“Too much of anything is bad but too much good whiskey is barely enough.”
Mark Twain
For most of my adult life I can claim I have been a whiskey or bourbon fan, the one type I have not enjoyed is Scotch. I can recall 20 years ago I had my first taste of scotch and it was a hard no from me. Since then I have rarely drank scotch except for a few occasions.
This changed when in July of 2022, I took a 2-week trip to Scotland. I was very excited to see Scotland, the castles, looking for Nessie, and the other adventures planned. But I was concerned would I like our visits to the distilleries. I previously had done a Bourbon Trail trip and LOVED IT! But since I know scotch was not something I drank I was unsure.
My memory of it was that it was too smokey and just too darn strong. I was pleasantly surprised with honestly all the scotch we tried! I even ended up picking a few bottles up to bring home.
Our first stop was in Edinburgh at The Scotch Whiskey Experience. I have done distillery visits or “whiskey museums” before and this one had a unique experience. You started the visit by jumping into a barrel shaped seat. Once in, it moved much like a fair ride as they interactively showed you history of scotch as well as the process it is made. When you finished the ride portion, you ended up going into a tasting room where you had more interactive information displayed and got to taste for all of the various Scottish regions. They had a fun scratch-n-sniff card as a guide for while you tasted. During this tasting I came to realize I liked 4 of the 5 options they gave us and it was really a specific region I didn’t like.
Next the tour took us to the most beautiful room. A private collection that is also the largest collection of Scotch. There were so many unique bottles in the collection and just fun to take it all in. And we ended our visit in the on-site bar where we each got a flight of scotch to taste. Still I liked them all with maybe one that wasn’t my preference. I was so glad we started at this tour as it removed my doubts and concerns of whether I would embrace and drink scotch while in Scotland.
As we continued our trip we visited a few different distilleries. Each was unique and for some we just visited the tasting room. One stop in particular was a unique experience a Glengoyne – where we got to make our own blended whiskey!
We each got our workstation which had 5-6 types of scotch to make our blended whiskey as well as beakers, funnels, etc. They explained the process and plan and then let us go forward making our own blends. I took this task very serious and part of the process was to make a small batch first and determine the percent of each type you liked to make that flavor. I was my own mad scientist off to make the best blend! Then when ready you could use the empty bottle provided to make your own bottle to take home.
With my affinity for bourbon the end result was a blend that had a larger percent from the scotch which aged in a bourbon barrel. But I absolutely loved making my own and choosing the taste it would have. I have not seen this option before on a tour and would love to see more of these options available. And I can now say I am Malt Master…. well at least for that day I was.
Aggie Zebra 