WHISKY ADVENTURES
The trip of a lifetime
In October 2024, SMWS America embarked on our inaugural tour for members in Scotland. The 13 members who gathered on that beautiful autumn afternoon in the lobby of The Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh were brimming with excitement for the week ahead. The only people (possibly) more excited for the tour than the members were me and my fellow hosts – Charles Grabitzky and Holly Seidewand of Rascal + Thorn Gastronomic Experiences. This had been a trip in the making for a few years and we finally got to share it with our Society members!
The group was just wonderful. From California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York, each member brought their unique expertise, insight and enthusiasm to the tour and played off of one another brilliantly. As we explored the Society’s spiritual home in Edinburgh and the many distilleries of Speyside, we all learned more about the whisky we love, the people who make it and this wonderful country that is the centre of the single malt universe
ABOVE: Whisky expert Charlie MacLean led the group through a tasting of five single cask whiskies at our Queen Street Members’ Room
SATURDAY, 5 OCTOBER
Away we go! After meeting in the lobby of The Scotsman Hotel and posing for our first of many group pictures, we make our way to 28 Queen Street. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s townhouse Members’ Room is where we’re greeted by the world’s leading Scotch whisky expert and Scottish national treasure, Charlie MacLean. With all the tasting we will do in the coming days, what better way to prepare than by having a tasting and whisky dinner with one of the Society’s original Tasting Panel chairs?
Over the next two hours, Charlie leads our group through five single cask whiskies, teaching us how to nose and taste for assessment, while providing many a colourful story from his career in whisky. With our palates primed for the week, we sit down to an expertly paired whisky dinner at Queen Street. The Michelin-styled dishes and staff expertise are a luxurious way to kick off the week.
SUNDAY, 6 OCTOBER
We’re hitting two of the working distilleries in Edinburgh today – Holyrood and Port of Leith. First to Holyrood where we get a lovely tour from Thaïs and learn about the experimental approach that allows the team to play with types of malt and yeast to create some beautiful whisky. Tasting the different new-makes was eye-opening and their bar experience was really fun.
From there, we head to Mother India Café for Indian food before making our way to Port of Leith distillery. This is a wild place, being the first entirely vertical distillery built in Scotland. Overlooking the Royal Yacht Britannia and North Sea, its bar is itself a major destination. We’ll have to wait for their whisky but it’s worth a trip to see what’s happening in the booming area of Leith.
A 10-minute walk from there brings you to the spiritual home of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society – The Vaults. For any Society member living outside the UK, this is THE destination. As we arrive, an ever spry and spirited Pip Hills greets us at the door. Pip Hills, for those who don’t know, found this building and founded the Society over 40 years ago, becoming Member #001. He is the reason we’re all together today and what a perfect way to celebrate our club’s origins, hearing the origin story from the man himself! The first story out of his mouth regards the second-most famous cannibal in Scotland (just to give you an idea of the evening we were in for!) but finally makes its way to how this whole thing started. Pip is a masterful storyteller and happens to love Americans, so it all works out very well for us. A delicious dinner and another set of expertly paired whiskies at The Vaults are the backdrop to our night with Pip. Tomorrow…. Speyside!
MONDAY, 7 OCTOBER
Our friends from Copper Cairn Whisky Tours, Mitch and Jo, are waiting with our chariots bright and early for the trek to Speyside. On the way, we hit up one of only three Highland distilleries we’ll visit this week. Aberfeldy Distillery. It’s the home of the Dewar’s Experience, and we are hosted by the affable Mike McGinty. As we inspect the artifacts of John Dewar’s original office as well as the distillery, you start to feel the history of this trade in a much more tangible way.
We make our way farther north into Speyside and the heart of Cairngorms National Park for our second distillery of the day – The Cairn. This is Gordon & MacPhail’s recent distillery with stunning views of the surrounding landscape and a modern distillery that closely resembles a spaceship in some places. It could literally be run entirely by one person at a command centre. We think we might see a futuristic robot appear as stillman but no such luck. What we do see is a peek into the bright future of this distillery. The new-make is fantastic and we cannot wait to try some of the finished product – we just have to wait another 10 years or so! After a nice dinner and sips of 70-year-old single malt (!) at The Cairn, we make it to our base of operations for the next five days, The Dowans Hotel in Aberlour.
