I tried a fun and relaxed new whisky experience in Edinburgh's coolest venue
These sessions are perfect for whisky lovers
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Port of Leith had around 100 bonded whisky warehouses.
It seems that us Edinburgers were thirsty back then.
Now, some of those vast buildings have been turned into flats, and this thriving neighbourhood is mainly about hip restaurants, bars and shops.
However, the amber nectar’s influence has never completely evaporated, and there is still a young scene that continues to evolve and quietly ferment.
That’s thanks in part to irreverent brand, Woven Whisky, who have moved into the super cool food, drinks and arts destination, Brown’s of Leith, after ditching their original “shoebox” of a headquarters at The Biscuit Factory.
“We were invited to our new home after actually having a bit of a crush on this building for about 20 years,” says Woven Whisky co-owner Duncan McRae.
They’ve just launched their Blending Rooms, which are in this former steelworks’ old office area, through a wood panelled door to the left of the main entrance.
This is phase one of a plan to make a bigger whisky blending facility, to be completed towards the end of 2027. In one of the original warehouse-sized rooms, this will include a lounge bar and a tasting area, where you can presumably try some of Woven’s inventions, including their bestselling House Blend, the brand new and funky Hot Honey, or the incredible smokey forest-bathing drink that is Hemispheres - a blend of spirits including a manuka smoked single malt from New Zealand.
For now, they’re offering a new Blending Rooms experience: a hands-on visitor journey where guests get to blend and bottle their own whisky. It runs every Thursday to Saturday at 3pm as well as Fridays at noon throughout August, with groups of six to eight able to enjoy the two-hour experience.
This kicks off in a civilised fashion, down in the main food area, where Civerinos, ShrimpWreck, and Haze reside. To get our creative juices flowing, we have a highball cocktail. From choices including an espresso-spiked number and a lemonade mix, I go for an apple pie version, with fizzy juice.
Then it’s up to the blending room for the session, which is taken by Woven co-founder Pete Allison. He stands at the head of the table, while the summer rain beats down on the window and a seagull makes a racket.
There are five whisky glasses in front of us, each containing a wee nip, in shades ranging from pale straw to builder’s tea.
Allison explains that we will be making our individual blends with these. They are each badged by flavour profile. So one glass contains something that’s Waxy, another Grassy, Fruity, Meat and Sweet. We try these individually at first, and Allison explains what liquid or liquids are in each.
I like his flavour notes, as he describes the Sweet mixture, which is made from a combination of different aged whiskies from North British Distillery in Edinburgh’s Gorgie, as smelling like custard creams and Brylcreem.
Of Fruity, Allison says; “You've got green grapes, green apple skin, and then you've got sort of more Christmas fruits coming in from some sherry as well”.
I’m a bit scared of the Meat number, which is very umami, mushroomy and heavy, but Allison says he uses this in lots of his inventions as; “It’s got such a deep richness, and it's almost like adding pepper to a dish, though you don't want to use too much of it”.
The Grassy sample, with its notes of hay and hedge, definitely does it for me. I’m an undergrowthy sort of gal. Same goes for Waxy.
Allison points to the wall, where there are shelves that hold an apothecary’s worth of various sized bottles in anonymous packaging.
“There are 150-ish distilleries across Scotland. They all make fantastic whiskies, as well as the countless distilleries around the world that are also making it in their own style and form,” he says. “Being whisky blenders, we're able to hand select casks from these amazing distilleries, bring them together, get cask samples up onto our wall, and use that as a colour palette, in which to create a picture. That freedom means that we're able to select whiskies from distilleries that perhaps wouldn't be used by your mainstream brands, but it also means that we're able to put together combinations in ratios using different techniques and methods that have been forgotten”.
The next step in our experience involves a pipette, and a fresh glass. We mix a few milliliters of equal parts of two of our favourite profiles, as an experiment. I try Grassy and Waxy together, and enjoy the combo. Then, we try another mixture, with three this time, and so on.
There are extra additions, such as a bottle of a very peaty whisky, so we can add a few drops to give another element, or a sherry--ish blended malt liquid, which Allison calls his “special sauce”. I add a few drops of this to my mixture of Waxy, Grassy and Fruity, and I am satisfied with the raisin-y tinge.
Finally, we bottle our 100ml creation, by pouring it through a funnel into one of Woven’s funky-looking bottles. I manage to only spill a little of my precious nectar.
Then, a sheet is passed round, so we can enter our details and the name of our blends. I go for the moniker, Lawn, which is quite uninspired, though another participant names his creation after his girlfriend, presumably for maximum brownie points. They’ll be doing this at all these sessions, so people can eventually re-order their own custom blends.
This fun and relaxed experience is ordinarily finished off by a farewell cocktail that’s included in the price, but I have had quite enough already, thank you very much.
I stoat off down The Shore, warmed by blended whisky, like the many Leithers who went before me.
The Blending Experience at Woven is £55, visit www.wovenwhisky.com
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