Highlands : Glengoyne

March 2017

[This is a continuation of my March 2017 trip to Scotland — see overview here.]

Glengoyne was the last distillery on the March 2017 trip, and inadvertently I saved the best for the last. The distillery is in a beautiful location that rivals any of the other 19 distilleries I have visited. However, I think the reason this trip stood out was because of the Masterclass!

Glengoyne likes to call itself as Scotland’s Most Beautiful Distillery. Very difficult to argue against it!

Hidden in this distillery is a proper laboratory, complete with test tubes and pipettes!

If I was ever under the illusion that the job of the master blender is easy, I was about to have the illusion shattered, by becoming the master blender for my own concoction!

Glengoyne 12 and 18 got us started.

Different stages of “run” as the spirit is being distilled, and different types of wines.

If you enjoy a specific type of cask for your scotch, it makes sense to taste the original contents of that cask. I got a chance to try Sherry from the same grape but with different aging (“maturity”) — Fino, Manzanilla Pasada, Amontillado and the familiar (to me) Oloroso. That was quite interesting! And I also tried PX — I like PX cask scotches but here I was able to dispel the notion that maybe I liked PX more than the scotch itself. 😎

The two displays show how European and American Oaks render different taste profiles to the scotches.

Another couple of displays in the visitor center. The displays were brilliant — the way the angel’s share is taken from the barrels and the way the color changes within the barrels, year over year, is portrayed so beautifully in the image on the left.

Distillery Exclusive and another Cask Strength — but I was making my own Distillery (world?)-Exclusive, Cask Strength Single Malt!

I called my creation “Aficionado”. Ignore the Nikka in the background — this picture was taken at my home. On the right you see the ingredients of Aficionado, as well as the expressions I enjoyed while taking the masterclass!

At the visitor center I also tried the 15 yo, 21 yo and 25 yo expressions.

Scotch Aficionado was here!

Many thanks to Bill & the team at Glengoyne for making this a memorable trip!