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Karen and Matt at The Glenlivet, one of my picks for a good distillery tour.

If proof were needed that whisky is a convivial drink elevated by the enlightened and considered folk with whom one savours and discusses it, I present to you Karen and Matt of Whisky For Everyone. Since beginning their democratic investigation into whiskies of the world in 2008, they have become my go-to blog for incredibly in-depth reviews, the latest news and always informed comment. With the same zeal today to discover more about the spirit, Karen and Matt are a credit to the industry and those who endeavour to write about it.

Following on from a guest blog I wrote for them earlier in the week, here is the Whisky For Everyone lowdown on distillery touring in Scotland. I was eager to source their perspective on this matter because I must often concede that while the Scotch Odyssey sought to present a picture of Scotland-wide whisky tourism in the recent past, my encounters can be no more helpful than the restaurant critic who only witnesses one service. Tours vary throughout the day according to a myriad of factors, let alone across the country, at different times of the year with different compositions of tour parties.

I find Karen and Matt’s experiences fascinating as testimonies to the diversity of approaches deployed by distilleries throughout Scotland for welcoming visitors. I hope you will, too.

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Through writing our blog, we are in the lucky position of getting the occasional invite to a distillery.  This may be for a number of reasons – they
want to raise awareness of their brand, to launch a new whisky, to open a new visitor centre or any combination of the three. This is great for us and is one of the perks of something that we do not get paid for and write in our spare time. Invariably these visits are a lot of fun and you get to meet some of the people that work there, while getting the ‘access all areas’ treatment.

However, these VIP tours are not what most people will experience when they turn up at adistillery.  This is why we enjoy joining
a general tour – it is by doing this that you truly experience what makes a distillery tick, what it is like when the spotlight is turned away and everyone is not on their best behaviour, trying to get you to write about their whisky brand.  On these occasions we very rarely ‘reveal our hand’ and try to find out as much information as we can by being ‘whisky beginners’.

From our experience, there seems to be two types of distillery tour available to the whisky tourist in Scotland – the ‘sanitised, see what they want you to see’ tour and the ‘warts and all, see how it really is’ tour.  We have been on a number of both types during our occasional holidays to Scotland. The format of the tours are basically the same – arrive, pay, be shown around, have the whisky making process explained, finish off with a dram or two in the visitor centre/shop.  But, this is where the similarities normally end.

The ‘sanitised, see what they want you to see’ tour is normally found at the larger distilleries or those that are the home to well known brands.
These places can cope with large numbers of fans and visitors that their brand generates. This tour will begin with a brand video showing barley swaying in the breeze, water babbling in a stream, an old chap from the distillery pushing a barrel, or scenes of a similar nature.

Coaches at Cardhu, home of Johnnie Walker. Not a bad tour by any means, but a distillery and approach catered towards the larger parties.

You will then be whisked around the distillery, or part of the distillery (normally not in operation), while the whisky making process basics are explained by the tour guide.  Questions of a more advanced level seem to be discouraged and you are also usually asked not to take any photos or video for ‘safety reasons’.  You will then get a dram of whisky, possibly two if lucky, to send you on your way (usually the basic expression/s from their core range), while they deal with the next coach-load of tourists.

The ‘warts and all, see how it really is’ tour is usually found at the smaller or cult distilleries, or those of smaller and less well-known brands.  There will be no corporate video here, just an informative ‘down to earth’ tour that takes you through the sights and sounds of a working distillery and the whisky making process. It will also not be clean and pristine with lots of shiny new metal on show. The tour guides always seem to be more engaging and open to any questioning, be it at a beginner or connoisseur level.  You may even have the chance to speak with a member of distillery staff who always seem happy to have a chat or answer any questions.

