Have any of you ever been to Old Meldrum?  On the face of it, it looks like a sleepy town where people go to retire, but a couple of streets back there is a wonderful hub of excitement.  Glen Garioch distillery is sure to catch anyone by surprise.

Situated on Old Distillery Road, the distillery sits packed in amongst the residential homes of the workers and their families.  Owned by Morrison Bowmore, it is a sometimes forgotten gem beside Bowmore herself and of course the triple distilled delicacy that is Auchentoshan.  The whisky they produce though, deserves its own pedestal.  

A place of innovation and tradition, the tour at Glen Garioch is one full of stories and surprises.

Founded  by the family who would go on to discover the link between mosquitoes and malaria, and who married into the family of David Livingstone, not to mention that originally they ran a brewery on site as well, Glen Garioch has always had a buzz around the place.  

During World War II, Glen Garioch, like most distilleries stopped producing to save grain for the war effort.  It was still a busy place however as they were used as barracks for the 5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders.  Even when they were shut, there was something going on!

The thing they are most famous for, though, is their botany.  The 1970’s saw Glen Garioch begin to recycle the excess heat from their production to heat the kiln, the wash and an acre of greenhouses and polytunnels for growing peppers and tomatoes amongst other things.  Unfortunately this was stopped in 1993, but what a wonderful project.  Anything that can get us Scots eating more fruit and veg is a good thing, and if you convince the population their made in a distillery, I think you’re on to a winner!  The list of innovations, side projects and things to be proud of is almost endless.

The one thing we all forget though, is the whisky.  In a location so full of character and tradition, it is easy to lose the most important factor: the dram being produced today.  Luckily, Glen Garioch stands proud, unluckily, no one can pronounce it.  The whisky is a lovely balance of sweet, spice and floral notes, and if you’re lucky to find a bottling distilled before 1994, you will find the most beautiful wisp of smoke right at the end.  (Until 1994, Glen Garioch stood beside Ardmore on the peated mainland shelf, and just like Ardmore it’s delicate smoke was lost alongside the Islay monsters.)  So next time you see Glen Garioch on the shelves, don’t just ignore it because you can’t pronounce it (Garioch is pronounced Geerie), grab a bottle, savour it with a friend or two, and thank God you’re now protected from malaria…

BenRiach is amazing.  There I said it.  A brand criticised for it’s vast number of finishes and styles often claimed to cause confusion (by the people with one favourite and without the freedom to experiment), BenRiach has a fantastic range and array of whiskies out there, each one coming from an amazing distillery.

We showed up to BenRiach on a Saturday morning in December.  Ewan, the head warehouseman for the group had come in on his day off to show us around one of the cutest looking distilleries out there.  Next to the Behemoth that is Longmorn, BenRiach is a breathe of fresh air.

The best thing about this tour, was the tour guide.  To be shown around by a warehouseman gives you a totally different perspective on the process.  To learn about cask management, filling and logistics of warehousing is incredible.  The distillery itself is  lovely, the wash like warm Magners, and the stills shiny and ready to go.

The best part though, is the filling store.  Here is the place to taste whisky or indeed new make.  To be handed a sample from a plastic bucket gives the spirit a whole new nakedness.  Try from a fancy decanter or a mahogany box or a skull shaped bottle and your perceptions are heightened.  Try from a plastic bucket and the spirit shines for what it is.  The 20 year old we tasted that day was magical, and beside the new make we could see the importance of barrels and maturation on the whisky.

In the warehouse Ewan showed us his favourite casks and how they came to decide on their huge range.  We then headed back to his office to sample from said range.  Once again, whether on purpose or not, the spirits were given a clean slate to shine from.  The sample bottles bore no resemblance to the bottles you see on the shelves at the shops, but the product inside was identical.  We were given a spreadsheet of the whiskies on the table, and the group set about finding our favourites.  Before we set out, we did have one Whisky Adventurer unsure about the range of whiskies out there, a claim he had made in the past about other distillers.  I think he has finally embraced these ranges.  They will always all have their own merits and nuances.  What’s the difference between having 30 from one distillery compared to 30 from many distilleries? Okay, the range of flavours may not be as extreme, but there is still a huge range of flavours.  This is where BenRiach have got it right.  The difference from one PX finish to another IS noticeable, otherwise, what would be the point?

If BenRiach is causing you selection problems, my advice is to try as many as you can.  They are all highly drinkable and affordable, and I’m sure that your friends would be more than happy to join you and help you struggle through the next bottle.  If not drop me an email and I’ll come round and help!

p.s. This will be my last big post before Christmas, (there’s a Name That Distillery due out on Christmas Eve) so I’d like to thank all Whisky Adventurers for tuning in over the last 3 months.  I’m almost at 10,000 views and am humbled that so many of you have enjoyed reading about my life in the Whisky Industry so far.  2012 will see some big changes for me personally, and should see me hitting the road a lot more, so I look forward to bumping into you for a dram or two on my travels, but more about that later.  I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a Wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season whatever your beliefs (I’ll be celebrating the anniversary  of the first ever Glenfiddich Distillation on Sunday) and I’d like to wish you all a prosperous 2012. 

