Kingsbarns Distillery

Find out more about Kingsbarns and book a distillery tour direct from their dedicated page.

There’s always been something rather separate about the Kingdom of Fife. Partly, perhaps, it’s geographical: this broad peninsula, sandwiched between the Firths of Forth and Tay, faces away from the rest of Scotland and out into the North Sea. Head deep into the East Neuk, peppered with fishing villages and golf links, and that feeling becomes even more pronounced.

You might not think of this as whisky country, certainly when compared to hotspots like Speyside or Islay; but that’s changing, thanks to distilleries like Kingsbarns, housed in a restored 19th-century farm steading a short drive down the coast from St Andrews.

Kingsbarns is a new distillery – it opened in 2014 and laid down its first whisky in March 2015, releasing its inaugural single malt, Dream to Dram, in early 2019 – but its local and historical roots run deep. The distillery is run by the Wemyss family, landowners in Fife since the 12th century, and from the outset they have been determined to craft a product that reflects the provenance of its location.

‘Our starting point was that our family comes from just down the coast, so that connection to Fife was very important,’ explains William Wemyss, managing director of Kingsbarns and Wemyss Malts, the family’s independent whisky bottling business. ‘So we set out doing everything we could locally, with local farmers growing all our barley, taking water from an aquifer below the distillery and carrying out all our maturation in Fife.’

Before a drop of spirit could run from the two Kingsbarns stills, however, years of hard work were required to get the project off the ground. The distillery idea came originally from Douglas Clement, a former professional golf caddy at the nearby Kingsbarns Golf Links, but it took the Wemyss family’s involvement and funding to turn that dream into a reality.

In the process, the semi-derelict steading of East Newhall Farm, built to service the adjoining Cambo Estate by the 9th Earl of Kellie in about 1800, was painstakingly restored over a three-year period. Its centrepiece is the eye-catching ‘doocot’ or dovecot – more than 600 terracotta nesting boxes constructed to house the pigeons that would have supplied the laird’s kitchen with meat and eggs.

When it came to the whisky, the Wemyss family had a clear flavour strategy. ‘We set out to make a Lowland style,’ says William Wemyss, ‘looking for light, fruity, peach and pear notes – we wanted it to be an approachable whisky.’

That means long fermentations – three to five days in Kingsbarns’ case – and lots of copper contact during the distillation process, which helps to strip out unwanted impurities and to impart a clean, light, floral and fruity character to the new make spirit.

The lyne arms running off the tops of the stills are long (more copper contact), the wash still is run for eight hours for the first distillation, and the second distillation in the spirit still is slow as well, with high cut points. These factors all help to shape the trademark Kingsbarns style, and the family has stressed that this will not change.

Maturation is mainly in first-fill ex-Bourbon casks, sourced from Heaven Hill in Kentucky, but about 10% of Kingsbarns’ whisky goes into no fewer than 14 different cask types, from ex-Sherry to ex-Port and ‘STR’ casks that have been shaved, toasted and recharred before filling.

In all of this, says William Wemyss, the family has been hugely indebted to the expertise of the late Dr Jim Swan, the distillery consultant once dubbed ‘the Einstein of whisky’, who helped advise Kingsbarns on how to create an early-maturing spirit style. ‘Before this, we were doing blending and bottling,’ explains Wemyss. ‘So production was completely new to us, and it was really important to get the style set up from the start.’

These days, Scotch whisky distilleries are much more than mere production centres, with high-quality visitor facilities at the heart of what they do. Thanks to Kingsbarns’ location – close to the golfing mecca of St Andrews – tourism was always going to be a important part of the distillery’s activities.

Kingsbarns, which has a five-star visitor attraction rating from the Scottish Tourist Board, offers visitors the chance to discover the history of the distillery’s name, as well as tracing the renovation of the farm steading and, via the ingenious ‘Aromatron’, testing their sense of smell by attempting to identify various aromas commonly found in whisky.

There’s a standard one-hour tour or, for the real whisky enthusiast, a two-hour deep dive into the distillery, with a longer tutored tasting. Summer golfers are catered for too, with a one-hour ‘19th Hole’ early evening tour and tasting available for pre-booking during July and August, while gin lovers can visit the adjoining Darnley’s Gin distillery, also owned by the Wemyss family. Details of all tours are available on the Kingsbarns Distillery dedicated page.

‘When we started up, initially we got all the typical whisky insiders who trek out to a new distillery,’ recalls William Wemyss. ‘But our single malt has been out for about a year now and, when people buy a bottle, they want to visit the distillery.’

That single malt, Kingsbarns Dream to Dram, is now available at well over 100 outlets in the UK, and is exported to 20 countries. With more releases in the pipeline, the reputation of this idiosyncratic corner of Scotland as a source of quality whisky will only surely only grow in the years to come.

A Kingsbarns trio to try…

Kingsbarns new make spirit (63.5% abv; £16.95/20cl)

Never miss a chance to taste new make, because it tells you everything about distillery style. This is full of pear, fragrant cherry blossom and zesty orange, plus a pinch of white pepper and a cereal note reminiscent of Rich Tea biscuits. Cut through the alcohol and you’ll find a light, attractive new make, with a spike of spearmint and clove.

Kingsbarns Dream to Dram (46% abv; £44.95/70cl)

The Fife distillery’s inaugural release, this is utterly charming and approachable, but has real texture and structure too. It’s very floral, then the fruits kick in: stewed apple, pears in syrup. You can feel the cask in notes of black banana and wood-derived spices, but it’s beautifully balanced and very long for such a youthful dram.

Kingsbarns Single Cask Release, #1610748 (61.7% abv; £75/70cl)

Taken from a first-fill ex-Bourbon barrel after three-and-a-half years’ maturation, and bottled at cask strength. It’s very punchy when neat, so add a little water (to taste) in order to bring out wonderful notes of jasmine and honeysuckle, citrus fruit and just a hint of menthol, plus polished wood from the cask. A beast without water, but a beauty with it.

All available from the Kingsbarns Distillery online shop.