A wee dram

I am not a whisky drinker, but when in Scotland, I should partake in all the cultural experiences that are available to me. Today, we ended our day being tourists with a go through of the Glenturret Distillery, which is just 8 miles from our house.

The tour is called The Famous Grouse Experience as it's the most popular whisky in Scotland and part of a whisky consortium including the historic Glenturret, which began on its site in 1775.

We learned how water, barley and yeast are transformed, over many years, into the product that's coveted around the world. From the time the barley is dried and ground into grist to the day it goes into an oak cask is about two weeks. We saw how hand labor and old machinery are still in use today in all phases of the production. After the whisky achieves the desired alcohol content it goes into casks, which are are stored away for at least three years and as many as decades till the desired product is born.

The final phase of the tour was a tasting of two of their products. One by Glenturret and the other was Black Grouse, a smoky flavored version of whisky made by drying the barley over a peat fire. 

The first one burned going down, but had a delightful aroma. The smoky one tasted like drinking Scotch and smoking cigars at the same time.

When we got into the gift shop the clerk asked if we'd like to have a taste of another product called Naked Grouse, which is the famous grouse, but aged an additional six months in oak barrels in which Spanish sherry had been made. It was very smooth and quite pleasant. We took a bottle home to sip on a cool night.