You will invariably get to try more than just the most basic whisky from their core range. You will also be allowed to take photos, including putting your camera lens in to mash tuns, fermentation tanks etc.  This leads you to think – either these places care much less about ‘safety’ than the distilleries in the first group, or there are no real ‘safety reasons’ to worry about.  Maybe those that use that as a reason for no photography, just don’t want you to take any …

Naturally, there are exceptions to both types of tour and ultimately, many visitors will leave both types happy.  However, we always look at them with our slightly critical eyes and guess that it depends what you want from the experience – do you just want to tick off a ‘distillery tour’ on your Scotland must-do list or do you want to really learn something about a place, brand or the whisky production process?

One of my favourite distillery tours, too. You see absolutely everything at Glen Moray.

Our favourite distillery tour to date was found at Glen Moray in Elgin.  Here, we rushed to try and make one of the advertised tour times and were late. Despite this, our soon-to-be tour guide (Emma) stopped what she was doing and offered to show us around anyway. After a tour, which involved seeing almost every nook and cranny of the distillery, we felt like we had an affinity with the place.

We were allowed to walk around freely, ask Emma anything we wanted and get in depth replies, speak to the distillery workers about what they were doing and take as many photos as we wanted.  After that sort of experience, the whisky was always going to taste good. We were given a tutored tasting of three whiskies from the core range, plus a couple of special editions (one of which we ended up buying).

A few months ago, we were invited back to Glen Moray as their guests for a product launch and dinner.  As part of this, we were invited on a VIP tour of the distillery.  This tour proved to be exactly the same and as in depth as the regular tour that we had experienced previously.  That tells
you plenty about how Glen Moray value their visitors and some other distilleries can learn a lesson from that. After all, it could be someone’s first ever distillery tour …

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A massive thank you again to Karen and Matt, and I would urge you to follow their discoveries within the whisky world at Whisky For Everyone.

When I was not setting, turning, spinning and polka-ing during the Celtic Society’s jaunt to Pitlochry, we had just enough time to visit a distillery. We – or at least I – would have contrived some way of fitting Blair Athol in irrespectively.

My previous visit to the home of Bell’s blended whisky was irritating in the extreme. I had discovered that morning that I could expect little more than a video and a dram at the distillery due to maintenance. I rocked up at the reception and exhibition area, got bored, and decided I had better set off for Edradour if I wanted to make it to Brechin before nightfall. I remember it as a smart plant, with an eager burn washing between the buildings.

Blair Athol Distillery, the home of Bell's.

APPEARANCE AND LOCATION:      ****      The distillery sits beneath the railway line, halfway up the braes that lead in to Pitlochry with the River Tummel at its foot. Beautiful stone buildings house the distillery, which sits within a courtyard. The burn which flows through it provides an extra scenic dimension.

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Blair Athol Tour’: £6. See ‘My Tour’ below.

‘Flora and Fauna Tour’: £12.50. A  tour of the distillery with a chance to taste the Blair Athol 12yo and two other expressions from the Flora and Fauna range. Mortlach 16yo and Linkwood 12yo are my recommendations.

‘Allt Dour Deluxe Tour’: £25. The distillery tour plus Blair Athol 12yo, Cask Strength distillery-exclusive and four other malts.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      A cask-strength, Sherry-matured Blair Athol. 55.8% vol. and £55. I managed to wangle myself a dram of this and found it much lighter than the standard 12yo with more of an insistent creaminess and first. Delicate floral notes could be detected before planed oak took over. The palate was prickly and nutty with a good dose of vanilla but water didn’t help at all. A strange dram, and I would personally go for the standard bottling.

My Tour – 23/01/2012

The Blair Athol reception and exhibition area.

THE RUNNING COMMENTARY:      **

THE PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT:      **

Notes:      The tour commences from the courtyard, climbing up a series of steps into the old floor maltings, which now house the mashtun. Two waters only are required to extract the sugars from the grist, which are drained efficiently back down the hill to the four stainless steel washbacks. A short ferment (50 hours) produces the nutty characteristics required, and from there it is on to the stillhouse. Four tall and proud stills sit in the corners of the room, belching heat and a heavy, intriguing spirit. Standing by the ISRs, I could detect old gym crash mats and biscuit. From there it is across the bridge into the filling store for a cooper recruitment drive (there aren’t enough of them, apparently) and into the warehouse. The tour concludes on the balcony of the shop, with a dram.