TUESDAY, 8 OCTOBER
Today we get to go where very few tourists ever do, to visit a malting facility; thanks to Holly’s connections, the group has very special access to Boortmalt’s facility in Buckie. The sheer scale is breathtaking, and we learn quite a bit about the relationships between local farmers and maltsters. Very few distilleries do their own maltings, so it is highly insightful to see how the barley is prepared for the distillation process.
From here, we travel to the picturesque Glenglassaugh distillery, in the coastal village of Portsoy. Our wonderful host, Emma, escorts us down to the beach where we all enjoy a dram of their Sandend bottling, which won Whisky Advocate’s Whisky of the Year 2023, as we take in the breathtaking views of the picture-perfect fishing village of Sandend, this bottling’s inspiration. The sea air manifests itself in that whisky and a tangible sense of place is felt. Some very impressive malts are produced here, and we hope to see more for Society members. Bring back Distillery 21! After a lunch of local seafood, we head to the most photographed distillery in Scotland – Strathisla. This is indeed an absolutely beautiful distillery, dating back to 1786. We are treated to a hands-on blending session of the core single malts and grain whiskies of Chivas and a wonderful tour by Karen. Her wit is eclipsed only by her passion, and we have a lovely afternoon in Keith.
ABOVE: The tour group enjoyed special access to Boortmalt’s facility in Buckie to learn more about the malting process
PICTURED: Touring the still room at Blair Athol distillery in Perthshire
ABOVE: Preston and the group prepare for a blending session at Strathisla distillery
WEDNESDAY, 9 OCTOBER
Our jam-packed day starts at the Speyside Cooperage with an in-depth look at barrel making and the importance of ‘acorn to glass’. Coopers are highly trained craftsmen who are responsible for making and repairing the casks that mature our precious whisky. Getting to see how this process works is enlightening, and getting to see ‘Crazy Pete’ work at non-stop breakneck speed for our entire visit is the real treat!
Next, we’re off to another incredible distillery in the heart of Speyside. Craigellachie does not offer public tours, so we have Charles and Holly to thank for this unique opportunity. Known for its meaty spirit and quirky age statements, Craigellachie crafts very compelling malts. These are the first worm tubs we get to see, which is very exciting for many of us on the tour. Worm tubs help to create a more robust spirit by limiting the copper ‘conversation’ and retaining heavier, more sulphury, elements of the distillate. Global brand ambassador Matt Cordiner gives us a great show and treats us to some very nice drams, indeed!
Next, we head to a standard in the village of Craigellachie, The Highlander Inn. Our host and owner, Tatsuya Minagawa, treats us to a lovely lunch and we all have a dram of his own 43-year-old blended Scotch whisky Oishii Wisukii. Not to outdo that delicious whisky, but we also have our first formal taste of Scotland’s own Irn-Bru sparkling beverage. Both are impressive, in very different ways!
After a dram on the Craigellachie Bridge, we are off to BenRiach Distillery to reunite with our friend Emma (from Glenglassaugh). The Society’s 40th Anniversary bottling was from this distillery, and for good reason. The whisky is just spectacular. The truly masterful master blender Rachel Barrie has elevated this group of distilleries to a new level and I’m really excited to have wonderful bottlings from this distillery to share with our members. The day isn’t over as we head to Elgin for a private retail experience with Russell at Gordon & MacPhail. He opens gorgeous single casks of Speyside classics as we peruse the shop and salivate before heading to a Benromach dinner in town. That dinner is a special one as our California couple celebrate their wedding anniversary and we are all in VERY high spirits!
THURSDAY, 10 OCTOBER
Wednesday is a hard act to follow but Tomatin Distillery gets our day off to a proper start. This is the second Highland distillery (just over the western border of Speyside) we will visit, and our guide, Libby-Jo, is one of an entire family that has lived and worked on the property for generations. You start to notice this generational loyalty at the smaller distilleries and it makes the drams taste even better. Not that Tomatin needs help. This is tremendous malt, whether you’re sipping the unpeated or peated version. Society members get the pleasure of both styles!
From here we go to the heart of the Spey valley and Ballindalloch distillery. Mind you, we are only supposed to go for lunch, but Fraser from Copper Cairn happens to have worked at the distillery for a time. Next thing we know, we’re hanging with one of the ‘old boys’ named Davey and getting insights into 38 years of distillation know-how. That’s just the type of tour it was.
