Dalwhinnie - the peak of disappointment

Leaving Srath Spè and heading south we stop for a break at the Ralia cafe. It turns out to be a wee whisky haven with several shelves of miniatures. It has quite a serious selection - everything from the usual Laphroaig, Glenfiddich to lesser seen specimens like Benriach, including their peaty ones. I opt for a mini from the defunct Dumbarton distillery, Littlemill. It turns out to be a wee honeyed joy. I find out that it rarely garnered good reviews in its hey-day. Shame as i enjoyed it and while i wasn't overwhelmed, I'd still rather that Littlemill was still with us.

However, it's onto another Diageo giant. It's a part of the country i know reasonably well. Dalwhinnie used to be a major rest-stop for many travellers on the road north or as i did, on past Loch Lagan and Creag Meagaidh towards Skye . Hell, its bleak though and now even the hotel and cafe seem to have gone the same way as Littlemill.

As to the distillery, well, there's not much you can say. Nice setting, good enough whisky but it fits very snugly into Diageo's pristine new world. We get the standard tour with little to really stimulate our interest. Dalwhinnie apparently loses less to the angel's share due the high altitude and the sub-Arctic situation of the local environment. Very good, except that most Dalwhinnie is most likely matured in the somewhat less mountainous and romantic environs of Alloa where several football pitch sized warehouses lie at Diageo's Blackgrange site.

Like it's Diageo cousin down the road in Blair Athol, visitors are allowed a safety-conscious view of one warehouse through a pane of glass. Spirits - ho-ho - are raised when a bottle of new make spirit is produced. However, it's not for tasting and only for rubbing on our hands. Are they scared of swine-flu or something?

The tour ends with a thimble sized 'dram' in the new visitor centre. All in all, the distillery and its staff were friendly and welcoming enough but everything is just too sterile and choreographed. Unfortunately, it would seem that booking onto a 'connoisseur' tour will only entitle you to sample a greater selection of Diageo brands rather than an in-depth tasting from the cask. Perhaps they have something to learn from the aforementioned GlenDronach.

I have since read though that a new manager intends to restore some independent character to Dalwhinnie. Good luck to him.

On the road - Blair Athol and Edradour

After a most satisfactory wee jaunt to Bladnoch in the depth of Lowlands, myself and interested partner head north to sample some of the highlights of the Highland whiskies. First stop is...

Pitlochry (Gaelic: Baile Choichridh). Population 2564. Average age 73.
The interested partner is actually present in a semi-professional capacity as she is scouting potential distilleries to add to whisky tours. She is looking for something different but still authentic and natural with which to impress whisky connoisseurs from the continent. Can we find this at Blair Athol? How will a distillery with a delicious malt present itself in a town of woolen mill shops that is a mecca to grey haired tourists?

Blair Athol has long been a major part of the Bells blend. This itself comes under the considerable wing of Diageo and as such raised suspicions. However, upon arriving, we find a building yard and some serious repair and maintenance work underway. It appears that Blair Athol is closed to the public until July. Never mind. We're given a brief tour of the highlights. Everything is geared towards whisky tourists. Blair Athol is not so much a working distillery as a spotless example of health and safety regulations followed to the letter.

My partner wonders if the potential whisky tasters will be shown the warehouses. Sure. We are then lead into a kind of glass tardis built inside one of the warehouses. The casks are there for viewing but are strictly hands-off.

On the plus-side, Blair Athol does cater for connoisseurs and on its 'special tour' will furnish the whisky lover with a dram of the Flora and Fauna 12yo, a 15yo cask strength and a chance to draw a dram straight from a sherry-butt that's been laid aside for the purpose. Sounds good.

The downside to Blair Athol is this:

• why keep this beautiful malt a secret? Apparently 98% of BA goes into the Bells' blend. The meagre remainder is bottled as a single malt - mostly for the Flora and Fauna expression. The F&F at 43% is superb. But even this is in short supply. We were told that at one point last year, the Blair Athol distillery had NO bottles of its own malt for sale in the shop. Other expressions seem to be running out fast and independent bottlers too are getting little or nothing.
  
• bitching. Apparently, war has been declared on nearby independently owned Edradour. It is not clear to us who was the aggressor but neither distillery did much to sell itself to us in terms of PR. Does the interested visitor want to hear their guide or barman gurning about the big/small competitor up the road? No. Keep it to yourselves. If we want whinging, we'll tune into Eastenders or put it in our blogs.

From Blair Athol, its up to the hidden glen in which Edradour resides. Here, we find a new charge of £5 for the pleasure of accessing the site!!! This is not a charge for the tour but for actually setting foot on their land, entering their well stocked bar and shop! Has Edradour gone Diageo?! The Edradour tour has been free up until a few weeks ago. And while we can understand a modest charge being made for a tour, this seems to be born of sheer greed.


We gatecrash anyway and head for the 'tasting bar'. This is a gem. A range of malts from both Edradour and the Signatory range are offered at decent prices. A peated BenRiach single cask is a mere £2. A similar single cask offering from a closed distillery such as Linlithgow, Brora or Port Ellen is £6. The downside here is the rotund and surly barman - he that apparently fired the first salvo in anger at Blair Athol down the road. 'Ceud mile failte' as it says on Pitlochry's sign? Not here. We get given a dram that we didn't order, that isn't even on the menu but funnily enough, costs more than twice the price. Not the end of world but its an aspect of our tourist market that should have died out. So, for what its worth, Edradour should:

• drop the entrance fee altogether or charge something that fits the short-lived experience you get with Scotland's smallest distillery
• give your employees higher wages and/or more free booze - whatever it takes to make them appear cheerful and welcoming. Maybe give yon dour barman his retirement and sign him up to the cast of Eastenders where he can whinge and gurn to his heart's content.

Pitlochry though has an excellent whisky shop in the form of Robertsons in Atholl Road. Friendly service from well established locals and an excellent stock of all the usual bottles as well as many interesting independent bottlings. A bottle of the superb Ileach Cask Strength at £33 - apparently a Lagavulin - was enough to restore my faith in Perthshire's hospitality.