GENEROSITY:       (Only the one dram is available as part of the standard tour. Asking nicely is the way to do it.)

VALUE FOR MONEY:        *

SCORE:     5/10*s

The shop.

COMMENT:      What hasn’t already been said about a Diageo distillery tour? I was part of a larger group – many first-time whisky drinkers – who said to me later that the ‘patter’ came across as somewhat formulaic and that they didn’t entirely trust some of the claims made. Having done more than 50 distillery tours, I suppose I have become inured to the ‘patter’ but I found our guide to be clear, informative and friendly. To address those odd ‘claims’, though. I only raised an eyebrow when discussions about blending began in the warehouse, the suggestion was that the blender fiddles around with ex-Bourbon casks because colour is more easily managed. There was some discussion of the vanilla elements ex-Bourbon casks lend to a spirit but the focus returned to colour as a reason for master blenders maturing their whisky in these casks. The warehouse itself was something of a disappointment, separated as we were from the sleeping casks in a sealed viewing chamber. No aroma could penetrate, and I feel many missed out on the mystery and magic of those oak-spirit scents, allowing them to guess at the gentle dynamism at work in a dunnage warehouse. The entire distillery, it must be said, was a little denuded of smell. The washbacks were ventilated, the mashtun airlocked, too. For the home of a major blended brand like Bell’s, I found the decor to be a little mundane and thin. It certainly could not hold a torch to the Famous Grouse Experience or Dewar’s World of Whisky. The blend-single malt focus was appropriate, however, and it was made very clear at the beginning that Blair Athol was an element of Bell’s, and was not the producer of it. We are living in different economic times to when I undertook my Odyssey, and I suppose that £6 is what one must now expect to pay for a distillery tour. As such I feel the expense is justified because Blair Athol and its product are undeniably charming. But if you have the means of getting to Edradour above Pitlochry, I would say that was a better bet.

Flocking to the Trossachs National Park, out of Glasgow’s northern back door,  is nothing new. People have been tramping up the hills and cooing at the lochs for a couple of hundred years now since the Victorian fetish for the Highland tableau established the area as a prime tourist spot. It would appear, however, that Glengoyne Distillery has succeeded in luring vast quantities of these souls out of the great outdoors and into its visitor’s book. Maybe the hill of Dumgoyne is the demographically-astute decoy.

The bottle-your-own facility and re-orientated shop.

Ian Macleod Distillers have invested £300,000 in upgrades to the visitor centre and shop to more appropriately welcome the 48,500 people who have traipsed Highland mud and gravel onto their carpets so far this year. More modifications are planned for 2012. These efforts, they say, maintain there position at the forefront of whisky tourism. Between their snug shop, tucked away behind the production buildings, and the sumptuous Manager’s House squatting further up the steep glen, Glengoyne has the facilities to accommodate all levels of interest and knowledge.

In the words of Stuart Hendry, Glengoyne Brand Heritage Manager: ‘The old shop area was very dark and didn’t make good use of space. Our brief to retail design agency Contagious was to create a brighter, more organised shopping area which showed off our award-winning range but without losing the distinct Glengoyne character.

‘I think we have hit the nail on the head and we are extremely happy with the outcome. Feedback from customers has been great and we have seen an increase in sales as a result.’

The alterations are not just in the aesthetic of the facilities, however, Glengoyne have also joined the bottle-your-won battalion. I would argue that there are quite enough single cask Glengoynes sitting, pre-packaged, in the shop already to agonise over, but it is jolly good fun all the same. At the moment spirit is from a first-fill American hogshead, distilled in 2000, and promioses heavy ’tropical fruit flavours’. At £75 it is towards the ‘premium’ end of the pricing structure.

