Tag Archives: whisky

Scotland 2024 – Day 3

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Started off the day eating a free breakfast at our hotel (Aberlour hotel), which seems like a traditional Scottish breakfast (including black pudding, which is basically blood sausage paddy).

After, we headed 20 minutes to Glenlivet estate / Distillery. A few things I learned:

-it has a really long drive way up a hill so that the taxman (from the olden days) wouldn’t find their whisky they were trying to sell

-it’s 200 years since they got their license to sell whisky

-it’s fruity flavors are mainly from the copper stills (not the well water)

-in the stills it is 4 hours in the washbacks and 5 hours in the copper ones (where it then is at the 62% alcohol level they want it at)

-they use both american casks and European casks. European casks are supposed to be sweeter notes while the american smoother notes

-the 12 and 16 single malt years are double casks, where they are from two different barrels (american and the. European). The 14 is only from american (but could still be double cask

-single malt refers to the fact the whisky comes from one distillery

-single cask means the bottles whisky it has only been from one barrel. Double cask means the bottle has whisky from two different barrels. A Finish means it was transferred from cask to another (say from and American one to a European one)

-Glenlivet was Seagram before

After Glenlivet, we headed west towards Inverness to Clansman Hotel to catch our boat ride around Loch Ness (by jacobite boats). The boat ride was 2 hours in total and included a stop to Urquhart castle (the highlands largest castle). Some details about it:

-built in the 500s, and was around until the 1500s

-eventually people broke through it (or stormed it) and also pillages things from it like it’s rooftops and art

In terms of the Loch Ness monster, apparently some doctor in the early 1900s took a picture of Nessi, but they discover in the 1990s it was a fake picture (he used a combination of picture taking trickery). However people do claim still that they have seen it for real.

After we headed to a trail close by called the South Loch Ness trail. Only hiked 2 km of it because it was too muddy from the rain early (Scotland weather has a bit of on and off showers). The hike did have a good view of the highlands.

After, we headed to Inverness to walk around along the Ness Walk. Inverness on Sundays have most of their shops closed, but most of their eateries are open (and the really good ones are full). It took us our 3rd choice restaurant selection (but they seated us an hour later than we wanted). We did stop McDonalds and Tesco (a grocery store). Details can be found here for the restaurant we ate at, Encore Une Fois:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2024/07/07/encore-une-fois/

We then headed back to our hotel in Aberlour.

Scotland 2024 – Day 2

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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.

Alberta – 4th Day Part 1

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This day was the last day I would be in Banff before heading to Calgary.

The first thing we did spend an 3 hours in the Fairmont hot springs. The price was $80 Canadian, it it was definitely 8 times better than the previous hot springs we went to. It had several pools with different temperatures, along with a steam room and a sauna. The steam and sauna room had this mint vapor smell, which I really liked. As for the main mineral pool, it was interesting if you had your ears below water, since you could hear music (I’m sure the music was also playing out of the water, but the waterfalls I think prevent you from hearing it).

Also, the coed lounge area had unlimited free cookies (I had 3 :)).

After the hot springs we did a distillery tour at Park Distillery. They make vodka, gin, whisky, and some flavored vodkas. I did learn a couple of things during this tour, such as

  • It takes at least 3 years for whisky to be in a barrel before they can call it whisky (Park does 5 years)
  • Gin is made from Juniper berries

Also, one thing to call out is this amazing drink Jon had that had honey in it (it was called ___ mountain). It’d be great to get the ingredients and try creating that drink at home.

After the distillery tour, I headed for Calgary!