Dalwhinnie – A Distillery Visit

As part of The Whisky Boys visit to Speyside last week we took the opportunity to call into Dalwhinnie Distillery which we have passed by on many occasions when heading north.

We contacted Dalwhinnie to let them know The Whisky Boys and three of their guests would be calling in at around 11.30 am on Saturday 19th May.

We were delighted to be joined by three guests for our weekend in the Highlands and Speyside, they were:-

Scott Young – Husband to Whisky Boy, Nicola
Alex Milne – A guest taster and the maker of our unique Whisky table top.
Dave Craig – Proprietor of Spirit of the Spey, who soon will be taking us for a canoe down the famous River Spey.

Dalwhinnie Distillery is one of the world’s most stunning distilleries and is also one of the highest in Scotland, it’s name comes from the Gaelic for the “meeting place” for the sheep and cattle drovers.

We were met in the Visitor Centre by Maureen Stronach who had received a note about our visit, Maureen asked us to wait a few minutes so that we could join the next scheduled tour.

The tour was taken by Deborah, we were all aware that the distillery was in it’s quiet season and was going through it’s annual maintenance program and it was a chance to see what happens when a distillery is not producing. The tour was relatively short and it finished with a small dram of the Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old (a sweet, clean and honey flavoured Whisky) together with a small piece of chocolate truffle. Yum.

The Whisky Boys together with our guests found the tour was lacking in character and oomph, it just didn’t have the all encompassing romantic flavours we have experienced in many other distillery tours.

Maureen Stronach in the Visitor Centre was exceptionally enthusiastic and was more than happy to chat and managed to get us three cask bungs which Alex needed to finish his Whisky Tasting table top project we have on the go. Watch out for the opening of our new tasting cabin an the unique hand made table top.

Dalwhinnie Distillery,
Dalwhinnie,
Inverness-shire,
PH19 1AB

telephone 01540 672219

website www.malts.com

Owners – Diageo

Dalwhinnie’s core range consists of the delightful 15 Year Old and the Distillers Edition which goes through a second maturation in fortified wine casks.

The 15 Year Old is quite readily available in many supermarkets but you may have to visit a specialist shop to obtain the Distillers Edition, but is easily found on-line (see our shop window below).