After 3 days in Edinburgh – more laundry – we joined our second whiskey tasting tour. The tour group had 11 people in it – 4 Canadians (2 women and one couple), 1 Chinese (Richard), 2 Swiss/Macedonians (Vlad and Maja), us , 2 German guys (Policeman and food inspector from Hamburg) with David as the tour guide. This tour was 4 days long.
The rain started at the Kelpie rest stop, falling harder the further west we drove. By the time we reached the standing stones, it was a downpour. Mark and I passed on trudging across flooded fields to look at the stones up close! We finally made it to the west coast and took the ferry from Kennacraig to Islay.
Day #2 – The guide did not want us to complain that we didn’t get our money’s worth. First stop was a walk up the street to Bowmore Distillery for a tour and tasting with a “breakfast dram” at 9:30 AM. Stopped at the Whisky Vault for a tasting and then to the Islay Woolen Mill for a 15 minute stop. Number 3 tasting was at Kilchoman Distillery, delayed by about 15 minutes as we waited for a funeral procession from the distillery to the cemetery. The actual service was held in the malting room since this is “Silent Season” – no production. At least 175 cars drove past us, including Search and Rescue people. The dead guy worked on the farm that the distillery is on AND he liked whisky!
After lunch, we stopped at Bruinladdaich for a short stop. Stop 5 for the day was Brunnahabhain but Mark and Susan shared one tasting. We liked this one. Everyone had bottles for “Drivers’ drams”. They are little bottles that the tasting fills up. We could drink it at night. Most places gave us at least 3 different whiskies to taste. You can understand how we accumulated so many! Last tasting of the days was at Ardenhoe, another new distillery. 4:45 for a tasting.
Day 3 – We had a 9:15 start to head across the peat bogs to Port Ellen and all the distilleries there. First stop was Ardbeg Distillery. Ardbeg had the brilliant idea of making poster tubes to hold the drivers drams. Jennifer, our tour guide for the visit, gave us an extra!
Laphroaig Distillery was the tour after lunch. Mark joined Friends of Laphroaig before we left CO so he now has a certificate with the location of his 1 sq. foot of land. Got a bottle with a stamp on the box. They did this to stop a water dispute with Lagavulin.
Lagavulin was the last stop for a tasting. The entire group was burned out from tasting and just wanted to go back to our rooms and get dinner. We had a yummy dinner at Bowmore Hotel with its huge whiskey collection ehich we did NOT sample.
We saw Ronnie’s name on 2 of the plaques on the mills. He’s one of the 3 millwrights left in the UK.
Day #4 – Off to Port Ellen to wait for the ferry. Because of Storm Amy last week we’d been bumped to the late ferry (12:15 PM) but David managed to get us on the earlier ferry at 10. The waiting area looked like mass chaos with cars and truck everywhere. Vehicles were packed in and we watched a loader give a driver directions on how to park the car in the last little bit of room on the ferry. We were last on, making us last off when we arrived at Kennacraig.
