From my past posts including the Balvenie tasting to the behind the scenes at The Whiskies of Scotland, there should be no surprise that I heart whisky. Yet, it took about four months before I got it together to do a whisky tour, but this probably has more to do with having a partner in crime for a couple of days along with a car.

Weeks, if not months, could have been devoted to this activity, but as a first abbreviated jaunt, the speyside tour of 2011 covered a fair bit of ground. 

While the entire Speyside is covered in distilleries, not many of them offer public tours, so why not head to the heart of things, to Dufftown, where Glenfiddich and the William Grant and Sons empire exists. Glenfiddich’s free public tour runs like a well-oiled machine, from the over-produced intro film to the standardized tour guides to the even more standardized tasting at the end. Glenfiddich is not my favorite by any stretch, but I like their business sense, including their artist residencies (which I will write about later). I also just learned The Grants invested quite a bit into the Gordon Highlander’s Museum, also making them their own blend of whisky, due to several Gordon connections and a belief in honoring that connection. 

Several stops and debits would be made into The Whisky Shop in Dufftown (though my heart belongs to Huntly’s own Whiskies of Scotland) along with a dram or two at the recommended Royal Oak down the street, but the outstanding highlight of this whisky tour would be an evening spent at The Grouse Inn. 

Sitting somewhere in a place called The Cabrach, with 225 bottles open and over 700 surrounding you in this remote part of the valley, The Grouse Inn is rather dangerous, as you’re relatively isolated amongst the company of these whiskies.

Appearing like some mirage of a taster’s paradise, as not even days could ever satisfy your curiosity, an evening chatting with locals and sampling the rarest of drams was just fine by me. With a very friendly and knowledgable face behind the bar, Mhairi McBain knew her stuff without trying to sell you the history of each malt, which was the real difference from the tours and shop keepers, who sprouted ready-made words and facts with little heart behind the pitch. McBain knew each whisky inside out, having grown up with them all her life, and her recommendation that became the winner that night was the Linkwood 12 year, which managed to appease both of our different and discerning palettes. 

That said, I have still yet to really meet any local enthusiasts for whisky, as all the locals in these places were happy with their pints. Now mixed with experiencing the tourism of whisky firsthand, I can see how that may turn the locals off, as going to the castles, doing a distillery tour, eating shortbread - that’s what tourists come here to do. Given that the greatest number of tourists in Scotland are tracing family lineages (as everybody’s part Scot), there is certainly a blurring of history and myth in Scotland’s national identity that simultaneously searches for the past while actively constructs their own history.