Day one: Starting in a hell of a night. Leaving with my Maltmate first by
car at 2.30am!!! Flight from Amsterdam, big adventure starts in Aberdeen. First
stop for hunting distilleries shortly after landing: Glen Garioch Warehouse No
4 tour. A lovely tour, very interesting, lovely drams, lots of background information. Our guide is a real enthusiast. He is able to answer all my
technical questions. Did you know that Glen Garioch has reinstalled malt floors
and is now one of nine distilleries using malt floors? The others are:
Balvenie, Benriach, Bowmore, Dunphail, Highland Park, Laphroaig, Springbank,
Kilchoman.
No time to lose, our next stop is Speyside. I've been here before,
twice. But back then I was a seeker and then a believer. Now I come back as a
priest. Strathisla Distillery, a standard tour, but let me tell you, all our
tours have been anything but standard. Strathisla is all about Chivas, Chivas
here, Chivas there, the distillery and the location is great. At the bar you
can try lots of drams (for free!).
Inspired, want more, any dates left? Yes, the great Macallan. No tour
though, just the shop and the chance to have a quick look at the cathedral.
What a luxury, what a waste, wtf... What am I doing here?
Day two: In a hurry, first to the cooperage in Craigellachie, yes, where
the famous Craigellachie distillery is located. I've already seen a
cooperage in Balvenie. It is a very important and skilled craft. Without casks
there is no whisky. The quality and nature of the cask determines the result of
the maturation. It's really alchemy and sometimes a miracle.
So is my next tour at Glenallachie. The tour is great, the drams are
terrible, because all these experiments with wood finishing and refilling
unnecessarily disturb the drink and in a way kill the mighty spirit, imo. Slow,
quiet maturation is not possible. But, hey, some folks love this style. Whisky is a broad church. So why is the tour for me still a miracle? Because
of our guide. He is honest and an artist and not the sort you would expect to
find in a distillery. All our guides have been very special people.
The more time you spend on this sacred ground of Speyside (for Scotch
drinkers), the more you are influenced and captivated by the magic that has
been manifested here over the years through the art of distilling. There are
other sacred places I have visited, such as the Highlands (north, central, east
and west), Orkney, Arran, Islay, Isle of Skye, Campbelltown. But the Lowlands
are still waiting.
Back to day two, not finished yet. The Aberlour distillery is currently
(2025) undergoing a major renovation and refurbishment, as is Glendronach. The
production process could not be shown. But we do the deconstructed tasting,
great drams alongside. The order of the drams is debatable 1) 48%, 2)
60.8%, 3) 40%!, 4) 43%!, 5) 62% ABV.
Lorries thunder along the newly tilled barley fields from A to B, then
back to C. Some distilleries don't bottle on site, they don't even store their
barrels here in Speyside but in the Glasgow - Edinburgh belt. Other
distilleries store their casks in different places, in warehouses belonging to
other distilleries, as precaution, as we were assured, in case something
happens. So there's a lot of traffic here and tourists too, although very few
of them are here for the scenery. If you live along the road, you can't sleep
at night.
Day 3: Cragganmore is unfortunately a little-noticed but very
interesting distillery. It is one of the distilleries with wormtubs and has an
unusual still, which has simply been cut off at the top, i.e. the typical
lynarms are... they are different. The Pinnacle tour is very exciting, also
because of our guide, who comes from South Africa and has exciting stories to
tell and knows a lot of languages.
The next distillery that awaits us is Glenfarclas. On my last visit, our
female guide shocked me when she mentioned casually changing the yeast cultures. Wouldn't that change the basic character? It's like two
different types of milk from different supermarkets, she said, you couldn't
taste it, I was put down. And this time? Our guide is very young, but has
learnt her lines well. I don't ask any technical questions this time, but I do
ask about Paxarett later, because of the exciting Dacade tasting. She's never
heard of it. Again almost casually, she mentions that GF has changed the bottling
strength, as has Glendronach (as we learn later) and other distilleries. The
ABV filling streghth is the subject of scientific papers, as can be read here
https://daily.sevenfifty.com/understanding-the-science-of-barrel-entry-proof-in-whiskey/
or here https://www.whiskymag.com/articles/what-happens-in-the-cask/ or here
https://whiskymag.com/articles/how-does-cask-filling-strength-affect-whisky-maturation/.
