I had the good fortune to be invited along to the opening of Dalmore’s new Visitor Centre a few weeks ago, and had been looking forward to it from the moment I’d received the invite prior to that. Although I’ve passed that way several times, I’ve never had the opportunity to call in, and it’s set in one of the most spectacular parts of Scotland.

The journey by train took me up through the Cairngorms, and as I passed Dalwhinnie, I began to hanker for a dram, but thought it best to save myself and my palate, as I knew there’d be a couple of treats in store for us Dalmore.

I was staying at the beautiful (and somewhat grander than I’m used to – although I’m happy to beome accustomed to this…) Novar Estate, and once I’d been shown ’round, I headed to my room to get prepared for the tour of the refurbished centre and dinner.

The centre has been very much remodelled in sympathy with the original building, whilst really emphasising the luxury elements that tend to be associated with Dalmore. The very talented and friendly husband and wife team, John and Mary-Louise, who undertook the design and refurb were there, and very graciously took the time to answer some of the questions I had regarding the ins and outs of sourcing certain materials and lighting installation. Having worked in scenic carpentry for a few years, I can be a construction/design-bore in addition to being a whisky-bore. Ever the multi-tasker…

Once the tour had concluded, we made our way back to the Alchemy Room, which is where we were joined by Richard Paterson for an extremely special tutored tasting, which included the superb Dalmore King Alexander III – one big, bold dram, which takes in the flavours of six different vessels in its journey from still to bottle. An amazing feat of blending. Beautiful stuff.

We were treated to a beautiful meal by catering from The Storehouse, and the drams kept coming – an amazing Dalmore 1978 which had been matured in Gonzales Byass Sherry casks for over 30 years. Not the sort of whisky you encounter every day. Rich and luxurious stuff. During the meal, I was sat next to Ian Mackay and got to bend his ear about his days at Invergordon, as well as his role at Dalmore. Luckily, he was another patient soul who put up with my questions without getting irked. I was just happy to have been invited to an event with such a wealth of whisky knowledge around the table. Who wouldn’t use that opportunity to ask a few questions?

If you want to be wowed by luxury, then I’d heartily recommend a visit to Dalmore – but more importantly, the people are friendly, knowledgable and passionate about whisky, and really that’s what’s at the core of this malt. Beneath the bling and theatre, this is a craft with much care invested in it. You can taste that in the results.

We spent the afternoon at Glengoyne distillery yesterday, which enjoys a reputation as the world’s most beautiful distillery. It really is a lovely place to visit and walk around. As you can see from the photo, it’s at the bottom of a hill – actually an extinct volcano – and at the foot of the burn (a Scottish word for a stream) from where they source their water. It also gave the distillery its original name – Burnfoot.

Glengoyne pride themselves on their entirely smokeless whisky flavours. The malt they use in their distilling process is air-dried, rather than dried over a peat smoke fire. The resulting whisky is smooth, sweet and light.

It’s the silent season, so everything is shut down for maintenance, repairs and a jolly good clean.

It’s quite amazing to walk around and see the inside and workings of the machinery that makes the whisky – to actually look inside a still, rather than just admire it from the outside.

The shop has been refurbished and they have a ‘fill-your-own-bottle’ of single cask, unique to visitors of the distillery.

We tried a few drams – the 10 year-old, the Isle of Skye 12, the Glengoyne 17, and two single casks, one of which was an exceptional port-finished whisky.

We had a look around the warehouse as well as the distillery – perhaps most interesting because of the charcoal on the floor, which is there to retain moisture so that there’s less evaporation from the barrels.

But the highlight of the tour was the master blending session.

We were taken into the tasting room, and given samples of a range of different whiskies to nose from all of the whisky-producing regions of Scotland. We were talked through the process of making a premium blend whisky, consisting of primarily grain whiskies, but flavoured with a range of different malts.

Clutch and I made competing whiskies using different proportions and measures of the different malts, adding the Lowland malts to bring up some of the citrus notes, Highland to add a touch of dried fruit, Speyside for the sweetness and sherry, Island for pepper and honey and Islay to add a smoky, peaty air to the proceedings – and of course the Glengoyne itself for apples, vanilla and toffee.

Not that it was a competition or anything, but I totally won. Mine earned the right to be known as the Dubber and Clutch Premium Blend, and we think it’s really very good. We filled a 100ml sample bottle and then shared the remainder.

And this coming weekend, we’ll give you the chance to WIN that very bottle – the only bottle in the world of Dubber and Clutch Premium Blend.

Stay tuned here, and follow @twhisky on Twitter for details of how to win that unique whisky, made by the very hands that typed this blog post that you’re reading right now.

In this video, Ronnie Cox takes us on a private tour of the Glenrothes distillery – explaining the process of making the spirit that, over time, becomes The Glenrothes whisky.

The four winners of The Glenrothes Whisky Maker competition will be immersed* in every part of whisky production from beginning to end – so you might want to take notes.

Feel free to ‘Full Screen’ the video. I shot it on the HD Flip camera, and the stills and factory machinery always look much more impressive in “big mode”. Also, Ronnie is a larger-than-life character, so it seems appropriate.
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*Not literally ‘immersed’. That would be bad.

There’s your bits and pieces – now get to it

Clutch and I have a saying: Ordeals beget treats. We’re thinking of having it made into a coat of arms.

