Port of Leith Distillery

This converted biscuit factory is a vertical distillery - water is pumped just once up the nine-storey building and gravity does the rest, more efficient than multiple intermediate pumping. There's a rooftop bar, and they market Spanish port and sherry but this is just a side-line until their whisky matures. Sherry barrels imported at Leith were traditionally re-used to mature whisky, imparting a rich complex flavour. It's intended to mature whisky here for 7 years, well beyond the legal minimum 3, so it will be a pricy premium brand when it goes on sale in 2030. Meanwhile the hustle is to sign people up as "analysts", who pay over £500 to receive test samples of immature whisky that wouldn't earn a place on the shelves of Lidl.

• market

Address

11 Whisky Quay EH6 6FH

Getting there

at Ocean Terminal

Price

Tour £20, or £30 with tasting

Website

leithdistillery.com (opens in a new tab)