Ian Macleod are fans of inovative whisky marketing and flavour possibilities (Smokehead anyone?) and have not rested on their laurels with their single malt distillery. They have added a raft of new multi-media in addition to their VC spruce-up with a series of films following custodians of Glengoyne’s flavour about their work. Duncan McNicoll is one such individual who can be spotted on screen before the tour and tending the stills during it. Stuart Hendry again: ‘The feedback from viewers is hugely positive. They enjoy getting behind the scenes and meeting the people. Visitors take particular pleasure in speaking to the stars as they meet them around the distillery yard.’

Well done, Glengoyne. With these alterations they can only have improved a whisky tourism experience which was already high up in the Premier League. I welcome any effort to reward fans of the dram who bother to make the journey in search of it with an experience that is just a little bit different. Whisky generally is in a confident place right now. I believe that by re-evaluating the role and character of a visitor centre that confidence can be better translated to the particular brand and those with an interest in it.

     The first I heard of Glenglassaugh’s tour schedule was at the Glen Garioch distillery last April where I also discovered that a change in their own policy, unbeknownst to me, equated to the Oldmeldrum distillery opening for tours on Saturday after all. Both pieces of news were greeted with a mixed reaction: in the case of the former it was another distillery I could have visited but now wouldn’t, and in the case of the latter I had spent a morning rejiggling logistics some time in October in order that I could make it to Glen Garioch by the Friday for nothing. As it turned out, of course, the effort and stress were more than made up for in other unforeseen respects and Glenglassaugh, from the looks of things presently, isn’t going anywhere soon.

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The distillery from the north, over the Moray Firth. Quite a setting.

Portsoy, Banffshire, AB45 25Q, 01261 842367. Glenglassaugh Distillery Co. (Scaent Group). www.glenglassaugh.com

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘The Spirit Tour’: £7.50. Conducted around the plant with one of the workers (in my opinion the folk most qualified to tell you about the equipment they operate, in addition to possessing a hefty reserve of hilarious anecdotes), the tour ends after the spirit still, newly returned to gushing torrents of life (as in the water of life). It is some of this that will be offered to you in the form of a complimentary dram. One of the Spirit Drink range can be sampled which, though not legally whisky yet, is Glenglassaugh in its truest form – its DNA.

‘Behind the Scenes Tour’: £30. In the capable hands of a senior manager, the ‘Spirit’ experience is on offer in addition to an exploration of the obscure nooks and crannies one finds in old distilleries. The dusty corners may not see a huge amount of the action now, but whisky-making in its earliest days was never a wasteful process, and these forgotten spaces can tell you much about the provenance and history of the place. Pace the closed malting floors, imagining barley from the local fields spread upon them quietly turning to malt. Then head to the warehouse for a rarer privilege: the nosing of whisky-laden casks and encounter the silent but intense process of maturation. After the tour, enjoy a dram from the Spirit Drink range in addition to the 26yo and 30yo single malt whiskies.

‘The Ultimate Tour’: £80. This sounds like a lot of money, and it is pitting itself against the likes of the Magnus Eunson Tour at Highland Park and the Cask Idol Tour at Glengoyne. The stops do appear to have been pulled out, however. Distillery manager Graham Eunson will take care of you on the route of the Behind the Scenes tour to the spirit receiver vat where a lesson in recording alcoholic strength awaits. I am given to understand that there is more to it than giving you a sample of the new make and waiting for you to say ‘Phwoar! That’s strong!’ or similar. Take a peak at racked warehouses 2 and 3, then the bottling hall and then assume your honorary position on the Glenglassaugh cask selection scheme. Your opinion is desired on a range of single cask samples to assist in the decision of the next Glenglassaugh release. The tutored tasting includes the drams as for the Behind the Scenes tour in addition to the IWSC Trophy-winning 40yo. Regarding this last, should you decide to buy a bottle of it there and then, the cost of your tour will be refunded.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      N/A   

