Holyrood is an exciting new distillery right in the heart of Edinburgh. Inspired by the city itself, the founders wanted to create a distillery that would capture the essence of modern-day Edinburgh. Auld Reekie is a particular inspiration for the distillery and is represented in their two peated expressions. Opened in 2019, Holyrood is the first legal distillery to open in the city in nearly a century. Edinburgh’s rich history of whisky making has been revived by this fabulous new distillery in the centre of the city. You can select either a heavily peated or lightly peated cask from Holyrood. The lightly peated port barrique will cost £3,500 and the heavily peated sherry hogshead will cost £5,000. This price covers the spirit production and filling of the cask, as well as warehousing and insurance for your cask for ten years. Aged in a lightly toasted port wood, the lightly peated cask makes for a beautiful subtly smoked malt. The cask is filled with a combination of heavy peated malt and Rauch malt to create the smoky flavours, and East Lothian malt and Caramalt to add a sweeter note to the spirit. Edinburgh Ale yeast is used to create refreshing citrus flavours in the expression which wonderfully balance the more powerful smoky notes. The single malt will then spend ten years maturing in a 225 litre lightly toasted first fill port barrique. The heavily peated expression is a true smoke bomb. It is made from 50% Islay peated malt, 38% Maris Otter, and 12% Amber malt which adds some sweetness to the smoke from the Islay malt. Some beer yeast is added to draw in citrus flavours, as well as Kviek yeast which is used in Norwegian Ales. The expression is then poured into a 250 litre Spanish sherry hogshead of your choice – either first fill Pedro Ximenez sherry or first fill Cream sherry – before a ten-year maturation. Holyrood distillery’s fabulous cask programmes allow you to make your own mark on Scotland’s illustrious whisky making history. Cask programmes can make for excellent investment opportunities. If you decide to sell on the whisky from your cask, you could be making yourself quite the profit! Alternatively, you could pitch in on a cask with a group of friends or fellow whisky enthusiasts. Even if you don’t decide to sell on the whisky from your cask, you have a whisky of your very own to enjoy with family and friends. If you decide to invest in a cask from Holyrood, you can visit your cask and sample its spirit on its first, third, and tenth birthday. This way, you can keep an eye on your dram and see for yourself the way an expression can change throughout its maturation. On top of this, members of our W Club will receive £250 off of each cask that they purchase. If you are keen to find out more, you can check out Holyrood’s website here and read all about their cask programmes.