I’m a whisky nerd and a history nerd, so when both of them join together, nothing makes me happier in the world. We are lucky in the Quaich to have 9 whiskies from the lost distilleries all over Scotland, but one that has a special place in my heart is this Glenury Royal, which is from near my home city of Aberdeen in the seaside town of Stonehaven. Unfortunately, the distillery fell silent in 1983 and was later turned into flats, and some of it was demolished.

It is a distillery with such a history, one too big to talk about in this post, but one I will happily share if you have some to pop into the Quaich Bar. The smell of this whisky is like dry smoke, old leather, an ancient library and citrus. There is a light freshness to the taste, followed by vanilla, herbal notes, and dry smoke again.

This is a really oily whisky that brings me to a time before I was born. This whisky is just pure joy bottled up!

– Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager