended fermentations and tall copper pot stills, Holyrood captures distinct ester and phenolic profiles before aging spirit in meticulously selected casks. Benchmark expressions include their inaugural single malts Arrival, Ambir, and Embra, alongside singular single-cask trials showcasing red wine, sake yeast, and peated variants.
🍇 Base Material
Malted Barley