Speyside
“We don’t pursue absolute consistency.
We pursue absolute perfection.”
Keith
The drive from Dunkeld to our cottage in Keith took a little over two hours. The highway took us directly through Cairngorms National Park, so the scenery along the way was spectacular.
When we were close to our house, we passed the Speyside Cooperage Visitor Center, where these massive stacks of casks lie all across their facility.
Zoom in on the map below—we’re the first property to the right of the pin.
You can take the video tour of the Mill of Davidson house below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLCcb5RNE7s
The house has a lovely garden.
This one is so unique.
Speyside
About half of Scotland's whisky is made in the Speyside region. Among the roughly 50 Speyside distilleries are many famous brands such as The Macallan, Glenfiddich, and The Glenlivet.
Scotch whisky is typically grouped into the six regions shown below. Obviously, Speyside is the most productive of the regions:
Whisky requires barley, water, and yeast. Barley grows well in the relatively warm and dry Speyside region. Along with the magnificently clear River Spey and a nearby ocean port, Speyside is an ideal location for whisky production.
Glenfiddich
We passed the Glenfiddich distillery on the way to our house, so once we settled in, we drove back and visited.
We learned that the CH at the end of their name is correctly pronounced with the K sound.
In the Glenfiddich tasting lounge I ordered the Peated Collection flight, Madi ordered the Flagship Collection flight, and Jeff ordered the Grand Series hoity-toity flight.
It’s not as much as it looks! The bottles are on the table behind each glass only so you can see what you’re tasting.
Jeff’s favorite: the 26 Year Grand Couronne. It comes in at a cool $600 for the 750ml bottle. I’ll take two please!
The Glenlivet
On Thursday, July 13, we toured The Glenlivet Distillery.
In Gaelic, Glenlivet is the glen (valley) through which the River Livet flows. Livet means either "smooth” + “place" or “full of water.” From those meanings, The Glenlivet has adopted the moto “The Smooth Flowing One.”
In one of their many distillation rooms (The Glenlivet is Scotland’s largest producer of whisky).
The three stills on the right are wash stills; they are larger and the necks are canted downward.
The three stills on the left are spirt stills. The Glenlivet calls the still design “lantern” style. They are steep and narrow, designed to encourage the light and floral condensates to make it into the horizontal neck, while keeping the heavier, oiler condensates in the still. This helps achieves the flavor profile The Glenlivet desires.
This Dunnage style storage is now largely for show. These old school storage facilities are rather insufficient when you are producing enough spirit for over six million bottles a year!
Into the tasting room.
We started with the 12 year (their most popular whisky and what you can find in any Costco).
We moved onto the 15 year and then the 13 year.
The 13 year was matured in first-fill American oak and then first-fill European oak. The result is an amazingly smooth and flavorful whisky. It’s sold exclusively at the distillery (and, yes, we brought back a bottle).
If you’ve picked up on the emphasis on The Glenlivet, you’re perceptive. While still operating illicitly, founder George Smith produced a whisky that became highly sought after. Others seeking to capitalize on Smith’s success also called their whisky “Glenlivet.” After all, Glenlivet is simply a region.
Glenlivet eventually became a legal distillery and sought relief through the courts, fighting for propriety use of the name Glenlivet. To avoid a protracted legal battle, the company settled for the exclude use of the title “The Glenlivet.”
The issue has eventually become moot, but the THE remains an intrinsic part of the brand. As you read on, you’ll see other distilleries have similarly adopted The as a formal part of the brand.
Blairfindy Castle, on the Glenlivet estate, was a fortified family home built in the 1500s.
The GlenAllachie
Funny story:
We randomly stopped in a whisky shop back when we were walking around Dunkeld on Tuesday, and the shopkeeper recommended The GlenAllachie. Jeff tasted her recommendation and enjoyed it.
As it so happened, we passed their distillery on the drive into the area on Wednesday.
With time on our hands after visiting The Glenlivet on Thursday, we made the spontaneous decision to also visit The GlenAllachie distillery.
We had only been there for a short while when the woman running the tasting room introduced us to the owner of The GlenAllachie. Being relative novices in the world of Scotch Whisky, we hardly recognized the name Billy Walker.
Billy purchased The GlenAllachie distillery, as well as MacNair’s Blended Malt and White Heather Blended Scotch Whisky brands. And so The GlenAllachie Distillers Company was formed—one of the few remaining independent and 100% Scottish owned and managed Scotch whisky firms.
Billy carried over to The GlenAllachie the double capital letter motif used at BenRiach and GlenDronach.
In February 2020, after over 50 years in the industry, Billy was inducted into Whisky Magazine’s prestigious Hall of Fame. Inspired by the 100 greatest whisky figures in history, the Hall of Fame is a permanent tribute to individuals who have made a lasting contribution to the world of whisky.
It was pure good fortune that we ended up meeting a legend.
A favorite and available in the States. We bought a bottle of the 13-year-old, which can only be purchased at the distillery.
We went to dinner that night (which was awful, but we’ll spare you the details). In any event, we parked and Amanda stepped out of the car and spotted a dime sitting right there.
Day Four. Dime Three.
The Macallan
On Friday (Jul 14) we booked The Story of Oak whisky tasting experience at Macallan.
From the moment in the car park when we were met by a man in a full Scottish tweed suit standing amiably in the rain to welcome us, we realized Macallan was going for the image as Scotland’s classiest whisky producer.
The Macallan tasting room is housed in a state of the art, architectural masterpiece.
The building blends into and mirrors the local landscape, including local peaks.
The approach to the tasting room boasts a colorful array of beautiful local flora.
In a very clever marketing scheme, The Macallan has been James Bond’s whisky of choice in recent movies.
“Fifty year old Macallan. A particular favorite of yours, I understand. So, what’s the toast? To the women we love?”
You may recall from our recent Obscure Potter post, we drove across what has come to be known as 007 Skyfall Highway, after the James Bond film.
The road is home to the fictitious Skyfall Lodge (there really is the Dalness Estate however), which has two of the large stag statues (above) as gatepost ornaments.
The Monarch of the Glen is a famous Scottish painting housed in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The Skyfall stag is a mirror of the famous Monarch.
Our The Story of Oak whisky tasting was set in the upstairs The Macallan Bar.
We started with the triple cask 18 year old, followed by the double cask 18 year old, and finished with the sherry oak cask 18 year old.
Our all-around favorite was the double cask 18 year old, and at roughly $400 a bottle, everyone should own a bottle. 😬
We conducted our own informal taste comparison to see if the double cask 15 year old (right) might be just as good as the double cask 18 year old (left), with a far more approachable price tag.
Sadly, the 18 year old (left) was appreciably better than the 15 year old in every way—not to say the 15 year old is bad, it’s just not the 18 year old!
On the Macallan Estate lies Easter Elchies House. Built in 1700 from locally quarried sandstone for Captain John Grant of Elchies as his holiday home, the house graces the hillside above the picturesque River Spey, famous for its salmon fishing beat.
The Easter Elchies house is now a sort of spiritual home for The Macallan.
The image of this beautiful Jacobean house now adorns every The Macallan product.
Craigellachie Bridge
The River Spey can be wild, with strong currents and flash floods. For many centuries, ferries were the main way of getting across—fine when the river was low but potentially very dangerous when the Spey was a raging torrent.
Craigellachie Bridge changed all that. Built in 1814 by Thomas Telford, it created a safe new crossing midway along the Spey, and its success was due to its revolutionary design using much lighter cast ironwork instead traditional stone masonry.
It was fitting to end our day exploring the Speyside region, standing over the mighty River Spey.
