“It was a cold, rainy day” – that’s how most stories begin, right? No, you say? Oh well, even if it’s not the truth most of the time (especially here in Israel), it was true for the day we visited Auchentoshan Distillery.
When I planned my Scotland trip, I knew that I want to cover and visit as many whisky related places – large distilleries, small independent distilleries, whisky bars and independent bottlers.
So on a rainy day in Glasgow (are there any other types of days there??) we went to visit Douglas Laing HQ.
What would be a trip to Scotland without meeting friends and sharing a few drinks? As I’m quite active on twitter, I’ve made lots of friends over the last few years and It was a rare opportunity to (finally) meet some in person, so we’ve setup a meeting at the SMWS venue on Queens Street in Edinburgh.
SMWS, the Scotish Malt Whisky Society for you, is practically the largest whisky club on earth (30,000 and counting). You pay annual subscription and get access to unique cask strength bottling done every month which you can buy or taste at the venues. This is what you get to choose from at the venue:
Impressive selection ah?
Last Speyside distillery we visit was The Macallan. It was a cold, windy and rainy da – the perfect day to visit distillery (a staple one) and drink some whisky.
So after a great tour at The Balvenie, we took off and drove toward Elgin to our next target: The BenRiach distillery which is located just off the road to Elgin, close by to Longmorn distillery.
The BenRiach distillery doesn’t have visitors center or regular tours, but due to the high demand (and after reading this post you’ll understand why), you can contact the distillery and try booking a tour with the distillery manager Ewan George. Since I love my BenRiach Solstice 17, I wanted to tour the place and managed to book place on the date and time I wanted.
Time to resume detailing our Scotland trip and this time – the 2nd Day in Scotland and after a full night sleep and hearty breakfast, we drove over to our first destination of the day:
Welcome to The Balvenie
So after visiting Deanston Distillery, we resumed our way up north to the Speyside region. At first it was a bit scary as we felt like we’re driving on the wrong lane…
Feels so wrong…
But we soon got used to it and enjoyed the pastoral view around us. we even caught a rainbow while driving!
After 2 stops for caffeine injection and 3 more hours we’ve arrived to Craigellachie where we lodged in the Speybank B&B (highly recommended!). Although it was dark, cold, late and we were very tired, we braved ourselves and went to hunt the Highlander Inn for a couple of drams.
So after 2+ years of dreaming, 6 months planning, October 2013 arrived and I finally embarked and went on my first ever whisky trip. I wasn’t alone and took with my my good friend Rotem and together we went on a 8 days tour of whisky and some music.
So after 2 flights with lengthy night layover in Istanbul we arrived to Edinburgh, rented a car and went up north to Speyside.
Welcome to Edinburgh! Home of the whisky (sort of)
Whisky Gospel 