Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Glenmorangie has been the best selling single-malt in Scotland since 1983. About 10
million bottles are produced each year. Not all of these are drunk in Scotland, however. A
couple of bottles are sent elsewhere.
The distillery itself is a beautiful old building sitting just off the A9 on the banks of the
Dornoch Firth. We hid our bikes in a bush in the car park, and walked down to the distil-
lery. The lady in the gift shop explained that they ran hourly tours of the distillery and the
cellars, followed by a tasting session. On this occasion she was happy to waive the admis-
sion fee, on the basis that we seemed like 'a couple of decent guys'.
'The next tour doesn't start for another 30 minutes, so maybe you would like to join in
with the tasting session for the tour that has just finished,' she suggested.
We sat in a room with about ten other people - mostly Americans - and tried a series of
different whiskies that were described with terms such as earthy, oaky, grassy and cerealy.
'What does the aftertaste of this one remind you of?' said the lady.
'Vomit,' I said under my breath.
'Caramel,' said Ben.
'Exactly,' she said. 'It has definite caramel undertones, and hints of woodchip and oak.'
'You brown nose,' I said to Ben. 'Do you really like this stuff?'
'Yeah, I love it. Don't you?'
'No. It's rank.'
'Some people like to have a drop of water with theirs,' she then said, passing around a
jug of water.
'Do you have any Coke?' I asked, only half jokingly. The room erupted in laughter, and
I went along with it as though I was a comic genius, rather than a whisky heathen. 'Ha ha,
whisky and Coke,' I laughed. 'As if!'
To be fair to Glenmorangie, their whisky was definitely the least offensive that I had
ever tasted. I would not go as far as saying that I enjoyed it, but it didn't make me gag and
I managed to finish each of the three shots.
'Do we really have to go on the tour?' whispered Ben. 'I bet it will be really boring. I
only wanted to do the tasting.'
'Yeah, it would be rude if we left now. We might as well do the tour. It might be fun.'
We met the other tour group - again, mostly Americans - at the designated spot with
their guide Sandra.
The tour was actually fascinating and well worth doing. We were guided through all of
thedifferentstagesofwhiskyproduction,which,althoughseeminglycomplex,stillusethe
same basic processes that have been used for hundreds of years.
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