Essentially, it reflects the fact that everything we do together that has an element of difficulty about it (like that time we thought it would be a good idea to cycle across the bay in low tide from Bruichladdich to Bowmore, rather than simply stick to the road around the Islay coast), there’s usually a dram at the end of it. And, we like to think, the treat more than compensates for the ordeal.

I’m delighted to say that the motto held true in this instance.

As I mentioned yesterday, there’s this competition. Four people will each be appointed The Glenrothes Whisky Maker for a week following a worldwide competition which launches on 4th October 2010. That’s Monday week, guys.

The successful candidates will be recruited to work as The Glenrothes Whisky Makers in the heart of single malt production, Speyside, Scotland.

That’s right: work.

So one of the first things I did when got to The Glenrothes in order to find out about this competition was to partake in a bit of cooperage. That is – I got to make a barrel.

First, Ronnie showed how it’s done:

Then, in some bizarre twist on the Generation Game, it was suddenly my turn. Cooperage, it has to be said, is one of those things that could benefit from a spot of practice. I’d never done it before in my life.

Naturally, things did not go entirely smoothly.

I felt I did remarkably well under the circumstances, since there is usually a clear delineation of work between Clutch and I whenever it comes to this sort of thing. He takes care of all of the craft skills, woodworking, DIY, practical abilities and anything requiring coordination, and I provide company and moral support.

It’s served us well to this day, and so, in his absence, being in the position of actually making something was a bit of an experience. It’s certainly one I can recommend though, because it meant that I’d had some small hand in the making of some future dram – and an excellent one at that, I’ll bet.

There was more to come, and this was just the tip of the iceberg – but if you think that looks tricky – wait till you try rolling a barrel. I mean – it’s easy enough to roll them – they are built for that sort of thing. It’s not quite so easy to roll them with a destination in mind. Forward momentum is not the problem – it’s steering.

Thankfully, nobody recorded any video of my efforts on that particular front. Suffice to say, that particular barrel might not be included in the less than 2% of whisky selected by The Glenrothes each year for their vintage release…

But you’ll be relieved to know that after the ordeal of manual labour – there were indeed treats. And not only were those treats spectacular, the ordeals were pretty great as ordeals go too.

More about the upcoming Glenrothes competition soon…

You’ll notice that this blog post is neither right up to date, nor chronologically sequential with the other recent posts. Or you won’t. At any rate, this pertains to a visit we made to a distillery while we were on our way to St Andrews a couple of weeks back.

Daftmill is the newest distillery in Scotland – as yet, not releasing any stock onto the market – and, officially, not open to the public. But first we managed to convince our designated driver, Craig to take a detour – and then distillery manager Francis to let us in for a look around.

Enjoy.

So, the paternal readership of this will probably be curled up on the sofa with the Sunday papers and a dram in their hand… Doesn’t get much better than that really, eh?

But wait…. Yes it does!

We’ve just been alerted by the lovely people at Jura Distillery, that they’re offering a trip for two to Jura Lodge.

Yes, you too can re-enact the shambolic happenings that we forced the patient locals to endure – or, perhaps you can behave in an altogether more civilized fashion, and restore their faith in humanity…?

Regardless of your course of action, we guarantee that you’ll have a wonderful time amidst some of the most bewitching scenery Scotland has to offer.

There will also be some pretty spectacular whisky involved.

To enter, all you need to do is check out the official blurb:

“Stories, myths and folklore abound on Jura. To sample its idiosyncratic delights first hand we’d like to hear one about you and your father. In 300 words or less weave a tale that involves the pair of you, a little luck and perhaps some Jura. That done and you could be the very fortunate recipient of a stay in the eclectic and unforgettable Jura Lodge on the island itself. It’s a place like no other on an island like no other.”

So get typing, entitle your email “Father’s Day Tale”, and send it to info@isleofjura.com before the 1st August 2009, and if you win, you have to take me. That’s in the rules.*

*It’s not actually in the rules…

I’ve spent part of this afternoon digging through the many photos (over 200) and videos (over 40) of our time on Jura last week. I knew there was something else I wanted to share with you before I let Clutch step in to be the real expert and tell you about the Jura Paps range that we were actually brought over to the island to taste and talk about.

Nice to know you can get such amazing milage out of a 2-day visit.

Willie Cochrane took us to visit the distillery warehouses, where a treat lay in store for us…

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

One of the real pleasures of this job (it’s a job?!) is that occasionally you get to try things that just aren’t out on the market yet. Jura distiller Willie Cochrane brought out a bottle cryptically labelled ‘SSS’ and Clutch and I were offered an impromptu tasting in the still room.

It’s really quite a superb dram if you like your peated whiskies (and I certainly do). Certainly peatier than any Jura whisky I’ve ever come across.

You’re going to want to keep an eye out for Super-Strength Superstition, as well as Jura Prophecy which should be out soon too.

Master Distiller Willie Cochrane kindly showed us around the Jura Distillery. We thought you might like to join us for that.

Part 1: The Mash House

Part 2: The Tun Room

Part 3: The Still Room

Part 4: The Spirit Safe

What an absolute privilege to get a private tour like that from such a legendary distiller as Willie. A real highlight among many in our trip to Jura.