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Day 7 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 9, 2025

by Evan

Today I will attempt to sell you on a bottle of this KWM Cask. Because I absolutely love it.

Today, Teaninich Distillery is, quietly, the seventh largest Single Malt Whisky distillery in Scotland when it comes to annual production. It is also the third largest owned by spirits megacorp Diageo, with only the Roseisle and Glen Ord Distilleries producing slightly more.

The name Teaninich apparently originates from the Gaelic term ‘taigh an aonaich’, which translates to ‘house on the hill’. It is correctly pronounced ‘tee – nin – ick’ from what I can find. I appreciate the name also containing NIN in there, a reference to one of my longstanding favourite bands.

What is the term? Right: There’s more than one way to skin a cat. This term can be used for fermentation and distillation, and Teaninich definitely goes about peeling that feline in a different manner than most other Scottish distilleries. Two tools that Teaninich uses that aren’t seen in many other distilleries are the hammer mill and the mash filter. These to apparatus replace the more often seen and used roller mill and mash tun.

Operations-wise – a roller mill is used in most distilleries to grind or shear the grain into smaller particles of relatively uniform size. that are then steeped in water and allowed to ferment, creating a distilleries beer over a period of 2 to 3 days on average. The hammer mill used to pound or hammer the malt/grain into submission – or a powder/flour.

The use of a hammer mill instead of a malt mill allows for higher efficiency for a large-scale production like Teaninich. It creates a very fine, flour like grist, as opposed to the more inconsistent and course grist that is typically made by roller mills. The small particle size of the resulting flour/grist can be steeped in water and fermented more effectively as well, as the sugars are more easily gotten to and converted to alcohol during fermentation.

The downside is that this fine flower would create a heavy sediment and often block or gum up the works of a fermentation tank. That is where the mash filter comes into play. The mash filter does exactly what the name suggests – it provides a barrier (actually a large amount of barriers in this case) to block and filter out even the smallest particles from the liquid mash. It is like using a series of large to small sieves to filter particles out of flour. The result is a relatively clear wort, or distiller’s beer, that is then distilled and made into new make spirit.

A great video by whisky.de/whisky.com on Teaninich Distillery

The distillery is a quite different than most others in Scotland, thanks to its use of hammer mill and mash filter.

Thanks to the hammer mill and mash filter combination, Teaninich does not have to limit itself to Single Malt Whisky production either. Experiments have been undertaken with Rye mashes as well, and we have recently seen the first commercial release of this Single Grain Rye Whisky in the 2025 Diageo Special Release lineup with the Teaninich 8 Year Old.

Why is Teaninich like this? How did it become so unique? Well, the Teaninich of today is quite different from the Teaninich of yesteryear. Let’s take a look at the distillery’s history.

Teaninich Distillery first sprung to being in 1817, when it was built and founded by Captain Hugh Munro. The good captain was born in 1770, inherited the title of Laird at 18 when his father passed away in 1788, and enlisted in the 78th Highlanders Regiment. In 1794, that regiment was sent to the Netherlands to fight in the French Revolutionary Wars. That same year, during a skirmish at Nijmegen, Captain Hugh suffered a head injury of sorts, when a musket ball collided with it. This gunshot did not kill Munro, but it did leave him blind for the remainder of his life.

The Blind Captain Munro put his efforts into his land and Castle at Teaninich. The building of Teaninich Distillery, which was legal from the get-go, allowed the local grain to be used for distillation at one central hub, and kept some illicit distilleries from operating in the area.

Skip ahead a couple centuries and we now have the modern Teaninich Distillery. It does not much resemble buildings and operations that were its humble beginnings. Now a massive factory of whisky making, the most recent 2015 expansion gives Teaninich the ability to produce up to 10.2 million litres of spirit each year. There is no pagoda style chimney on the roof on Teaninich that denotes it as a traditional house of whisky making like Springbank, nor is it quite the space-age and spaceship looking marvel that is Roseisle. It cannot boast the architectural achievements yet somehow shopping mall-esque interior of Macallan, either. Instead, it is a rather plain looking factory that happens to make great whisky.

As mentioned earlier, the distillery resides near Teaninich Castle, which still stands and is now at least partly operated as a hotel. You can get information on it if you are interested in staying there:

I do not make any referral fee or kickback if you book, sadly, but do what you will.

Oddly, the Teaninich Castle website does list Dalmore Distillery as a nearby attraction, but does not reference Teaninich Distillery at all. This is probably because the distillery does is not open to the public and doesn’t even have a visitors’ centre. I guess when you don’t have many official bottlings, there really isn’t much to offer.

Berry's Teaninich 2010 KWM Cask – 54.1%

This KWM Cask is our first cask pick ever from Teaninich Distillery, courtesy of indie bottler Berry Bros. & Rudd. It was distilled in 2010 and matured in a hogshead until hitting the bottle in 2024 at a strength of 54.1%. 245 bottles in total from cask number 709018.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: decadent, creamy, and floral with juicy malt, bright fruits, and a waxy backbone; Granny Smith apples, poached pear, and assorted citrus Starburst Fruit Candies; chewy malt, toasted oak, and floral waxy top notes.

Palate: thick, coating, and sweet with more bright fruits, juicy malt, and oily candle wax; Billy Bee liquid honey, marshmallow and Hershey's Cookies 'N' Cream; grocery store apple pie, poached pear, honeydew melon, and more citrus Starburst fruit candies; building decadent spice, cinnamon, ginger, and star anise; chewy malt with a delicate minerality and more floral waxy tones.

Finish: fresh, fruity, and malty; more honey, wax, and decadent spice.

Comment: we've had a couple of gorgeous young single casks from Berry Bros., including our Linkwood 2011, and the long gone Glen Moray 2007; if you like that, this is even better; bright, fruity, and malty with decadent spice and waxy floral top notes; this is the perfect malt to greet the start of summer!

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Chalky, mineral-driven and grassy, with notes of lemon zest, lemongrass, grapefruit, pears, golden delicious apple, glazed doughnuts, pineapple slices, and a dusting of icing sugar.

Palate: A hard edge of minerality again, to start, with a ginger-driven spice note. This all softens up as it hits the tongue and a burst of fruit follows. More pear and pineapple, lemon drops, peach nectar, macadamia nuts, honey, and chamomile tea.

Finish: A combination of chalky and creamy on the fade, with the soft fruit notes along for the ride. It all sticks around for a surprising amount of time. Not what you would expect from a teenage dram from a refill cask.

Comment: I find this dram absolutely mesmerizing. The combination of minerality plus the fruit just waiting under the surface to burst through is fantastic.

This really hits the spot right now. It is exactly what I want when it comes to an unpeated whisky matured in a refill cask. Exceptional stuff. Can tomorrow’s whisky possibly stack up to this?

Cheers,

Evan

evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com

This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM Single Cask, KWM 2025 Still Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

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