A wee dram

Speyside is the home of single malts. The Spey river winds its way through idyllic countryside to its mouth in the Moray Firth.

Over the last few days I'd been under a lot of pressure. I realised I couldn't continue to fight the rising tide of persuasion from Chris, to have a visit to the distilleries. Not that I minded the odd scotch, enjoyed in front of a roaring fire.
To be truthful, aye, it was none another than myself who was slowly emptying the wee duty free bottle of Glenlivet. But I wasn't too keen on seeing the workings of a distillery, now if he had suggested a castle visit or a visit to T K Maxx, that'd be different.

Chris had picked the first distillery to
visit. It was one run by Historic Scotland called Dallas Dhug.

The sat nav was configured and the route planned, we were on our way. It wasn't long before we arrived. The distillery was made up of what looked like several very large, white washed buildings. Chris had picked this one because it was free. We both had become members of historic Scotland which entitled members to free entry to various attractions.

We circumnavigated the buildings several times, following the signs, but couldn't find the entrance. Finally we approached the gardener who informed us 'Thursdays and Fridays it was closed'. Shouldn't it be Sundays and Mondays? They certainly do things differently over here.

Not to be deterred we headed off to our next stop, Cardhu. It was set on the side of the hill, surrounded by highland cows, all 4 of them!

It was open but not for distillery tours. To make matters worse the very 'scottish' shop assistant wanted us to share the one wee dram on offer to taste. Apparently her generosity was only exceeded by her good looks.
She slowly peeled off a minute postit note that had directions to the sister distillery that was open for tours. Directions were in size 7 font and I was the navigator.

Clutching the scrap of paper we continued down the road. Perhaps unfortunately we never found it but couldn't believe our luck when we stumbled across the Holy Grail of all distilleries - the Glenlivet Distillery.

Must have been my superior navigation skills.
A great tour and a very generous sample of scotch at the end. 12, 16 year old and a special malt to choose from. A hard decision but somebody had to make it.