We woke up at 9:30 to drive up to Aberlour / Speyside for our Macallan Estate Master Experience tour.

The drive up was about 3.5 hours. We didn’t stop anywhere along the way since we did end up cutting it close on time (got to the hotel at 3:10pm, and reservation is at 4pm). Route was very scenic, and what you sort of expect from Scotland (lots of green).

Along the way I did call this taxi company to arrange transportation (the phone number was recommended by the hotel: 011441343820820. Fortunately they were able to squeeze us in).

We stayed at the Aberlour Hotel (room is a bit small, but still manageable). We then took our 5 minute taxi ride (13 euros) to the Macallan Estate.

The Macallan Estate mastery tour was actually worth the drive and 250 euros. Here is what I remember from it:

-Red is their special color because that is what the founder marked the special barrels to be able to see and track them

-they welcomed us with their 18 year double cask

-they were one of the first (Glenlivet was first) to get a license to sell whisky. Also this is their 200th year!

-they have the most expensive whisky sold (which was 2.2 million pounds)

-the water may or may not be it determine the taste of the whisky (TBC tomorrow)

-had a good experience with their tasking of the rare cask (bought one at the store for 300 euros)

-average age of tree they use for barrels is 100 years old (takes 4 years to make the barrels also since they have to use a fire to dry it).

-there is something called angel share which evaporates through the barrel

-from the above, when they got us to try the 30 year single malt, they were talking about it taking over 130 years, so appreciate it. Also the room presentation was basically in this sick barrel room listed below

-when sampling whisky, swish it around, smell it, the leave it in your mouth for 2 seconds

After the distillery tour, we had a wine pairing dinner at the Macallan restaurant. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/06/the-macallen-estate/

Upon returning to our hotel, we tried the hotel bar where they served a fair bit of different whiskies. We wrote down the ones we tried, and also rated them (there was a guy selling the Glenmorangie 12 very hard since he worked there, and he was correct in it being the best one). And that ended our night.