A day for driving. 180 miles doesn't seem much to me. A trip to the Outer Banks is 430 miles. On Scottish roads, the trip took four hours from the Isle of Skye to Crieff, the location of the Glenturret Distillery. Originally an unlicensed 'still, it became legitimate and is Scotland's oldest single malt distillery.
The tour was neat, and we learned a lot about how to appreciate whisky. Each year, one to two percent of the whisky in each cask is lost through evaporation. The brewers call this the "angels' share" and say that the Scottish angels must be the happiest on Earth. Jen really learned how to appreciate whisky. I mean, like, a lot. So much so that we walked out of the distillery gift shop with a bottle of Famous Grouse, Glenturret, and then bought a bottle of Glenlivet at the airport duty free shop.
After the distillery tour we drove to Glasgow to rest up before our flight home. Along the way we stopped at various scenic locales and walked and took pictures. Sort of delaying the inevitable return to real life, I suppose.
I'm going to miss Scotland, and I wish we'd had more time. Anyone wishing to contribute to our "go-back-to-Scotland" fund, please get in touch! Thanks for reading all this, and don't forget to leave a comment.
Cheers! |
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On the road again. It's Sunday, but we couldn't find a church when church-time came around, so instead we went to the Glenturret Whisky Distillery and took a tour of the oldest working distillery in Scotland (since the 1770's legally). We saw how they make Glenturret single malt which they blend with other scotch whiskys to create the Famous Grouse blend. We couldn't take pictures because the atmosphere is so volatile, but the tour was fascinating and we got to sample some Famous Grouse. Simon, the guide, gave us a scratch and sniff card to help us detect the different flavors in the whisky. It had vanilla, a peaty smoky flavor, citrus, and chocolate. Then we swirled it around and saw the film it left on the glass. Eventually the whisky got 'legs' that ran back down into the glass, which shows how long the whisky taste will stay in your mouth. A very old whisky matured for 40 or more years will take as much as 5-10 minutes to form legs; it'll linger in your mouth so you can spend forever enjoying the finish. This was our last day in Scotland, and we stayed one more night at a hotel in Glasgow before getting up in the wee hours to catch our flight home. We still had a few pounds when we got to the airport, so we blew it all on British candy bars and Jelly Babies. Sometimes at the end of a vacation I'm ready to go back home but not this time. We can go back soon, right John? Like, tomorrow?
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