Moonshine and Dunphail
If just a few years ago someone had tried to find any connection between the word "moonshine" and the name Dunphail, one's imagination would have had to be extremely rich to find even the slightest common denominator. After all, the former is the Polish term for homemade alcohol, while the latter... hardly anyone has ever heard of the latter. Unless he happened to wander into northeast Scotland, near the town of Forres.
Today, this moonshine - in addition to its original meaning - is the name of one of the more well-known and respected whisky producers. The company, located in north London, was founded by a Pole, Dariusz Plazewski, about whom it can be said that he sucked moonshine making out of his mother's milk. So, too, the word moonshine turned out to be a natural choice when it came to naming the venture. The first barrels at Bimber were flooded with fresh distillate in May 2016. In September 2019, the market was given the opportunity to say "Check!" And check it still does today, while the Bimber distillery can barely keep up with production, so well, even enthusiastically received has been its whisky.
A Dunphail? The name of this miniature settlement just outside of Forres in Scotland's Speyside region will also very soon be the name of another operating Scotch malt whisky distillery. The assembly work is nearing completion, the individual vats, alembics, tanks have been installed, piping has been connected, even the traditional malting floor and warehouse have been prepared, where literally any day now the first barrels filled with what in three years will be described as "Single Speyside Malt Whisky" will rest".
A link to Moonshine? Well, it is a venture of the same company, the same people. And although in many places in Scotland you can find Polish employees involved in the operation of the distillery, in the case of Dunphail, it could be said that this is the first Polish Scottish distillery. If the chances of success of this venture are measured by the measure of the success of the London-based moonshine distillery, it is certain that Dunphail will soon become famous.
Meanwhile, Moonshine is not resting on its laurels. Neither allows Scottish investment to dominate the company's operations. For here is the fourth installment of a series of whiskies prepared in collaboration with Transport For London, London's public transport operator, coming to market. And if London and public transportation, then, above all, the famous London Underground.
First series Moonshine's Spirit of the Underground (play on words certainly intended) appeared in May 2021. The plan for the entire series spans three years, in which 44 editions of single malt whiskies from the Moonshine distillery are expected to hit the market, "dressed" in graphics referencing and using symbols and names native to the London Underground.
The fourth edition of Bimber's Spirit or the Undeground Collection includes the following whiskeys, bearing the names of Piccadilly Underground Line stations:
The Spirit of the Underground - Covent Garden, 59.2% vol., whisky matured in sherry barrel, 321 bottles,
The Spirit of the Underground - Green Park, 59.4% vol., moscatel barrel, 285 bottles,
The Spirit of the Underground - Leicester Square, 60.3% vol., fresh American oak barrel, 271 bottles,
The Spirit of the Underground - Piccadilly Circus, 62.1% vol., pedro Ximénez sherry barrel, 314 bottles.
The whiskies are bottled as cask strength, without dilution, without caramel coloring, and without cold filtering, so in their most natural form. The cost to purchase a single bottle of the fourth edition of Bimber's Spirit of the Underground series is £125. Due to the huge interest and in order to ensure the fairest possible distribution of the limited edition whiskies, Moonshine was forced to resort to selling by drawing lots. Distilleries such as Macallan and Dornoch have previously used and continue to use such solutions.
There are many indications that in a little over three years we will be buying whiskey from Dunphail in a similar manner. Which, of course, we wholeheartedly wish for the Polish, by all means, venture in Speyside.
[31.01.2023 / Photo: Moonshine]