Glenfarclas has some unusual claims to fame.  They were the first whisky ever bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society; they are a company still run independently and still owned by the family who bought them back in 1865 and they also like to do things the old fashioned way.  

I visited Glenfarclas three weeks ago for the first time, and the most striking thing about the distillery, is it’s beauty.  There are a great many picturesque distilleries in Scotland, and this one sits quite high on my list, especially when the surrounding countryside and scenery is a blanket of white from the first snowfall of the winter.  A massive white blanket punctuated by the old granite walls and the trademark Glenfarclas red doors.  The surprising thing about the place though, is the complete lack of beauty on the inside.  Our tour guide, Robert Ransom the Sales and Marketing Director for Glenfarclas is one of the most open, knowledgeable and welcoming guides the industry offers, and he showed us exactly why Glenfarclas has picked up so many devoted followers over the last few decades, he also helped me see why the raw interior and unorthodox ways of making whisky are another couple of reasons to continue my love affair with their incredible expressions.

Internally remodelled and re-jigged in the 1960’s, the layout of the distillery changed dramatically.  Their old malting floors were replaced by the tun room and things moved towards making quality whisky efficiently.  Visiting distilleries was not a popular past time back then, and therefore fitting the stainless steel washbacks was a no-brainer as there was (and still is) no real tangible proof that they make a discernible difference. (This is a topic for another post, as the arguments could last days, I personally love a wooden washback and would love to think they had an effect, but the cynic inside believes they are more and more a tourist attraction as opposed to a drastic flavour changing factor.)

Yet there is a magic in Glenfarclas.  They have gas fired stills, run at full pelt from a Bond-villain style control panel.  Their boil balls almost obsolete as the hardcore fast flowing spirit gushes through the spirit safe.  This is one of the heaviest spirits I have ever seen produced in my years of touring distilleries.  I was visibly and audibly flabbergasted at the speed of distillation, and yet when I taste Glenfarclas, it all makes sense.

The magic of Glenfarclas is blatant in two ways.  The first is their complete and utter transparency.  They welcome people through their distillery with their cameras and shout from the rooftops about their incredibly heavy and robust spirit, more than content to let you know the unique processes which deliver it.  It may contradict the way most others are distilling, but Glenfarclas contradicts in the way that they do most things, and this contradiction works.  A massive heavy spirit is not something to shy away from, it is not just for building blends, it is a spirit that takes great effort, love and attention to get right.  

And this is down to Glenfarclas’ second magical touch: their casks.  Using a great number of Spanish Sherry Casks, Glenfarclas have found an expensive, and extremely effective way of taming their spirit. If you have a new make so rich, meaty and full from your stills, you will find it very difficult to overpower this spirit.  The way to do it, is to bring a wood policy to the table which can beat it in the ring.  The rich and dark European oak casks give the spirit loads to tangle with, and after 10 years in the cask, we get to see the great work done during maturation.  We start to detect the rich burnt toffee notes mingle with the meat and barley put on the table from the spirit.  After ten years, we are content with whisky.  After 17 we are amazed with the whisky.  After 30 years we are speechless because of the quality of the whisky and as soon as you approach 40 with Glenfarclas, you are officially off the graph.  This whisky is astounding at older ages, and I for one can’t wait until I get my mitts on the 40 for Christmas!

On my trip to Speyside the other week, I was lucky enough to bump into a gentleman called Gordon Muir.

After chatting at length about fine Whisky, fine wine and generally how to solve the worlds problems with both, he was kind enough to share his favourite Whisky tasting technique. A technique so astoundingly effective at pulling off the top notes from a glass that I just have to share it with you.

Having been to Royal Lochnagar the day previously, we decided to share a dram of the magnificent 12 year old, and after a few seconds it was immediately apparent that fresh apples were wafting from the glass. Every one of the gathered Whisky Adventurers got it and each one of us was impressed. All it took was some advice from Gordon, a professional Whisky and Wine guru. Here’s what you need to do:

First of all, you need an environment with a neutral smell, so no perfume, no food nearby, no sweaty dancefloor and no smoking for this technique to work.  Secondly grab a Glencairn glass loaded with Royal Lochnagar 12 year old Single Malt Whisky.  Hold it about four inches below your nose, swirl it and wait.  Eventually the scent of apples will hit your nose.  Superb or what?

This works with EVERY Whisky. In Macallan I find cherries, Highland Park oranges and Glenkinchie delivers lovely citrus aromas.