Today, was the third and final day of our Speyside whisky themed tour.

First stop, by way of variety, was the ruins of Drumin Castle via a tour taking in Speyside scenery and the River Avon. Around the castle ruins was a good display of seasonal snowdrops. We also took pics of Highland Cattle in a nearby field.

Unfortunately, this visit took longer than planned but, fortunately, our first distillery, Glenfarclas, were able to accommodate our late arrival and we went on to avail of the standard distillery tour with some other visitors. Glenfarclas is family owned and very independent. A surprisingly large production capacity for a private distillery.

Next we went to Aberlour for some lunch and shopping. This is a nice enough town on the banks of the Spey.

Our final call of the day was Macallan, part of the Edrington Group. To accommodate extra demand Macallan has brought back into production a formerly mothballed section of the distillery with updated technology. New warehouses have also been built. Macallan is positioned at the top end of the market and sees itself as one of the finest malts on Speyside. The visitor experience (as manifested in the various aids to understanding the whisky making process) is one of the best I have encountered. Macallan malts are shown below.

After the Macallan tour we said farewell to glorious Speyside and started the long trek south back to Glasgow thereby concluding a whisky tour comprising 7 distilleries in 3 days.

Drumin Castle

Washbacks at Glenfarclas

View from Macallan-Ben Rinnes (2759ft.)

Labels: Whisky

posted by Nigel Cole @ 2:44 PM