Whiskey and Haggis

Tuesday 27th to Thursday 29th September 2016

Dalwhinnie, Scottish Highlands

The last few days of our holiday have not been very eventful. I've not been feeling very well since about 1.30am on Tuesday morning so we didn't venture far from the van until I was feeling a bit better on Wednesday. The weather has been pretty shocking anyway, so I doubt we would have done much even if I'd been fighting fit.

We visited a seaside town called Nairn on Tuesday where we stayed overnight on a campsite and had some excellent fish and chips for dinner. Or a fish supper as they say up here.

On Wednesday we started making our way inland back through the Cairngorms. We stopped for lunch with The Birds at Loch Garten, who were even bolder than before. Claire managed to get a great tit and a coal tit on her hand both at the same time!

After lunch we headed over to Dalwhinnie distillery where Anne had arranged a free tour for us as part of their family and friends open day. So we went as guests of one of Anne's friends called Jane. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but thought we'd probably be tagging onto one of the regular tours and might get a quick taste of whiskey at the end.

The reality far exceeded our expectations. We were loitering in the shop 10 minutes before our allocated time when a lady (who turned out to be Jane) approached us and said "are you Hilary and Claire? Anne told me to look out for two tall girls".

It turned out to be just us on the tour, so we had Jane all to ourselves and were able to fire questions at her as much as we liked. To be fair, she answered most of our questions before we had a chance to ask them anyway.

We had to switch our phones and cameras off, so the photos below are courtesy of Google.

Neither of us have ever been to a distillery before. Dalwhinnie is the highest distillery in the country, and because of this it is colder, so the whiskey takes longer to mature than elsewhere. So Dalwhinnie single malt is always aged 15 years whereas others in warmer areas (e.g. Talisker on Skye) only need 10 or 12 years.

The distillery has been there since 1898, but had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1934 destroyed the building and blew up all the barrels. It's a nice looking building from the outside but even nicer inside. The first nice thing about it is the warmth and the smell, followed by the old fashioned tuns, stills and barrels.

Dalwhinnie Distillery

Jane explained to us that single malt whiskey is only made from three ingredients - barley, yeast and water. Dalwhinnie's barley comes pre germinated and dried out from the east coast, and the water comes from a Loch high above the distillery in the hills called Lochan an Doire Uaine (catchy name I know).

The first stage mixes the ground up barley with the water at a nice warm temperature (mashing). Sugary water is drained off and fermented with the yeast. The left over barley is used to make animal feed. Once fermentation is complete, a liquid called "wash" or "beer" is produced which is about 9% ABV. This is then distilled not once, but twice, to get a clear, colourless, oily liquid about 65% ABV.
This is then matured in oak barrels that were previously used for American bourbon, for about 15 years (or more for the expensive ones!). It is the oak barrels which give the whiskey it's colour.
The final product is made by adding some water to bring the alcohol level down to about 42% for the standard product.

The Wooden Tuns for fermenting

The copper Stills at Dalwhinnie

When we reached the warehouse at the end of the tour we were given a taste of a "single cask" whiskey - straight from the barrel at about 57% ABV. It was surprisingly smooth! I had nominated Claire as the driver, as previously she hasn't enjoyed scotch whiskey, but Jane offered to package Claire's sample up for her to try later. We weren't sure quite how she was going to do this, but happily agreed.

We then got roped into being photographed for the new website, and signed "modelling forms" which made us feel quite glamorous! I thought it was all over then, but just outside the warehouse there was another taster for us, and then once we were back in the shop area, another 6! And there were matching speciality chocolates to go with the 6!! At this point I took Jane up on her offer to package mine up too, and she returned a few minutes later with lots of little sealed plastic tubs, all labelled up.

We were quite overwhelmed with our tour and all the whiskey, chocolates, and glasses we were given. It was far more than we expected and we could not have been made to feel more welcome by Jane.

We parked George up high up in the hills above Newtonmore for the night, and set about sampling our tasters. Each one was paired with a particular chocolate, and had to be sampled in the order of whiskey-chocolate-whiskey. Claire has now decided that she likes Single Malt after all.

Claire didn't sleep well due to the 40+ mph winds that were rocking George all night. I however enjoyed a pleasant night's sleep. The following morning we popped into Kingussie to stock up on Haggis, then went back to the distillery to purchase some Dalwhinnie single malt to take home. Although we chose the second cheapest type (we couldn't afford the £750 bottle), it is still pretty posh for us and we have agreed that it is only for special occasions.

We spent the rest of the day travelling home (I would like to add that although it sounds like we must have been absolutely bladdered after our tasting session, they were only very small samples and we were perfectly alright to drive the following morning, which was about 10 hours later).

We're sad to leave Scotland behind, but are hopeful for better weather in Staffordshire, and guaranteed a nearby, indoor toilet.

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