CASK OWNERSHIP:      That there are no distillery exclusives is a bit disengenuous: there is the opportunity to own your very own cask of new make Glenglassaugh and watch it mature with the Octave programme. Unpeated (£500) and Peated (£600) Glenglassaugh spirit is filled into a 50 litre Octave cask make from staves previously used to mature Scotch whisky at 63.5% ABV. The filling process can be done by a distillery employee or by yourself. Choose the inscription on the cask head and you are presented with a certificate of ownership in addition to a photograph of your cask to take away with you. Progress is monitored annually, with a sample sent to you. Better yet, phone ahead and visit your cask in person/ As to how long your cask rests in Glenglassaugh’s coastal warehouses is up to you but when you do decide to bottle your whisky (at natural or reduced strength is also your decision), Glenglassaugh are there to hold your hand with their on-site facility. It is even possible to design your own label, although this must be formally approved. With the whisky now bottled, the Octave vessel is yours to keep. I can imagine it working very well, turned on its head, as a side table for supporting your evening dram.

      I was wet, I was cold, and I was not prepared to accept when faced with a darkened and locked visitor centre that it was my fault for not reading the opening information properly. On a filthy day from Culrain to Helmsdale discovering that Clynelish was closed was almost too much to take. I debated how much trouble I would get into if I broke into the distillery and showed myself around. I elected to abstain from breaking and entering, and squelched on to Helmsdale for cake and something hot and sweet. My itinerary meant that I couldn’t double back on myself to tour Clynelish when  it opened again on the Monday. I had to get to Orkney.

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Clynelish in white and Brora in grey.

Brora, Sutherland, KW9 6LR. 01408 623000. Diageo. http://www.discovering-distilleries.com/clynelish/

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Clynelish Distillery Tour’: £5. A tour of the distillery (including a visit to the warehouse), with a dram of the 14yo to finish.

‘Taste of Clynelish Tour’: £10. The same tour, with a tasting of three Clynelishes at the end: the 14yo, the Distiller’s Edition and the Cask Strength Distillery-Exclusive.

‘Taste of Brora Tour’: £20. This sounds to me like a superb tour in which to participate. There is a tour of both distilleries on the Clynelish site: Clynelish itself and the now cult Brora. It is in the latter that the visitor is treated to a tutored tasting of the Clynelish range (as for the ‘Taste of Clynelish Tour’) with the edition of the 2009 and 2010 Brora 30yo Special Releases.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      A cask-strength, non-age-statement at 57.3% ABV, £45 approx.

      Bitter disappointment does not come close to describing my feelings having phoned up The Balvenie Distillery from my room in the Huntly Hotel to be told that their tours for the forthcoming week – and indeed most of the next month – were fully booked. Having been assured by a fellow tourist at Macallan that it was a most singular single malt experience (and at £25 for a three hour tour, I should think it would be) I saw what a gaping hole its loss left in the fabric of my Odyssey. At the time, I cycled round the buildings, reflecting on the plumes of steam, metropoli of warehouses and wraiths of blue-brown smoke coughing out of the pagoda vent. It was set to achieve four stars for the production process alone – providing as they do a chance to view the coopers at work in addition to the floor maltings. I also happen to be very fond of the drams they make. Next time… 

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The eclectic Balvenie site, as viewed from the Spirit of Speyside carriage on the Keith-Dufftown Railway.

