Chain Pier and Bonnington are two names linked by Edinburgh whisky history, with the former acting as the short-lived precursor to the latter. In this review, we’re looking at a Chain Pier 2019 bottled by Hogshead Import and a Bonnington 2021 bottled by The Caskhound, two releases that help trace that transition from experimental beginnings to full-scale production.
Chain Pier Distillery
Chain Pier was a very short-lived Edinburgh distillery with an outsized place in modern Scotch history. It was set up in Granton by Halewood Artisanal Spirits as an experimental pilot site while the larger Bonnington distillery was still being built, and it operated only from 2018 to 2019, filling just 39 casks in total.
Its first official release was Crabbie Chain Pier Single Malt, described as the first single malt produced in Edinburgh in almost 100 years. That inaugural bottling was matured in a heavily charred virgin American oak cask, bottled at 57% ABV, and said to be a light, fruity whisky with berries, green apple, caramel, and ginger spice. This release was very small, with only 234 bottles reported for that inaugural bottling.
What makes Chain Pier interesting is not just rarity, but purpose. It was never meant to be a long-running distillery in the traditional sense; it was a test bed for techniques, casks, and production ideas that could inform the future of the brand’s whisky work.
Because it was active for such a short time and produced so little spirit, Chain Pier became a collector’s curiosity almost immediately. The limited output and Edinburgh connection give it a kind of “lost microdistillery” appeal, especially for people who like trying whiskies with a real story behind them.
There have also been later independent bottlings from Chain Pier, including examples matured in wine casks, which suggests the spirit may have enough fruit and structure to handle different wood influences. The one we’ll review below was, however, matured in a virgin oak barrel.
Chain Pier is essentially a modern Edinburgh whisky experiment that turned into a scarce, history-laced single malt before most whisky fans even had time to notice it existed.
Chain Pier 2019 Hogshead (2025) Review
This Chain Pier single malt was distilled in 2019 and matured for just over five years in a virgin‑oak barrel before being bottled in 2025 at 54.5% ABV. The cask yielded 259 bottles, and some are still available, at a hefty €176 a bottle in the Netherlands (I paid €165 for mine).
Colour:
Burnished.
Nose:
Neat: Somewhat dusty and woody, with sawdust, light herbs, vanilla and a solid, malty core. There are granola‑style breakfast‑cereal notes, some charred oak and a hint of roasted nuts, plus a faint cardboard‑like background that reminds you this is a very young spirit in strong oak.
With water: Water accentuates the wood and some dusty, sawdust notes, while the cereal aspect softens a little. The vanilla and oak remain very front‑and‑centre, with the spirit still rather hidden beneath the cask.
Palate:
Neat: Thick, oily and rather sweet, with dense breakfast‑cereal malt and a heavy, almost syrupy texture. The virgin oak is very present, bringing wet pine, fresh‑cut oak, vanilla, a little glue‑like note, white pepper and a faint hint of plastic‑like sharpness. The spirit itself is quite neutral and grainy rather than strongly characterful.
With water: The whisky becomes even thicker and more syrupy‑sweet, with less of the alcohol heat but also less definition. The cereal and vanilla persist, but the oak‑driven bitterness and glue‑like edge can become more pronounced, making the balance slightly less pleasant than at full strength.
Finish:
Medium in length, still woody and sweet, with warm bread and cereal notes emerging late. The finish is dominated by oak spice and a slight dryness without much fruit or smoke to balance it.
Comments:
This Chain Pier is a bit difficult, as the virgin oak really overwhelms the spirit, and it lets no indication about the short-lived distillery’s character. The oak is loud and dusty and brings some strange off notes. A proof that rarity does not make good whisky, even though this stays drinkable. But not the dram you’ll reach without thinking.
Rating: 4/10
Bonnington Distillery
Bonnington is a Lowland single malt whisky distillery in Leith, Edinburgh, owned by Halewood Artisanal Spirits. It was commissioned in 2019 and began production in March 2020, making it the first single malt distillery in Leith in nearly 100 years.
The distillery was built as a modern, state-of-the-art operation with on-site mashing, fermentation, distillation, and maturation. The distillery features twin-linked receivers that allow two spirit styles from the same distillation, plus squat-neck stills made by Speyside Copper Works.
Bonnington also uses water from an ancient aquifer about 147 metres below the distillery, which is one of the more distinctive parts of its setup. The site has a strong local-historical angle too, since its construction uncovered archaeological remains tied to Leith’s old industrial and distilling past.
Bonnington’s production has been described as fairly flexible, with both peated and unpeated spirits released in recent years. The distillery has also used a range of casks, including Muscat, ruby Port, and Pedro Ximénez sherry, suggesting a style built around wood-driven character rather than a single fixed profile.
Capacity estimates vary across sources, but the 2026 Malt Whisky Yearbook mentions a capacity of 720 000 litres of pure alcohol per year. That makes Bonnington a relatively serious production site rather than a tiny experimental one.
Bonnington is now closely associated with John Crabbie & Co whiskies, and it marks a return of whisky-making to Edinburgh’s capital whisky history.
Bonnington 2021 The Caskhound (2025) Review
This Bonnington was distilled on 1 June 2021 and matured in a virgin‑oak barrel (cask #1120) before being bottled by The Caskhound on 31 July 2025 at 60.7% ABV. The 256 bottles from its outturn are non-chill filtered and with natural colour. It seems the original price for a bottle was a way more reasonable €60.
Colour:
Burnished.
Nose:
Neat: The nose is dominated by raw oak: sawdust, fresh‑cut timber and a fair amount of wood varnish, with a sweet cereal core. Vanilla, starch, raw grain and a faint boozy alcohol note sit behind the cask aroma; underlying malt and light heather‑like herbs try to push through but are mostly smothered by the oak.
With water: Water tempers the alcohol and some of the sharper wood characteristics, but it also brings out more sawdust, cardboard‑like notes. The vanilla and cereal aspects become a little more obvious, though the oak remains the main story.
Palate:
Neat: Thick, oily and very hot; the virgin‑oak grip comes through immediately as tannic, dry‑dusty spice and a glue‑like, almost plastic‑tinged edge. Underneath there is a sweet, doughy malt flavour and a hint of fresh‑mown grass, but the wood dominates, making the palate feel coarse and a bit untamed.
With water: The texture stays thick and oily, but the heat drops; the glue‑like edge softens, while the grainy malt and a faint herbal‑floral note gain a bit of space. The palate is still oak‑driven, and the dram feels a touch more approachable without becoming truly elegant.
Finish:
Medium‑long and still very woody and drying, with vanilla, oak spice and lingering warmth rather than fruit or smoke.
Comments:
Young spirit and active wood. What could go wrong? Well, youth, sharpness, sawdust… There’s a real resemblance with the Chain Pier, but this Bonnington has less sweetness. But it keeps way too active wood, the glue and sawdust, the sharpness… And the finish emphasises how much the cask is still stamping the young spirit, with little to no refinement yet. I’ll have to wait for a ‘normal cask’ to have any idea of what Bonnington can taste like.