Our final day in Scotland started with a relaxed Scottish breakfast and some rain. We walked around the harbor area heading from the center of Campbeltown to the north end where the Glen Scotia distillery is located. Glen Scotia is another distillery that was not on my radar before this trip but is absolutely on…
Category: Distillery
Cadenhead’s Warehouse and Shop
Cadenhead’s is known as Scotland’s oldest independent bottler dating back to 1842. William Cadenhead was a renowned poet and proper citizen of his era. Upon his death, the company was managed by Robert Duthie who started as the superintendent of the Scottish Orphanage in Bombay. Duthie’s tenure at Cadenhead’s was successful until the Great Depression.…
Glengyle Distillery
The Glengyle Distillery is on the same property as the Springbank Distillery and our tour with David covered both distilleries. Springbank, Glengyle and Cadenhead’s are all cooperating companies with the same owner. This is the only time that 3 tours in one day is possible. In the 1800’s there were 30 distillers in Campbeltown. By…
Springbank Distillery
Our AirBnB was only a block away from the Springbank Distillery. This allowed us to sleep in a bit before our private tour. Springbank has a modest sized gift shop but they provide a special 10ml bottle for distillery visitors only. This is also true for Cadenhead’s warehouse tours. Springbank has always been a favorite…
Ardbeg Distillery
The final Distillery on our Islay adventure after Lagavulin and Laphroaig, was Ardbeg. It was well worth the wait. We took the Ardbig Tour and Ardbig Tasting at Two. I highly recommend this tour. Ardbeg is one of the distilleries that produces with production details. Then the tasting offers great, from the cask samples with…
Lagavulin Distillery
Saddled in between Laphroaig and Ardbeg is the Lagavulin Distillery. Lagavulin is a Diageo owned distillery and as such its pretty automated. The buildings, however, are old school and beautiful. I really like how the distillery building was built before the paved road, you can tell this because it looks like the building is encroaching…
Laphroaig Distillery
I have a good story about Laphroaig and a bad story. I’ll begin with the good story. I’m a Friend of Laphroaig dating back to about 2004. Back in those days I was new to Scotch. I went to my local retailer and said, “I’m looking for a Scotch, I don’t know what I want…
Kilchoman Distillery
The Kilchoman Distillery is one of a few distilleries that manages the entire process from ‘barley to bottle’. In fact, that’s the name of their main tour. After introducing ourselves to Emma the sister of Sarah from Bruichladdich, we began calling taxis for our return trip 2 hours later. Pro Tip; book your taxi rides…
Bruichladdich Distillery
We woke at a normal time and enjoyed a relaxed Scottish Breakfast. We had time to hike a mile along the coast from Port Charlette to the Bruichladdich Distillery and we arrived a bit early to confirm our spots on the warehouse tour. Pro tip: not all tours have strict limits for attendance. The Bruichladdich…
Bunnahabhain Distillery
I started drinking Single Malts in the early 2000’s and I have always had a place in my heart for the Bunnahabhain Distillery. I thought Bunnahabhain was an underdog vs. the other known distilleries. Bunnahabhain’s older age statements hold up against the best of the others. My thinking is that Bunnahabhain is a bit of…