Experiencing the Swiss way of life with my legs, an iPhone, and a 360° camera.
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…
I am so happy we visited Campbeltown, located down the Kintyre peninsula. There is one road that heads in the right direction and the Glasgow to Kennacraig 926 bus ends in Campbeltown. This means there should be no reason to pass up Springbank, Glangyle or Glan Scotia Distilleries because the bus to the Islay Ferry…
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…
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…
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…
Driving to Port Ellen from Port Charlette, we thought we would take the main road around the inner bay, through Bowmore and past the airport. Instead we took the more direct high road which bypassed everything but provided a beautiful view. Port Ellen is a working town. The islanders have fun rivalries between themselves and…
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…
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…
I thought haggis was somewhat of a joke like liver and onions. I was wrong. Haggis is on almost every menu including the full Scottish Breakfast. The core of the Scottish breakfast is protein and I assume this was the biggest meal of the day, back in the day. Sausage, Haggis and Black Pudding are…
After Bunnahabhain, we taxied to the Lockindaal Hotel in Port Charlette. All the roads on Islay are single lane with pull-outs located every so often for passing. I did not get comfortable with the left-hand side driving and we continually found ourselves looking the wrong way when crossing the street. There is no way I’d…