The traditional methods no longer seem relevant, traditional processes
redundant. Old school? It used to be. Sustainability is the keyword you hear very often. A lot of changes are justified by sustainability. Increased production, greater yield? Not a word. Greed for money? Of course not! Shame upon him who thinks evil upon it.
Glendronach argues the bottling strength with space problems, GF says nothing
about it. Who am I to judge. I'll keep my thoughts on this to myself. But I make a mental note not to buy GF anymore.
The tasting is an enlightening event, a lot of Family Casks, you get to try a very exciting 4th fill
bottling, with the associated background knowledge, later whisky from the 60s
with lots of sulphur. The historical facts about the whiskies are an excellent
accompaniment to the event. Still reveling in the history of GF, I take a taxi back to my accommodation.
I spend the evenings at the Mash Tun. The restaurant with a very large
selection of whiskies has nice staff who unfortunately have absolutely no idea
about whisky. Orders from a completely outdated list cannot be served, prices
for selected whiskies (point your finger and ask for a dram) cannot be found or
are guessed at. Less suitable for vegetarians, the few vegetarian dishes don't
taste good. Never miiiind. French fries with ketchup are delicious!
Day 4: A short journey of about an hour to the south to the Cairn
distillery. Before that, I visit a Wool Mill, a museum that unfortunately
didn't really get back on its feet after Corona. Their only weaver has given up
her job and they now have fewer products than when I was there a few years ago.
Cardhu is just round the corner, but we get so engrossed in the conversation
that we soon have to leave in a hurry. Cairn is obviously built in a nature
reserve with enormous restrictions. One wonders why build here. A very modern,
architecturally outstanding distillery, without (!!!) warehouses. The
warehouses were not allowed to be built here, instead the spirit has to go to
the Benromach distillery to be filled into barrels and stored there. Crazy.
Gordon MacPhail's, the owner, has apparently given up the business as an
independent bottler, selling only the remaining stock and focussing on
Benromach and this new baby. The tour is like a cinema show, first the past,
then the future. Malt blends are currently on display to give an idea of what
the whisky will be like. Everything is very clean and sterile, the process is
highly optimised, both digitally and analogue. However, the food in the
restaurant is delicious! Somehow everything here reminds me of Macallan, hmmm.
Then comes the stark contrast, an old farm. The old building is a listed
building, so the new distillery had to be squeezed into the old walls somehow.
The result is Ballindaloch, with an output of 100,000 litres per year, no
better than Edradour. The distillery has the balls to use Wormtubs, respect.
However, the current bottlings are still a little too harsh and young. It will
be interesting to see what comes next.
Another evening at the Mash Tun, French Fries and Ardnamurchan,
good job.
Day 5: Unfortunately, my journey has already come to an end, after very
intense days another giant awaits me on the road: Glendronach. The first
impression is: what a dump, everything has been left to decay. Supposedly,
however, a lot is now being invested and everything is being modernised. The
place really is a huge construction site. What has been already renovated, however, are the
car parks, a strange priority. It's about the masterclass tour, I didn't want
to do it under that. Our female guide turns out to be a walking whisky
encyclopaedia, all my questions from fermentation time, mash tun brand, mill to
type of wood, paxarette, everything was answered. Speaking of mash tun, it is
not Lauter yet, produces a cloudy wort, but will be replaced by a Lauter, which unfortunately creates a clear wort, but they want to
save the cloudyness somehow. Just amazing what's going on. The tour is meticulously planned,
everything runs according to a script, you actually feel like you're in a film
again. The final tasting is all the more disappointing, we are unfortunately
rushed through the drams, she throws flavour notes at us without waiting for
our impressions or making any reference to them. I didn't say another word.
Very overpowering. What a pity.
I say goodbye with mixed feelings and again doing the mental note not to buy Glendronach
again for the time being.
Day 5/6: Aberdeen, the city everyone warned me about. In fact, the first
impression of the city is not very overwhelming. At second glance however, the city
proves to be very ambivalent. There is the old town and even a very long, very
beautiful coastal strip that starts just behind the legendary AFC stadium. In
the city centre is the Aberdeen Whiskyshop, which very generously let me sample
some interesting whiskies. After a short search, we find the Grill, an
excellent whisky bar where the time passes very quickly. Back to Amsterdam the
next day. I'm already longing for the next trip, back to Scotland, again worshipping spiritual holy grounds and hunting distilleries.
