Aberfeldy Whisky Distillery Visit
Aberfeldy Whisky Distillery Visit
Tuesday 28th April 2009
Dougie, Jim, Nicola ( the three Whisky Boys out on their first distillery tour together)
Left Longcroft (home of two of the Whisky Boys) travelling north to the Perthshire town of Aberfeldy, travelling through Crieff and the Sma Glen. In a twisty highland road on a beautiful sunny Spring day.
Aberfeldy Distillery
Aberfeldy,
Perthshire,
PH15 2EB
telephone 01887 822010
website www.dewarswow.com
Owned by John Dewar & Sons (Bacardi)
Dewar’s are proud to have Aberfeldy single malts to be used in their blends, mainly Dewar’s White Label, which is still the undisputed leader in the USA for a blended Scotch Whisky.
On arrival at Aberfeldy we found the distillery to be very well signposted and heaps of parking. Just a short walk to the visitor reception area where we were met by various staff all sporting Aberfeldy polo tops and kilts. The modern reception area was exceptionally well stocked with all Aberfeldy Whiskies, books and gifts.
After paying for the tour we were all shown to a small cinema where we sat through a 20 minute short story about the history of the Dewar’s brothers and Aberfeldy Single Malt Whisky.
On leaving the cinema, armed with our hand held audio guides we then entered the Dewar’s Exhibition. In the well laid out hall there were many interactive exhibits as well as recreated Dewar’s office and mixing room.
We all thought that this exhibition was one of the best we had ever attended, very informative and you could touchy feely most if not all the exhibits including a very good ‘tasting wheel’.
After half an hour or reading, wandering and interacting we then met Ian (Aberfeldy’s retired Production Manager) who guided us round Aberfeldy Distillery.
Ian was very good and answered all our questions and we also enjoyed his tales of the cooperage (mothballed now).
We finished the tour at the ‘bar’ and had a small taste of the Aberfeldy Whisky – 12 Year Old Single Malt Whisky, and very nice it was too. But we were very disappointed that we could not purchase at the ‘bar’ any wee drams as a comparison, the distillery did not have a general drinks license. We all had looked forward to having further tastings especially some of the Dewar’s products.
Therefore, on leaving the distillery we stopped of at the Black Watch Inn the two lads had a few tastings with Nicola being very good and only having a soft drink as she was the driver for this visit.
Dougie will soon give his wee report on the above Inn, one we all liked and will recommend.
Our final thoughts on the Aberfeldy experience was of slight disappointment, the distillery very modern and computer run, we have always liked the older man powered distilleries and the ‘bar’ was also a low point.
On the good side you cannot dispute the quality of the Aberfeldy and Dewar’s products, all up there with the best of them and Nicola was also pleased to see a female in charge of the ‘spirit safe’ during our tour.
