Inverurie Whisky Shop was opened by Mike Stuart and his business partner, Claire Hawkins in 2015. Developing a passion for whisky during his time working in hospitality, Mike saw Inverurie as the perfect spot to open a whisky shop dedicated to customer service and a place that offered more than just a place to buy whisky. In 2025 the shop moved from it's original premises to our new site, right next door to where you are sitting now. If you like something in your glass, we may have a bottle available to take home!
A tasting room was opened in 2016 and we now host regular tastings, such as brand ambassador visits, private events as well as our less formal Flight Tastings, which you are likely enjoying at the moment.
Further to the shop opening for tastings and buying, Mike and the team offer whisky tours and whisky training - with Mike being the only Whisky Ambassador Certificate tutor in the North East of Scotland. Tours are bespoke to your needs, so if you are enjoying your experience in the shop, why not enquire about taking your whisky journey that step further with us.
Foghouse Spirits 13 Year Old Secret Highland
Step into the next stage of Inverurie Whisky Shops journey as we celebrate 10 years of business. Our tenth year saw us open the Foghouse Whisky and Wine bar and we are delighted to release our celebratory series with this incredible whisky.
We purchased this cask 3 years ago and it was been under our watchful eye as we've created a rich, complex and waxy dram to celebrate the launch of our exciting new series.
After 10 years in a Bourbon Cask, we split the liquid into three fresh Octaves that previously held Oloroso Sherry, Palo Cortado Sherry and Marsala Wine. Once this mid-maturation was complete after around 4 months, we married the liquid back together in a refill Bourbon cask, allowing them to mellow and marry until now. 
The dram celebrates our inspiration for our brand: The Foghouse, situated on Bennachie, our local iconic mountain and we have been working with the incredibly talented artist Steven Shand to come up with a label that does the liquid justice.
Some completely unrelated information....
Clynelish Distillery sits near the coastal village of Brora in Sutherland, in Scotland’s far north Highlands. Founded in 1819, it has long been prized for producing a distinctive malt with a character unlike almost anything else in Scotland. Modern Clynelish was rebuilt in the late 1960s beside the original site, and today operates as part of Diageo’s portfolio, supplying spirit both for official bottlings and for some of the world’s best-known blends, including Johnnie Walker.
Clynelish is famous for its signature “waxy” texture, often described as candle wax or beeswax, wrapped around flavours of honey, citrus peel, heather, vanilla and gentle spice. A subtle coastal saltiness and faint smokiness can also appear, giving the whisky a beautifully balanced Highland-meets-maritime style
Nose: Waxy orchard fruit, vanilla, honeyed malt and soft spice, with hints of dried fruit, polished oak and sweet wine richness.
Palate: Rich and layered, with toffee apple, citrus peel, sultanas, nutty sherry, soft Marsala sweetness and a rounded bourbon-cask creaminess.
Finish: Warming and complex, with waxy fruit, spice, gentle oak and a lingering sweet-dry balance.
Self-guided thought: This dram is all about the story of place. Look for the way the bourbon-cask fruit and vanilla are deepened by the three octave casks, giving sweetness, nuttiness, wine richness and texture.
Burnside 15 Year Old Cognac Finish
Bottled by Skene Whiskies, based in Finzean (pronounced Fing-ing), our latest special bottling has all the hallmarks of a classic Balvenie whisky, with a touch of apple. Bottled at 15 years old, this release spent its first 12 years in ex-bourbon barrels before being transferred to Cognac casks for its final 3 years, creating a unique, summers day
experience in a glass.
Burnside is a teaspooned malt from two neighbouring Speyside giants on the banks of the River Fiddich: technically a blended malt, with 99.9% of the spirit distilled near Balvenie Castle and a small “teaspoon” of the Fiddich Valley’s finest added at the end.
This bottling is natural colour, non-chill filtered and cask strength, from cask number 90017. It is bottled at 48% ABV.
Nose: Soft Speyside malt, orchard fruit, honey, vanilla fudge and a gentle Cognac-cask lift of grape, apricot and polished oak.
Palate: Smooth and fruit-led, with baked apple, pear, golden syrup, toasted oak and a little dried stone fruit from the Cognac finish.
Finish: Rounded and warming, with malt biscuit, soft spice, honeyed fruit and a clean oak sweetness.
Self-guided thought: This is the bridge between familiar Speyside elegance and independent bottling character. Look for the classic honeyed fruit of the base spirit, then see how the Cognac cask adds a richer grape-and-apricot note.
10 Year Anniversary Bottling - Gordon & MacPhail 17 Year Old Fettercairn
Gordon & MacPhail have been with us since we opened the doors to Inverurie Whisky Shop in 2015 - in fact, since long before we opened! They were fundamentally important in our set up and we couldn't really go anywhere else to celebrate our 10th Anniversary release
Known for excpetional cask quality and an age-old relationship with distilleries, we knew that whatever cask we chose for this release would be excellent and the hardest decision was narrowing it down.
We wanted a whisky that was our oldest yet, and something that was a style we hadn't released since our GlenAllachie in 2020 - a big hitting sherry bomb. Gordon & MacPhail duly delivered with this special 17 year old from Fettercairn.
Encapsulating the classic robust Highland style, we have a marriage of perfect harmony between spirit and cask. At 58.8% it may be spicy, but a touch of water mellows this and brings out so much sweetness from the First Fill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead.
The whisky is as distinct as it is special and we are delighted to have our name on it.
Nose: Sweet red apple, milk chocolate and hazelnut, with polished oak, soft spice and a gentle fruitcake richness.
Palate: Creamy and full, with zesty Seville orange, cocoa, stewed plum, roasted nuts and cask-strength warmth.
Finish: Medium-bodied and elegant, with underlying liquorice, plum, orange peel and drying sherry oak.
Self-guided thought: This is the milestone dram of the flight. It marks 10 years of Inverurie Whisky Shop, and it shows how a single first-fill sherry cask can bring chocolate, fruit, nuts and oak together without losing the distillery’s character.
Flight Reflection
This flight is a celebration of Inverurie Whisky Shop’s own whisky journey.
The Foghouse 13 Year Old tells the story of Bennachie, the Foghouse bar and a new local series, with bourbon-cask waxiness lifted by oloroso, Palo Cortado and Marsala octaves. The Skene Reserve Burnside 15 Year Old brings Speyside charm and a Cognac-cask finish, giving honeyed malt, orchard fruit and soft grape sweetness. The Fettercairn 17 Year Old Gordon & MacPhail closes the flight with a true shop-exclusive celebration: first-fill sherry depth, Highland fruit and 10th anniversary significance.
As a final comparison, return to the Foghouse after tasting the Fettercairn. You may find the Foghouse feels waxier and more experimental, the Burnside softer and more elegant, and the Fettercairn richer, darker and more celebratory.