On a recent trip to the Western Highlands, we made a spontaneous stop for a tour at Dalwhinnie Distillery, around a two-hour drive from Edinburgh.
We were able to get a tour that started 15 minutes after we arrived, giving us a little time to wander the gift shop and watch the promotional video showing in the waiting room. Our guide was Ewan, an adorable older gentleman who walked us through the steps of whisky production at this small-scale distillery.
Dalwhinnie is the highest-altitude distillery in Scotland, which means that less evaporation occurs in the aging whisky barrels than at lower altitudes – only about 1% per year (this loss, in cutesy whisky parlance, is known as the “angel’s share”). It’s also one of the smallest, with only a single set of stills.
The tour involved lots of lovely aromas, as all distilleries do. We nosed peated and unpeated malted barley, wort, wash, and a cask-strength 15-year-old whisky along the way. Alas, no photos were allowed inside the distillery itself.
The tour we went on cost £7.50 and included one tasting and a souvenir tasting glass (it is crazy how fast our collection of whisky glasses has grown since moving to Scotland). They also offer various extended tastings (some with chocolate pairings). Dalwhinnie is part of the Diageo drink conglomerate, and while there we signed up for their little distillery passport scheme, which allows us to go on tours of all their other scotch whisky distilleries for free.
These Scottish distilleries look so picturesque, even with all the rain!
I agree, distilleries are adorable. I especially love the copper rooftops and stills (alas, no photos of stills in this post due to photography restrictions on the tour).