Auchentoshan Distillery – Happy Memories

As you will have seen from elsewhere on the site the Colemans and the Fergussons attended the Good Food and Whisky Live show last Saturday – and a jolly good day was had by all.

While listening to the “Boys” discuss their various tasting and experiences with the folks at the Auchentoshan booth my mind wandered off to my childhood.  I was brought up in an area of Glasgow called Mountblow.  The Auchentoshan Estate was positioned at the top of the hill and as I new that one side of the road housed a school for children and young adults with special needs and the other side of the road was the Auchentoshan Distillery.

During, what seemed then, like really long summer holidays, I would play with my friends in the Bluebell Woods, where we would have home made slides made of cardboard on which we would swoosh down the hill and swing from a variety of tree swings and hide in home made dens.

The burn that ran through the Bluebell Woods every now and again would take on a distinct malty smell and froth like mad. As kids we would pretend this was the breath from a dragon that lived at the top of the hill. If only I had known at the time that this was the birth of some fine Auchentoshan Whisky.

Over the years I grew very fond of the malty smell of the burn and to this day I still love the smell of Whisky, especially if it has a strong smell of peat.

It is strange how evocative smells can be and immediately take you back to a specific time in your life. So as you can see all this discussion about Auchentoshan has taken me back to some very happy memories.

Jacqueline