Scotch whiskey – Be Back Whenever

10/2025 – Whiskey tasting in Speyside

We took a Rabbie’s Speyside tour from Edinburg. 15 of us on the tour – 7 Germans from around Stuttgart, Gary and Sara from Kent, David and Matthew (Father and son), Lorett from Isreal, and us.

Lindore Abbey was the first distillery we visited – no tour, just a tasting, a friendly dog, and a good toilet

We love mussels! We ate mussels at least 8 times on this trip. Some were better than others but none were bad.

Day 2 started with 9 AM pickup after breakfast at Ravenscourt B&B in Grantown-on-Spey.

Day 2 – Stop #1 -First stop was at Cardhu – 4 whiskies from the cask. Cardhu makes Johnny Walker and is owned by Diageo.

Mark volunteered to draw some whiskey from the barrel for the group’s bespoke tasting.

We had an interesting visit to the Cooperage. Four year apprenticeship, we watched them them testing the repairs they’d done to the barrels. The used barrels are shipped intact from the US bourbon distilleries and then repaired; Some distilleries have the barrels taken apart in the US and reassembled in Scotland. Coopers are paid by the piece.

Our last visit was to Speyburn Distillery. The tour went all over the distillery with a retired whiskey maker with a very strong accent. I could have used subtitles for him and the Germans in the group couldn’t understand him at all.

Day 2 – Tasting #3 – Speyburn Distillery

On Day 3 we wandered our way back to Edinburg, keeping our eyes on Storm Amy that had a direct aim on Scotland. Our first stop was Dalwhinnie Distillery with very white buildings, also owned at Diageo. Tasting had whiskey with chocolates to accompany them with an older guide. Whiskey was OK but chocolate was better.

Day 3 – Dalwhinnie Distillery, also owned by Diageo.

Storm Amy’s rain really started after lunch. We all voted for NO WALK because we didn’t want to get that wet. Adam stopped in Dunkeld at the oldest church still having services. Mark and I walked back to the bus in the parking lot through the tiny town, used the public toilet for 50p each at a manned office in the parking lot. I assume they get lots of visitors in better weather. Does he really collect enough money to pay his salary?? The toilets were clean, though.

The tour threw in a few historical stops including the Dunkeld church.

Adam drove back to Edinburgh in the wind. The old Firth bridge was closed due to wind. A few events have already been cancelled. Gary and Sara on our tour had a train to catch if it wasn’t cancelled due to the storm.