Background

Continuing with part two of our recent Speyside tours! As I mentioned in my last write-up, this will be a three part series:

• Part 1: GlenAllachie tour and a quick stop by Glenfarclas

• Part 2: BenRiach and Glendronach tours

• Part 3: Glen Moray tour and stops at Glenfiddich and Aberlour

Following our visits to GlenAllachie and Glenfarclas on the first day, we spent the night at the delightful Abbeyfield B&B in Dufftown. The next day, we set out early for the BenRiach and Glendronach tours, first up was BenRiach!

BenRiach: Grape and Grain Tour

Price/Length: £65 + taxes, tour runs about two and a half hours.

Details: 10 AM! Bright and early start to the day as we roll into BenRiach… and we're the only ones there for tours. Welcome to the off-season up in Scotland! It was a fantastic experience as our guide, Emma, seated us in the tasting room, providing a bit of coffee while elaborating on BenRiach's history and production process. The distillery was not in production that day, so instead we got a mini chemistry lesson from Emma. BenRiach was the first peated malt in Speyside, released in 1972. Like GlenAllachie, they do four washes through their mash tun, but instead opt for a three day fermentation.

After finishing our coffee, we bundled up to explore the dunnage. There we meet the incomparable Calum Purcell, warehouse foreman for BenRiach. I cannot stress this enough, Calum is an absolute treasure and if you get a chance to tour BenRiach you must find an opportunity to talk with him. I think we ended up running about 30 minutes long, on a tour that is already two and a half hours long, because I kept chatting with Calum about how the distillery has evolved over the years. Fortunately for us, they had just received a shipment of “rum” casks they were set to fill, and the barrels appeared to have held wine first, then rum. Calum opened one up for us to smell, and my god if by some stroke of luck Dr. Rachel Barrie reads this please release a few of those as single casks. They smelled INCREDIBLE, sweetness from the rum intertwined with some red wine depth. Fantastic. As we walked through the dunnage, we saw the oldest barrel at BenRiach, dating back to the 70s. Emma talked us through their system of numbering and marking barrels, and then we moved onto the tasting!

First off, I cannot say enough about how thoughtful the tasting setup was. Laid out in front of us were five cask strength whiskys, the corresponding wine matching the cask they were aged in, and a small food pairing. In order we tasted through:

• 15 year Moscatel Cask Selection, paired with moscatel, honey and cheese

• 31 year Gaja Barolo single cask bottling from 2009, paired with Barolo and smoked venison

• 18 year Port Pipe Distillery Cask, paired with Port and a cracker smeared with pate and a cherry

• 14 year PX Puncheon Distillery Cask, paired with PX and dark chocolate covered dates

• 15 year Peated Oloroso Butt Distillery Cask, paired with Oloroso and a salted caramel fudge

Overall Thoughts: Just an exceptional experience, I really can't recommend this tour enough to anyone planning a trip to the area. Being able to migrate between the wine, food, and whisky and taste through the interplay of flavors made for a delightful hour or so of conversation and trying to pull out different tasting notes. And the whiskys themselves… I mean candidly I spent horrific sums on bottles here, with the variety of distillery only casks proving irresistible after the tasting. Despite being under Brown-Forman ownership, the entire operation felt like a family-run facility, with everyone being exceptionally relaxed and accommodating. We were booked for 2.5 hours but I think we ended up staying close to 3.5 just talking, drinking, and enjoying ourselves. There is also a bar onsite filled with ample options for those without time for a tour but still want to drop in.

Notable Gift Shop Offerings: The above mentioned Moscatel, Port Pipe, and Peated Oloroso casks, with the Moscatel being exclusive to the Grape and Grain tour. There were numerous other single cask selections here as well, I believe an older rum cask barrel and I'm forgetting the others. No shortage of options!

GlenDronach: Sherry Masterclass

Price/Length: £60 + taxes, tour runs about an hour and a half.

Details: After finishing up at BenRiach we made the drive over to GlenDronach for the Sherry Masterclass tour. We met our tour guide Lizzie to start us out… and again found ourselves on a very exclusive two person tour! Lizzie talked us through the history of GlenDronach as we walked into production. One exciting aspect to see is that the distillery is in the midst of a fairly large expansion, planning to add more stills to keep up with demand. Unlike our last two distilleries, GlenDronach does three washes to get to their wort, and has a 55 hour fermentation period. They also use wooden washbacks, which are apparently a nightmare to clean, but they are adamant about not changing anything in their production to maintain a consistent spirit.

After touring production, we take a quick spin through the dunnage to see just a sample of the barrels they have again, including their oldest barrel from the 60s. After all this, it's finally time for tasting! On offer for this tour is a taste of Glendronach's new make spirit, along with four pours of whisky and a pour of Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherries as those are the two casks Glendronach most famously employs. As for the whisky, we tasted:

• Parliament (21 year blend of Oloroso and PX casks)

• Cask Strength Batch 12 (NAS, also a blend of Oloroso and PX)

• Cask Strength Distillery Exclusive Hand-fill (11 year Oloroso cask)

• Cask Strength Distillery Exclusive Hand-fill (29 year Oloroso cask) 

I mean look, the 29 year old was obviously insanely delicious. But all in all it's a great slate of whiskys and Lizzie was exceptionally enthusiastic in walking us through each and every pour. After finishing the tour, we proceeded to the onsite bar for additional tastings!

Overall Thoughts: Absolutely no complaints, just a fantastic and informative tour led by our incredibly knowledgeable host, followed by some delightful whisky. What I really appreciated about visiting GlenDronach is the bar, which has a MASSIVE book filled with various cask strength distillery exclusives. In addition to being a great host, Lizzie recommended some delicious pours for us to sit and enjoy, including letting us sample one or two before deciding what to order. It's also just a beautiful setup, decorated with dark wood and filled with ample seating to enjoy a dram. Definitely recommend it if you find yourself planning a tour.

Notable Gift Shop Offerings: Both the 11 and 29 year old Oloroso casks were available as hand-fill options, and they also had various cask strength bottlings above 20+ years available.

That's it for part two! We'll conclude next time with our tour and Glen Moray as well as a stop by Glenfiddich's bar and Aberlour's gift shop.