Fort Glen isn’t about spectacle. It’s about showing up, paying attention, and letting the place teach you something. Set in the Scottish Borders, Fort Glen feels like a working idea rather than a finished monument. Barrels stacked with intention, experiments that don’t always work, and conversations that wander from mash bills to life philosophy without warning. The whisky reflects that mindset. Thoughtful, layered, and unapologetically personal. Fort Glen doesn’t pretend whisky is sacred. It treats it like a living thing shaped by curiosity, risk, and the willingness to do things a little differently and see what happens.
I got a very nice note from Peter Bowyer of Fort Glen Scotch Whisky in Duns, Scotland. "Chris has spent a lifetime in advertising, helping to promote things that were good, but where it was difficult to engender passion. However, he has now found his true niche - he...
Peter and Matt Bowyer are doing amazing things with whisky in a small village in the Borders Region of Scotland in a village called Duns. Most big distilleries will crank out massive amounts of whisky, throw it in a used American Bourbon cask and forget about it for a...
Peter and Matt Bowyer are father and son, as in Peter the father and Matt the son. Their last name literally means “maker of bows” and not the party kind. Probably the longbows that were the most feared weapon in the kingdom for many, many years. So, they come from a...
The front door squeaks. Every time. Loudly. I suspect there is a reason, as in it will let the bar staff know someone is coming in. But then again, the men’s room door squeaks and nobody cares who’s going in or out or even wants to know. There is a well-loved dive bar...
We call it The Archangel’s Share after Michael, the Archangel. He is, apparently, El Jefe Grande, and we’d assume he wants more from us so we’re happy to give. For anyone who knows about whisky, they know about The Angel’s Share. That’s the portion of the aging whisky...
It might have been an accident, actually. Storing whisky in barrels was easier and less fragile than in glass and probably a lot cheaper. After all, there was plenty of wood around and skilled carvers, but not a lot of glass. So it made sense to store your whisky in...
I’m it. And I do. Stick with me a bit, and I’ll explain. I have been, I believe, the only tourist in the little village of Duns, Scotland. I’ve spent time in all three of the pubs, walked around town, hung out in the central square having morning coffee, and shopped,...
I came to Scotland with some preconceived notions of how Scotch whisky came into being. I assumed they were all in big, ancient castle-like buildings on windswept cliffs or islands, and while that can be true, it’s not the rule. There are distillers that operate on a...
Peter, Matt, my gracious hosts and owners of Fort Glen Whisky took me on a road trip to Loch Lomond, across the verdant-as-hell Scottish landscape. Farms, rolling hills, lucky sheep and cattle, more farms, trees, castles, cottages, little damned villages, more farms,...