Scotch Single Malt

Looks like I'm going to do these in five year intervals now. Yes, I finally went to Scotland again this year, and of course, I also visited a distillery. *g* This time, it was Old Pulteney.



Anyway, once I had decided which part of Scotland I wanted to visit this time, I looked into getting a distillery tour. I had booked three nights in Wick, all the way up in the North of Scotland. Wick is home to Old Pulteney, a distillery I had already heard of. I've bought their 12 y.o. before and loved it. So, I looked at their website, and then emailed them directly, because their regular tours had already stopped running at the time of year I would be traveling.

They got back to me really fast, and I had a nice exchange with Daniel, who booked me into a tour for October 6th. And who, as it turned out, would be my tour guide on that day.

I had decided on the From the Source tour, which was £40 and would be around 70 minutes, and which would give me five different single malts to taste and included a beautiful rock glass as a gift. That day, I was the only participant, which I wasn't mad about. One-on-one tours are fun! *g*

First of all, sorry for the quality of the pics, I'm still a pretty bad photographer. *g* But I'm happy I was allowed to take pictures at all. You know from my previour tour reports that not every distillery does that.

When I walked to the distillery from my B & B, I could already smell it from afar. The scent is so distinctive, so familiar, and so lovely (at least to me), and I kid you not, it brought tears to my eyes. It's been far too long since I last visited Scotland, and since I last did a distillery tour. Yeah, I got emotional about that. *g*




Daniel was a great tour guide, and he went totally off script once he realised that I already knew a lot about whisky production. We visited the usual locations, of course, but he really started going into the technical details of the process. And he was very accommodating with lots of things, like taking pictures of me, leading me into areas that aren't usually open to visitors, or even letting me turn the lever of the spirit safe. *g*



What was really interesting to me, was the water system they were using, including an outside cooler just like they do at Dalwhinnie. That's pretty rare, so Daniel was delighted that I remembered that detail and knew what he was talking about. Btw, for a small history tour of the distillery, here's a short slide show available. Anyway, the tour took closer to 90 minutes than the 70 minutes it was supposed to, and then I still got to do the tasting.



I got to taste the following: the 12 y.o., the 15 y.o. (46%), the 18 y.o. (46%), the Huddart (46%, peated), and a distillery exclusive single malt, that I really wish I had made some notes on, because I can't find it listed on the official site.

They were all fantastic, with the 18 y.o. my clear favourite. As always, I wish I could have bought a bottle to take home, but my type of travel restricts me quite a bit. That doesn't mean I didn't take home some souvenirs. I bought a box of whisky fudge (OMG, so soft and delicious!) and a black beanie with the distillery logo stitched on. This one came in handy when I did the Caithness Seacoast boat tour. *g*



The tour might have been expensive, but I got a fun experience and some great single malts to taste out of it, and I regret nothing. Would definitely recommend!