Dufftown, Keith, Banffshire, AB55 4DH, 01340 820373. William Grant & Sons. www.thebalvenie.com

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘The Tour’: £25. A three hour experience at the home of ‘the handcrafted malt’. A coffee and a summary of the distillery’s history begins the tour in the Distillery Office before a thorough investigation of the plant occurs. Maltings, mashing, fermenting, distillation and coopering are all included, as is a trip to the warehouse. I’m not promising anything, but the chap I met outside The Macallan boasted of having sampled malts straight from the cask – two, in fact, and both from his birth year: in the 1960s. There is a tutored tasting of The Balvenie range, ascending from new make to the highly prized 30yo back in the visitor centre. BOOK EARLY, I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      Whilst on the tour there is the opportunity to bottle your own 20cl measure of single cask Balvenie from a choice of three casks. The visitor may nose each of the samples from the three and make their selection – or alternatively they can bottle one of each! At present this trio are all from 1996: a first-fill Bourbon, refill Bourbon, and a first-fill Sherry. £20 each. Also, once back at the visitor centre the shop will be opened for you and then there are two exclusives to choose from: Rose, £100, and Tun 1401, £150. The shop is only accessible to those who participate on the tour.

Whether this is just the suggestibility of memory, or whether I’m correct in my suspicion that Rabbie’s buses were just some of the many vehicles to overtake me last year, the Scottish luxury tour company has announced new route packages for 2011.

The Whisky Coast Explorer Tour promises eight days of superlative scenery and delightful dramming. Representing the former are Islay, Mull, Iona, and Skye, and the doors of Bruichladdich, Kilchoman and Oban are open for you to facilitate the latter. Tours depart from Glasgow and Edinburgh from April 29, costing between £448-478 per person.

Take in still more of stunning Scotland with the Islay, Edinburgh and Speyside Tour, encompassing the West Coast, Edinburgh and such worthy Speyside visits as the outstanding Glenlivet (7/10 *s on my scale) and Benromach. Leaving Glasgow and Edinburgh on Fridays from the April 29th, costing between £328-348.

These prices are exclusive of accommodation, with your nightly stays very much dependent on that which you wish to spend; a tailor-made approach. Both of these luxury coach tours provide the opportunity to stay at the Bowmore Cottages, which are just charming.

Visit www.rabbies.com or call 0131 226 3133 for more information.

If there is any advice you would like about a forthcoming adventure into the whisky-drizzled landscapes of Scotland, whether it be a route, an accommodation recommendation or anything whisky-related, just drop me an email at scotchodysseyblog@hotmail.co.uk .

      No tours were running when I visited in April, and no tours are running at present, either. The poor folk at the Distillery have been frozen up since the end of November! Blair Athol is Diageo’s blend centre (like Aberfeldy for Dewar’s and Glenturret for the Famous Grouse) and boldly states its fundamental contribution to the phenomenally successful blended Scotch. It is a very pretty Distillery, though, and Pitlochry is well worth a visit. The St Andrews Celtic Society is due to visit Pitlochry and Blair Athol at the start of next week so let’s hope everything warms up for them! I’m sure an energetic ceilidh in the stillhouse would do the job.

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Perth Road, Pitlochry, Perthshire, PH16 5LY. 01796 482003. Diageo. http://www.discovering-distilleries.com/blairathol/

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Blair Athol Tour’: £5. A tour of the distillery with a viewing window into one of the warehouses. A dram of the 12yo to finish.

‘Flora and Fauna Tour’: £10. Referring to the label design of many of Diageo’s less well-known distilleries, this promises a ‘private’ tour of the distillery, with a dram of the 12yo and two others from the series to savour.

‘Allt Dour Deluxe Tour’: £22. The same ‘private’ tour as mentioned in the Flora and Fauna Tour, with a tutored tasting to conclude starring the 12yo, the distillery-exclusive cask strength and an additional four drams from their ‘Treasure Trove’.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      No age statement, cask strength malt whisky (I have been told that it has an ‘age profile’ of about 14 years), matured in first-fill European oak Sherry butts, £55.

