Glenturret Whisky Distillery, Home of The Famous Grouse Experience

Friday 17th April 2009, heading north from Falkirk, passing Stirling and Dunblane en route to Creiff via Braco and Muthill. Jim and Nicola made their way to Glenturret Whisky Distillery, home of The Famous Grouse Experience.

Glenturret Distillery being the oldest in Scotland.

Glenturret Distillery  (also The Famous Grouse Experience)
The Hosh,
Creiff,
Perthshire PH7 4HA

telephone 01764 656565

website www.thefamousgrouse.com

It was a lovely Spring day the sun was popping in and out of the clouds giving a gentle warmth now and again.

We arrived about 1.55 pm, the distillery was looking grand with its whitewashed walls and buildings against the early afternoon sunshine, no problems with parking plenty of space for all.

We parked Nicola’s Mini convertible and proceeded to the tours entrance, we were met by a very pleasant lady who advised us that the Experience tour was not on due to re-furbishment, so we had to make do with the distillery tour.

We joined the next tour departing at 2 pm. Our guide was a very young lady by the name of Jenna. As Nicola and I were sporting our Whisky Boys polo shirts it was pleasing to have Jenna on the very odd occasion where she could not answer a question she would direct her gaze towards us and asked if we knew the answer and we did help her out.

This tour is an ideal to the uninitiated, due the distillery being small and compact, you can see the whole process very easily, only walking small distances at a time, unlike some of the larger distilleries where you feel you are walking a marathon.

After the tour you are invited to a tasting of a wee dram of The Famous Grouse, and Jenna did a nosing using rub and smell cards, quite unique we thought. After the tasting and a short video show we moved on to the shop which was well stocked with merchandise from Glenturret, Grouse and Macallan

The next stop was the bar which is alongside the restaurant. We were very well looked after by Joy who was by far the most enthusiastic member of staff we met that day. Joy enthused about Whisky and not, unexpectedly, mainly her own brands Grouse, Glenturret and Macallan.

We then purchased some nips and we can detail our thoughts below.

The Snow Grouse,

A 100% grain Whisky specifically blended to be placed in the freezer and served very cold indeed, Joy poured me a wee dram and Nicola and I looked, nosed and then tasted. Very little to excite the nose, a little strong on the taste but became palatable when a little chilled water was added, but on the whole I thought it was more of a gimmick than an honest attempt at something new in the Whisky World. ( We also thought that the bottle resembles a bottle of quality vodka)

The Famous Grouse, Islay Cask  Finish.

Now we purchased this wee dram and found it to be of great quality, the slight hint of peat smoke made it so much more pleasant that the standard Grouse, only to be disappointed, Joy then told us that this we dram of excellence was now discontinued, boo hoo.

Macallan Amber Liqueur.

Joy introduced us to this little number, Nicola nosed it first and said ” where are the pancakes” the sweet maple syrup aroma was terrific, followed by the tasting, we both thought it to be very sweet but would find it to be a perfectly good alternative Drambuie, pity this is also being discontinued.

Overall we really enjoyed our visit to Glenturret made all the better for the enthusiasm and quality of the staff we met that day.

Well done Glenturret.