Well, that was a very nice trip. My wife and I really enjoyed ourselves, even though she wasn't having any of the whisky. The B&Bs we stayed at were pretty nice. You couldn't throw a stone without hitting a distillery in the Highland & Speyside regions, it seemed. I got to see quite a few.
We flew into Edinburgh and then drove north through the
Cairngorm National Park towards Elgin in Speyside.
As mentioned before, a little town called Tomintoul was having their highland games this weekend, so we stopped in there. Had some good venison and watched the games there were going on. The was a traditional dance competition to bagpipes that all of the local girls were competing in. Tug-of-war between the local towns. The only heavy game we saw was a shotput style stone throw. I was hoping to see the caber toss, but oh well.
After a night in Elgin, we got lost on our way to the first distillery, but finally made it to GlenDronach right as the tour was starting. There was only one other couple on the tour, from South Africa. Coincidence, but one of the owners is from South Africa, too, as there was an SA flag flying at the distillery.
We got a nice in depth tour as it was a small group and there was no rush. Since they weren't in production until later that day, we could take pictures everywhere. I learned about the
Spirit Safe, which was a part of the process I hadn't known about.
At the end, I bottled my own GlenDronach Manager's Cask to bring home with me.
Then it was on to Strathisla where I had a few samples. One was a 37yo from a closed distillery Inverleven (lowland) and the other was Longmorn. Both pretty good and since Longmorn doesn't do tours, it was a good opportunity. I wasn't really interested in the Chivas.
Overall, I had samples at GlenDronach, Strathisla, GlenGrant and Macallan. Also passed by GlenMoray, Glentauchers, BenRiach, Longmorn, Knockdu, Craigellachie, Mortlach, Balvenie and Glenfiddich, but didn't do any tours at those (either they were closed, didn't do tours, or too busy). I got pictues of all of them, at least, though.
Here's the "knock" where Knockdu gets its name from. It means black hill... not to be confused with Knockandu, by the way, which means little black hill.
We also made a quick run up to Loch Ness to check that off our list. The castle tours were closed by the time we got there, though, which sucked.
The next day, in addition to some of the above distilleries, we stopped by Speyside Cooperage for a tour. They were taking US bourbon barrels and turning them into casks for whiskey by enlarging them. 5 bourbon barrels were turned into 4 whisky casks by taking them apart and adding new planks from the extra donor barrel and adding new larger rings. These guys get paid by the cask, and only after they check out as watertight. They made it look easy, but I know it's not.
We spent most of the third day in Dufftown on our way back down to Edinburgh. I got to go by the Mortlach distillery, but they didn't do tours. I REALLY wanted to tour Balvenie, but they were booked up for the week. This is as close as I got.
We had lunch (haggis, neeps & tatties) in Dufftown and I had a great Scottish Stout. I even had a bottle of
Armegeddon beer in my hand. Strongest beer in the world at 65%, but at 35 Pounds a bottle, I couldn't talk myself into pulling the trigger.
Last day we spent in Edinburgh touring the castles and royal mile. Overall, I saw far less kilts than I thought I would, although all of the shops were selling tartans on everything imaginable.
I came back with a pretty good haul, I think, and nothing got broken on the way.
More pictures in the my gallery
http://www.cigarpass.com/forums/gallery/album/1762-scotland-2013/
Enjoy!
