Scotch
Whisky tours: Fault lines, Lowlands and a Pilgrimage – three unusual whisky destinations near Glasgow and Edinburgh
Jan
While Scotland’s cities rarely encourage you to leave, they’re surrounded by a landscape packed with whisky journeys. Here are three of our favourite whisky tours:
Edinburgh is one of the most attractive whisky destinations in the world. Few cities offer such a range of world-class whisky attractions, historic architecture, welcoming pubs and attractive shopping streets as the Scottish capital. Glasgow, too, with its buzzing personality-driven pubs and great nightlife, rarely allows distraction. Yet, even while enjoying all of this, the pull of the rest of this whisky-dominated country is strong.
Here are three unusual whisky tours destinations that are easily reached from Edinburgh or Glasgow:
A half-day away
GLENKINCHIE DISTILLERY
Lowland country lies south of Edinburgh. This lesser-loved official whisky region is all about the aromas and flavours of fragrant flowers, dried cut grass and nutty cereals of Scotland. Without a visit to its softly rolling hills and open grassland, your whisky tours education is not complete.
Just 24kms (15 miles) southeast of Edinburgh, you’ll find Glenkinchie Distillery, long considered a champion of the light lowland style. If you’ve visited the Johnnie Walker Experience while in the city, you’ll know that Glenkinchie is one of the Four Corners distilleries that create this world-class brand.
Alongside the garden flavours and aromas of Glenkinchie, the Johnny Walker four-distillery blend is completed with Cardhu’s Speyside sweetness, Clynelish’s Highland edge and Caol Ila’s Island smoke. Of the four, Glenkinchie is probably the least known.
Scotch Whisky
€48.78 (Ex. VAT)
A single malt whisky maker and considered the official home of Edinburgh’s malt, it was founded in 1825. A visit here will unlock the power of the Lowland style while you tour the original malting house, which is now a whisky museum.
The Glenkinchie Distiller’s Edition is a fantastic example of the craft created here. It’s a double-matured 12-year-old single malt finished in an Amontillado cask. Amontillado is a dry sherry that falls between fino and oloroso and enhances the nutty, silky layers of this elegant pour.
Bottled at 43%, it has a gentle, pleasing aroma of green apple, honey and grape. On the palate, you’ll find lots of grape, light cream and orchard fruits with a sugared sweetness beneath. This is a gentle single malt that
A full day out
GLENGOYNE DISTILLERY
Glengoyne is a distillery that takes things slowly. Located 40 minutes from Glasgow and less than two hours from Edinburgh, this isn’t a place for anyone in a hurry. The team here claims to operate the slowest stills in Scotland, and if there’s a slower way to do things, they’ll find it, they say. They air dry their barley, spend six years seasoning and preparing their casks, and once they’ve put the lid on a barrel, it stays that way for as long as possible.
It’s an excellent destination for a daytrip: it’s a Highland distillery that matures its whisky in the Lowlands. Located on the border between the two regions, the distillery building is in one region, while the warehouses down the road are in the other. This careful balance offers the very best of both sides of Scotland’s whisky landscape.
Scotch Whisky
€49.02 (Ex. VAT)
The magic behind this geographical anomaly is the Highland Line, a fault line that runs from Arran in the west to Stonehaven in the east. Where it cuts across rivers, gorges appear, and it’s the line that divides the Lowlands from the Highlands. Glengoyne Distillery is located just inside the line, on the Highland side.
Glengoyne 12-year-old single malt is a fine example of their craft. Matured in American oak and sherry casks, it has a body and texture that taste and feel much older than they are. It has a smooth, warming texture that carries through to the finish, and its aroma and palate are filled with honey, orchard fruit, vanilla, and cream. It’s a wonderfully elegant and complex pour that’s bottled at 43%.
The Pilgrimage
LITTLEMILL DISTILLERY
When Littlemill closed in 1994, the dismantling of this historic cornerstone of Scottish distilling ensured there was no coming back. The building was stripped of assets and subsequently destroyed by fire, making this Lowland operation on the banks of the River Clyde one of the quietest, silent distilleries there is.
While there’s nothing left of the distillery itself, the region is worth a visit, particularly if you’re in Glasgow. It’s an attractive region of rolling hills, country lanes, and river views, just a 40-minute drive or train ride from the city. People come here for the landscape, to visit Dunbarton Castle and other historic sites, but also to get a sense of where this once mighty whisky maker once stood.
Stock remains from the original distillery, and by the rules of rarity and excellence in distilling, its value rises each year. The operation is now owned by the Loch Lomond Group, which also owns Glen Scotia and the Loch Lomond distillery. A small series of expressions continues to emerge annually from Littlemill stock, in tiny batches of a few hundred bottles.
The prices match Littlemill’s exclusivity, while the whisky in each bottle more than equals the high standards it has set itself. Each is a slice of history, and owning one is a guarantee of value, but they also set a benchmark for future standards in Scottish distilling – they simply cannot be replaced.
Littlemill 25, bottled at 50.4%, is part of the brand’s Private Cellar Edition. Released in 2015, it represents the final years of the working distillery, having been laid down in the very late 1980s or early 1990s, some four years before the distillery closed.
It’s one of 1,500 bottles released, and its value today is undoubtedly linked to its origins as well as the quality of the whisky. After maturing in a combination of oak casks, it was married in an Oloroso sherry cask and comes with a miniature 5cl bottle so you can sample this unique whisky without opening the whole bottle.
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