Whisky tour part one and two
This post is a combination from two earlier posts I did in the time six people looked at my profile ;). So I wanted to share these two informative posts once more with you guys, did a little style editing and rewriting on some parts. So this post is now on the visits from day one and day two of our tour, I am working on chapter three which will cover our final distillery visit from our tour and some more information about our other activities on our great Scottish adventure.
A couple of years ago my father in law took my brother in law and me on a whisky tour through Scotland. We started our trip in Edinburgh, where we went to the whisky experience and had a nice dinner with haggis.
The next day our private chauffeur was waiting outside the hotel to take us to two distilleries, Deanston in Doune and Tullibardine in Blackfort, that day. Traveling only over small country roads to see as much of the scenery as possible and hear ass much great stories from our chauffeur. That night we stayed in a hotel situated in an old watermill in Perth, but first had a quick stop at the local pub for a nice pint to wash down all the whisky.
The next morning after a good Scottish breakfast it was back in the car to go to the The Glenturret Distillery (the famous grouse experience) in The Hosh. From there it was by country roads and more great stories from our chauffeur back to the airport. It was a great trip with nice sightseeing and a lot of great whisky tastings.
We will come back to Scotland for sure.
In this article I will zoom in on our tour at Deanston distillery in Doune, and in the process tell you more about the process of whisky making.
Deanston is situated in an old cotton mill, chosen for its location on the banks of the River Teith. Due to its location and the innovative thinking the distillery is completely self-sufficient in its power needs. It was a green plant long before it was an public issue. And off course the water is used for making the whisky.
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This was the first fact our lovely guide provided us with.
Next ingredient to make whisky, malted barley. Meaning the barley is soaked then heated so they sprout, when they sprout the heat is slowly raised to stop the process and we have malted barley.
It’s a real lowtech business
The malted barley is then milled into grist.
The grist than goes into a mash tun where it is mixed with hot water, this is done to extract the sugar from the grist.
This sweet liquid is called wort witch will slowly drain trough the perforated copper floor for fermentation in the wash back. The sugar and yeast do their work and turn into alcohol, the product know is called wash. This process takes on average 100 hours.
As we continue the process line the wash is transferred to the wash stills and heated by large copper coils to encourage evaporation. The vapours rise up and condense, they move to the spirit stills for another round of distillation.
The new make as it is now called is transferred into the number one spirit vat where it is reduced with water from the river Teith to 63.5%. The new make is then transferred into wooden casks.
The casks are then stored for three years and one day to mature into Scots whisky.
Next stop on our tour, the tasting room where our lovely guide poured us some very nice Deanston single malt whisky’s with some more interesting backstories about the distillery and it surroundings.
To top off the visit we had a lovely lunch in the restaurant at the visit centre where we got a surprise glass of whisky from our guide in a glass we could keep.
If you are in the neighbourhood give Deanston a visit, if not for the tour then to grab a nice bottle of whisky.
More information about Deanston distillery on their website.
More information about the making off whisky. Also used for fact checking by me for this post.
And on we go to the next chapter and visit of that first day on this great expirience in beautiful scotland.
Whisky tour chapter 2
In this part I will zoom in on our tour at Tullibardine in Blackfort. In the first chapter I already discussed the making of whisky so I will skip that a bit more in this chapter.
Here at Tullibardine they really make the last part of the tour special, the tasting. More about that later on.
Arrived at our second stop of the day, Tullibardine Destillery. Not the nice view as at arriving at Deanston but well it’s all about what’s going on the inside. It’s nice to see the differences in distilleries if you visit more than one. The process is the same with a different recipe and some other tools.
Let’s go have a look inside.
After being greeted by our guide in the visitors centre we started our tour in the storage room where the casks are being prepared for filling. They arrive in parts from Spain or Amerika and have to be reassembled, with risk of losing fingers, at the distillery. And then they wait to be filled.
Barley is being milled.
Mash tun.
Wash back.
More than one wash back for preparing multiple batches.
The yeast is doing it’s magic.
The distillery.
Spirit safe of one of the coils.
Distillation coils.
What a cask is made of.
We weren’t allowed inside “the vault” were some old casks were resting for some more years to become very special editions of Tullibardine Whisky. A small fortune gathering dust for real.
To become Scots Whisky it has to be in a cask for three years and one day, the one day is for the event there is a leap year in the three years. And yes this last part is a law.
It’s quit an old brand Tullibardine which started as a beer brewer in 1488, granted a royal charter by King James IV of Scotland in 1503.
Our tour guide preparing some very nice trays for the final part of the tour, the tasting.
And a very nice tasting it is at Tullibardine, they make it a special experience by joining forces with a very talented local chocolatier. So on our tray we found four very fine Tullibardine whisky’s accompanied with four chocolates witch are created especially for the tastings at Tullibardine. A very fine combination it is to take a nibble from such a fine chocolate with hints of spices, keep it on your palate and have a sip of whisky and let the tastes combine. WOW!
So when you pour yourself a nice glass of Whisky, try some really good chocolate with spices in little nibbles with it. You will be pleasantly surprised I think.
More information about Tullibardine distilliry
Have an amazing day!
Camera: Nikon 1J1
Lenses: Nikor 1 10-30 ND 30-110 VR