      Awaiting an official visit by me, this is the first of the other nine distilleries throughout Scotland offering tours for whom I haven’t any official details but shall be amending in time for the distillery-touring season. This Highland distillery has experienced quite a ‘Revival’ in recent years since it was taken over by the folk behind BenRiach. Their range of single casks and special releases are impressive and their 15-year-old was one of the most sensuous drams I tasted in 2010.

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A handsome distillery producing some handsome malts under some very dynamic ownership.

Forgue, Aberdeenshire, AB54 6DB, 01466 730202. The BenRiach – GlenDronach Distillers Co. Ltd. www.glendronachdistillery.co.uk

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Standard Tour’: £3. A tour of the distillery, excluding warehouse visit, although there is a viewing window in the VC. A dram of the 12yo is included.

‘Connoisseur Tour’: £20. An in-depth tour of the distillery, followed by a tutored tasting of the GlenDronach range in the company of Frank Massie. Mondays and Wednesdays only, booking essential.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      The Distillery Manager’s Cask: a bottle-your-own facility from a single cask chosen by distillery manager, Alan McConnachie. The particular cask on offer will change as each is emptied, but to gain an insight into the calibre of whisky on offer, current as of October 2010 was an Oloroso sherry cask from 1993 at 58.4% abv. £54. There is also a 1996 single cask (no. 197) priced at £52.

I wanted to throw a rug down and have a picnic. Sadly I had no rug, no food and no time.

Bladnoch, Wigtown, Wigtownshire, DG8 9AB, 01988 402605. Co-ordinated Development Services. www.bladnoch.co.uk

APPEARANCE AND LOCATION:      *****      Dumfries and Galloway has to be one of the prettiest parts of Scotland, and Bladnoch, with its river, bridge and domestic feel to the various buildings, is one of the country’s most attractive distilleries. It was such a shame I was pressed for time, because more photos whould have done this little place, with the feel of a real backwater about it, justice. To lounge about on the lawn by the river, perhaps with some oak-aged gin, would be nothing less than perfect. The countryside is rounded, tamed, but ancient, too. The pagoda hood stands out, telling you it is a distillery. Otherwise, it could be a village hall, and indeed there is a room in the distillery which is used infrequently for civic gatherings.

TOURS PROVIDED:

‘Standard Tour’: £3. See ‘My Tour’ below, although be advised that I did not take the true ‘standard tour’.

DISTILLERY-EXCLUSIVE BOTTLINGS:      Bladnoch operates their Forum, which bottles casks of whisky independently. Their website is well worth a look, both for information regarding this service and how you can sign up and get lovely single cask whisky from all over Scotland sent to you bt also what is likely to be in the shop when you turn up. Gavin D Smith describes the retail outlet as one of the most complete in the industry, and that is saying something when one reflects on the malty madness of Bruichladdich and Glengoyne.

THE RUNNING COMMENTARY:      **      (NB: I didn’t receive the standard tour: Martin is not a guide as such, but the boss’s son. He has grown up with the distillery, though (he isn’t that much older than me), and his knowledge was staggering. The ladies I spoke to for the purposes of arranging an out-of-hours tour, however, were very friendly and enthusiastic, so I think you can expect good things if you come to Bladnoch.)

THE PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT:      **

Notes:      Much like a number of other distilleries, this one grew out of a farm set-up with farming requirements very much in evidence in the architecture. The first warehouse I was taken into is very low, and contains ome of the oldest casks from the new owners. In the mill room, the water from the lade, dug by farmers in the 1800s to bring fresh water to Bladnoch (the river at this point is tidal), runs directly underneath. Martin was perpetually apologising for the simple industrial look of much of the equipment. The mash tun is certainly functional more than beautiful, but it makes the wort, which is hardly a glamorous role.

