Scotland/England '22: Day 6

Whisky and More Whisky

Scotland/England '22 Gallery

Jimi Loves Whisky

Unfortunately this is our last day in Speyside. I am not exaggerating when I say there are distilleries EVERYWHERE, so we just scratched the surface. We never made it to the Balvenie, Abelour or Strathisla distilleries which were on my list, but in the end, going to Cragganmore and Glenfarclas might have been better. I think if I return, I would concentrate more of the smaller ones that I am not already familiar with. We may be done with Speyside, but we are going to Glengoyne and Deanston on a tour out of Edinburgh later in the week.

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Glenfarclas

Glenfarclas Distillery

Glenfarclas was one of the first distilleries we tried booking a tour, after realizing we should have been booking tours well in advance. It seemed like a nice choice after trying some at the hotel whisky bar. Glenfarclas is one the of the few remaining family owned distilleries in Speyside and has been in the Grant family for 5 generations. It seems pretty crazy that the entire staff of 45 people could produce close to 3 million liters of whisky a year (which is really small compared to the Glenlivets and Glenfiddichs). Now that we’ve been on many distillery tours, it’s interesting to hear the guides pump up the ways their distillery makes a unique whisky. How long in the mash tun, or what temperature used for making the wort, and on and on.

Guess how they flush out the solid waste after fermenting the barley. A football and some high pressure

A great year to start using this cask for whisky!

Currently in the process of replacing some of the stills

Best r=to remove any hard objects from the grain before they can do any damage

Old cask storage

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Cragganmore

Cragganmore Distillery

Cragganmore is even smaller than Glenfarclas. They make around 1.4 million liters a year and are part of a larger group of distilleries which also includes Singleton which we toured earlier. This distillery has less than 40 staff in total. They claim to get that Cragganmore ‘honey’ flavor by a longer fermentation stage. Had a nice chat about our (US and UK) crazy politicians with the guy at the gift shop (never got his name). But like every distillery employee we’ve met, you might think theirs is the only whisky worth buying!

Cask storage

Best tasting room so far

Still hatch

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Whisky Scoreboard:

++ Distillery Tour/Tasting

** Distillery Bar (no tour)

• Glenfarclas 15 (++) - thumbs up, kind of spicy (bringing some home)

• Macallan 12 Triple Cask (**) - so so

• Macallan 12 Double Cask (**) - so so

• Macallan 12 Sherry Cask (**) - not bad, I would buy it.

• Macallan Edition No. 2 (**) - decent, alcohol forward, then kind of spicy

• Macallan Edition No. 4 (**) - decent - grasslike quality, don’t ask me what that means.

• Macallan Edition No. 6 (**) - ok, I’ve been drinking all day, it seemed ok now in hindsight

• Speyside Braden Orach - not bad, alcohol forward

• Singleton 12 - definitely drinkable

• Knockando 12 - not bad

• Glenrothes Whisky Makers Cut - after so many whiskies I’m not sure what to make of it. So different than the others, it is hard to be objective. Different for sure and I think decent. Might have to try again!

• Ledaig Sinclair - I like this one and it seemed to be perfect to go with a Smokey BBQ. It was Smokey for sure, but I like those kinds of whiskies.

• Caol Ila DE - Smokey but not a lot of body. There are better options for something similar. Still drinkable though.

• Singleton 12 (Dufftown)(++) - ok, tasted better before trying the nest 2 on the list

• Singleton 15 (Glendullan)(++) - the best of the 3 Singletons we tried at the distillery.

• Singleton Celebratory (Glen Ord)(++) - great nose, kind of spicy, only 3 thousand bottles made, would be nice around the holidays

• An Cnoc (Knockando Distillery) - Smokey and nice!

• GlenGrant 10 (++) - Not special, but also not bad. I’ll drink it if you serve it to me.

• GlenGrant Arboralis (++) - Light, perfect for summer Scoth drinking, if there is such a thing. Also really inexpensive for the bonus (bringing some home)

• Dailuaine 16 - Nice but not awesome. Alcohol forward then the sweetness from the sherry casking

• BenRiach 12 Sherry - We have drive past BenRiach so many times this week it seemed necessary to try this one. I actually liked this better than the Dailuaine 16.

• Glenfarclas 105 (++)

• Cragganmore 12 (++) Decent, great nose, modest flavoring compared to the others we tried (bringing some home)

• Cragganmore Distillers Edition (++) - Like this one and bought a bottle (bringing some home)

• Cragganmore Distillery Reserve - Liked this one as well but it is a higher proof which I do not prefer (++)