Brom's adventures in Scotland III

Coocoo

On Monday we all woke early, because we were going for a long drive through the Cairngorms and going for a visit at a whisky distillery. But when they left, they left me behind!! I was still at home when Mara left in the car! [oops, sorry again Brom, I guess I will have to tell today's story]

Well, as you gathered, I forgot to take Brom along and the bad thing of it was, I only found out about twenty minutes into the journey! Shame on me!!! Since it was such a long drive though, we didn't want to turn around again and get him, so we continued on our way. 

Braemar Castle

It was a beautiful journey. The Cairngorms is quite a haunting place. Not a lot of trees to block the view, the first of the purple heather was blooming and the road was quiet, even though it is a main road through the Cairngorms. We stopped off in Braemar to get a coffee (my parents need their coffee fixes at set points during the day) and something nice to go along with it. 

After coffee we contiuned on our way until we saw the signs for Glenfiddich: that was where we were going. First lunch and then a guided tour through the distillery to see how the whisky was made. 

The first thing we noticed was that it was hot, sauna hot! But we saw where the malted barley and the water were mixed. 

This was like an iceberg: most of it was underfloor!

We saw the big vats in which the yeast was added to the barley/water mixture to make alcohol. 

However, that alcohol would be absolutely undrinkable, so it needed to be distilled (twice, once in the small stills and once in the big stills). But even then it wouldn't be nice to drink at all: it needed to be put into vats to age. 

A marrying vat

At least 12 years at Glenfiddich, before the first bottles would be filled. There were a lot of storage rooms, but we only saw 2 of those. It smelled absolutely gorgeous inside, and in the end we got the chance to taste the gorgeousness of the whiskies. 

We had 4 different ones to taste. To be completely honest, I didn't taste that much difference, but they were nice anyway. My dad however, he could taste the difference and came away with a nice bottle to enjoy at home. 

On our way back home to Brom, I had decided to drive via Aberdeen, perhaps even with a little stop there. However, time was not on our side and by the time we got to Aberdeen, it was in the middle of rush hour. We only stopped at a supermarket to get some food for the evening, but no real stop to see the town. And then: home to Brom!