The still house is like a modern barn: steel girders and cladding. The stills themselves were one of the few things Diageo didn’t take with them when they closed the distillery for the last time in 1993. The stills were also left, and both, interestingly enough, are technically wash stills. The spirit still has windows in the neck. Whilst the stills were left behind, new plumbing and pipe-work needed to be installed. The stillman, whilst the same guy as when the distillery last operated, had to re-learn how his own stills worked. They now run the stills slowly, which produces a smoother, more flavoursome spirit. No distilling was taking place that day, so Martin showed me inside the low wines tank. On the surface was a translucent, scummy film, which he disturbed with a rod. Fusel oil. Every distillery will have it floating along the top of their low wines and feints, and it just goes to show why everyone distills it again, to remove such impurities. I’m shown towards the end of the tour the enormous computer bank which controls some of the mechanisms and circuitry upstairs. This would struggle to fit in most cruise ships and had to be fully rewired.

Some of the older "new" stock in a very traditional, and above all cool, warehouse.

More warehouses, thankfully, follow (the warehouse is part of the standard tour). I’m shown a huge paletised warehouse and the one adjoining the filling store. In the latter is a rack of “oak-aged gin” which the Armstrongs are keeping “for a friend”. Martin whipped out a valinch and drew a sample. It smelt superb: spirity and spicy, with a sweet mustiness: rather like some of the Pakistani and Indian-run convenience stores I went into in Glasgow. The taste was… different. I could also smell the products of two Sherry casks, both filled from the same batch in 1992 and left beside each other in the warehouse. They were markedly different: one sweeter and creamier than the other. They buy the same Bourbon barrels as Arran does, straight out of Kentucky for $110. I could also see casks from Kenwood Vineyards in California. These had contained red wine, are £350 a barrel, and there should be an interesting Bladnoch expression resulting from those. Speaking of new expressions, last autumn they distilled a batch of malt peated to 50ppm. This should be equally intriguing when it reaches maturity. Martin, before I arrived, had been busy bottling for private individuals. There was a whole table full of ruby-red bottles: Arran single casks. Someone had bought a puncheon of Arran stock, 13-years-of-age and 800 bottles of the stuff. Bladnoch sell casks, too, but Martin recommends buying a tenth share in one, which leaves you with a much more manageable return of malt. Whole casks are around the £1000 mark. Bladnoch, by way of developing a bit of a buzz about their own bottlings, have created the Forum. If you sign up to this, there are periodical bottlings from a broad range of other distilleries in addition to Bladnoch, and these are posted out for discussion. I’m shown label-less bottles full of golden liquid. “This is the latest Forum bottling which I’m just finishing,” Martin said, pointing to a bottling machine in the corner of the office which can apparently allow a whole hogshead to be drained and bottled in half a day or so. “A 30YO Caol Ila.” My eyes lit up. “I suppose they are all spoken for?” I asked, disregarding for the moment that even if some weren’t, I couldn’t fit one in my panniers. Martin nodded. If I had been a member of the Forum, though, it would have cost me £50! Single cask, 30YO Caol Ila for £50. Incredible.  To return to Arran, however, Warehouse No. 2 contains nothing but. It is full of maturing Arran stock, and only Arran. Bladnoch charge 18p per cask per week, and it fills up empty warehouse space economically. A couple of times a year they also run a four-day Whisky School. Just like at Springbank, you can pay your money and involve yourself in every part of the process.

GENEROSITY:      ** (You are given a dram of the 18YO, and anything else you like. As Martin explained, the approach is to let you try before you buy. A jolly good policy, and one I can’t believe the massive conglomerates can’t finance, if plucky little Bladnoch can do it.)

VALUE FOR MONEY:      **

SCORE:      8/10 *s.

COMMENT:      I cannot express what a joy it was to tour Bladnoch with Martin, a treasure trove of information and humour. His hospitality and generosity will never be forgotten, and I hope that his finals went well. “I should be revising but my Dad said he needed me to do some bottling.” So, whilst it wasn’t the tour you will receive, I can recommend Bladnoch whole-heartedly.

Oak-aged gin. I suspect the world isn't quite ready for this beast yet...