Let me start by saying this: there is no greater relief and simultaneously no giddier excitement than the realization one of your good friends has built a world class distillery that makes amazing single malt whisky. I say this because there’s no guarantee that will be the case when said friend undertakes that journey. Roughly seven years ago, I was in Glasgow with Stan Morrison taking a tour of the old pump house along the Clyde River that was chosen as the future site of the Clydeside distillery. Today, many years later, I finally saw and tasted the finished product.

What’s the verdict? Holy fucking shit is that whisky delicious!!!

I would need weeks to really break down all the reasons I love the new Clydeside Distillery and its whiskies, but for all you graphic designers out there here’s reason #22: even the font that is featured on the distillery logo and label is taken from the shape and make-up of the old warehouses that stored whisky along the river years ago. THAT is the level of detail to which the Morrisons have gone in order to make what is, by far, the coolest new distillery I’ve ever been to anywhere in Scotland or Kentucky. Let’s leave it at that for now.

How does it taste? You can see Salpi was all smiles when she went through her flight, but I’ll say this for now: not only is it completely loyal to the Lowland style and the heritage of Glasgow, it’s also so deliciously sweet, grainy, and bright on the finish that you can’t help but want seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths. At just a few years of age, I’ve never tasted an unpeated single malt whisky that is this precocious. I’m stocking up now for the trip back.

Not only is the distillery on a beautiful strip of the river, the bottles are striking and the gift shop is stocked with all sorts of unique special editions and even a fill-your-own-bottle single barrel expression a la what Springbank used to offer back in the day. Speaking of that, while I will always love Springbank, the scarcity and the pricing of today’s market have lost my inner passion. I’m now fully transferring all my child-like joyousness over to the Clydeside because it’s just that damn good.

How damn good? Like I’m-willing-to-drop-$10,000-right-now-and-fill-my-own-cask-of-Clydeside good. That’s how special this whisky is. I want to be in the Ballast Club immediately. I want to come here annually and drink from my own barrel. Whatever they’re doing, I want in. I want to be a part of this. Do you hear me?? I want in on this movement. It’s everything I love about whisky: drinking over collecting, no batches or limited bullshit, just good juice for a good price made by good people. Hallelujah.

-David Driscoll