We now leave Ballindalloch distillery, one of the smallest in Scotland and head to The Glenlivet, easily one of the largest. It puts on an impressive show, but there is a wee bit of heart missing in the operation after you come from Tomatin and Ballindalloch. Regardless, the whisky is best-selling in the US for a reason, and that’s outstanding quality every time. We conclude at The Craigellachie Lodge for a dram in front of the fire and some exceptional wood oven-fired pizzas (and I’m a New Yorker who’s eaten way too much pizza!).
FRIDAY, 11 OCTOBER
Our last full day on Speyside starts with a bang at one of my favourite distilleries, Speyburn. Our guide is Alec, a third-generation manager who, as a 10-year-old boy, built a skateboarding park in the malting house he would show us later in the tour. Another ‘old boy’ who offers so much historical and technical insight into how things were run 30-40 years ago and what’s different, and the same, today.
There aren’t enough marketing materials in the world to substitute for that kind of context when you’re learning about something as complex as whisky production. And the malts are big and bold, offering equal measures of muscle and elegance.
After lunch, we head to the distillery that started it all for the Society, Glenfarclas. By now, the group has seen so many mills and stills and mash tuns and washbacks that you’d think they’d be bored. But not here. There is something about Glenfarclas that is just SPECIAL.
Our retired police officer guide, Julia, has her hands full with a group that has now fully bonded over drams and tours and van rides and dinners. She is wonderful and treats us to a special distillery-only dram a few days before release.
If you haven’t been to Glenfarclas, get there soon. It should be as important to Society members as The Vaults. After drinks at the monumentally magnificent Macallan distillery, we go back to the hotel for one last dinner in Speyside together before heading back to Edinburgh.
ABOVE: Even the clouds cannot hide the architectural beauty of one of Scotland’s most picturesque distilleries
ABOVE: Distiller Davey Norquoy (l) and CopperCairn’s Fraser Campbell (r) at Ballindalloch distillery
SATURDAY, 12 OCTOBER
Our ride back includes a stop at Blair Athol distillery in Pitlochry, our third Highland distillery on this trip. It offers delicious sherry cask-matured malts for our Society members to indulge in, as well as one of the most beautiful grounds I’ve ever seen. I’m very excited to taste (and buy) an ex-bourbon expression that is available at the distillery only and unlike any other Blair Athol I’ve had. Come see me in Brooklyn and I’ll pour you a dram.
Our tour ends at the most appropriate place it could, at least for the inaugural SMWS America tour, at The Vaults. Our special guest tonight got his start at The Vaults many moons ago and was our cask buyer for a long time. Arthur Motley has been the managing director of Royal Mile Whisky for many years now and co-hosted a wonderful YouTube channel entitled The Liquid Antiquarian with Dave Broom. If you haven’t seen the channel, go now! Arthur brings several casks he purchased and a treasure trove of whisky history, from old Society brochures to a Pattison’s Brothers jug and much more, as he gives the best presentation of the history of Scotch I may have ever heard. Arthur masterfully reverse engineers the tale, starting with today and the foreseeable future before traveling back in time, along with his stunning visual aids, to the origins of uisge beatha. It is phenomenal and the whiskies didn’t suck either. One more expertly paired dinner at The Vaults and we are off to the local bars to catch some authentic Scottish music before our far-too-early flights the next day.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Alec from Speyburn was telling us a story about his first days on the job and getting to taste one of the rarest whiskies he’d ever encountered. His mentor told him: “Aye, the whisky is only as good as the people you share it with.” The whisky that week in October was some of the best I’ve had in my life! What a tour and what a wonderful group of people to share it with.
My heartfelt thanks go out to Charles and Holly at Rascal + Thorn for making this all happen, to the teams at our SMWS venues who make it look so easy, to Mitch, Jo and Fraser at Copper Cairn for not only driving us hundreds of miles but enriching the experience beyond compare, and to all the wonderful hosts throughout Scotland’s whisky landscape who opened their doors to a bunch of rowdy Americans.
Finally, to the 13 members who took the leap and rocked 14 distilleries in eight days, thank you for making this such a memorable trip. I am proud to be your pilot! On to Islay….
ABOVE: Raising a glass on the Craigellachie Bridge over the River Spey in the heart of Speyside whisky country