Scotland - Day 5

[kmusser]

In the morning we head over to Moniack Winery and wait for them to open their doors. The wines weren’t all that special, but we do pick up some mead, and approve of the pour-it-yourself tastings. From there we spend a little time in downtown Inverness, take a look at the castle, though it’s now government offices so there’s not much to see, stop at a TI to book a tour at the Aberlour distillery later in the day, and pick up some more groceries.

Then on into Speyside, the heart of scotch whiskey country to make our Aberlour tour, I think we passed 5 other distilleries on the way – and that’s not even going into the center of Speyside. The Aberlour tour is very nice, a little more in depth than Oban’s and it’s interesting seeing the difference (Aberlour’s a much larger operation and everything’s computerized where Oban was not) and the tasting is much more extensive including 6 different "expressions" and where we learn that "cask strength" means "much too strong" (though I guess the theory is to dilute it before drinking). Is also didn’t hurt that the tour guide was very cute, but zammis said I couldn’t bring her home.

Then we work our way back to the highway via backroads passing through a portion of the Cairngorms and the Rothiemurchus Forest, which is very pretty, though seriously I think we used up our scenery allotment back on Mull. The driving is also much more harrowing as folks will treat a lane and a half as two and the other drivers aren’t as friendly as they were on Mull. Still I manage not to smack anyone. Our next stop is at Ruthven Barracks, a ruin dating from the Jacobite rebellions which has a very impressive view of the Spey valley. We camp nearby in Newtownmore – still raining.

Comments

Aberlour

[radiant-one.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

[blueinva.livejournal.com]

Cask strength is undiluted - you're meant to drink it with a little highland water! *smile*

[winterbadger]

Actually selling cask strength whisky is, IMO, yet another marketing ploy from the big corporate ad offices who are trying to come up with as wide a range of different products as possible, I suppose to keep what they fear will be jaded tastes coming back for more.