Distillery experiences.

@Peatpete In the US there is a marvelous program called the Kentucky Bourbon Trail that includes tours and tastings at distilleries. My wife and I have enjoyed visiting Wild Turkey, Maker's Mark, Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, and Buffalo Trace. (These distilleries are responsible for dozens of distinctive bourbons with different mashbills, age in the oak, and final ABV.) The tours were all informative. Guides were both knowledgeable and personable. One of the most impressive aspects of the tours was the chance to see--and smell--huge fermenting vats with product at various stages of development. At Wild Turkey, for example, our guide invited us to dip our hands into the fermenters and taste the difference. (Not to worry. No sanitary problem. All of it gets distilled twice before heading off for a nice long sleep in the oak.) At Buffalo Trace, we tasted the "White Dog"--distillate that has spent no time at all in barrels. You get the taste (pretty rough) of corn and rye without any of the vanilla or caramel and more subtle nuances that years in oak will impart. One of the more interesting bits of trivia: The warehousemen who load the barrel into the ricks have to know exactly how many revolutions the barrel will roll to reach its assigned place so that the bung ends up on top. The angels' share is big enough without letting even more of that nectar leak out on the floor. As the result of the tours and tastings, we are now open to a much broader spectrum of spirits. Biggest surprise was Four Roses. During my misspent youth, FR was simply horrible stuff. At the tasting, we were pleased to find the standard yellow lable in now quite acceptable. The small batch and single barrel versions are far, far better than merely acceptable. I would encourage connosrs to take advantage of the Bourbon Trail. It is well worth the time and the cost is zero.

While in Scotland last September, I also visited Glenturret (Famous Grouse), Edradour, Glen Moray, Benromach, and Glenlivet. I must say that the reception at all distilleries was quite friendly. Even at the Glenlivet - where we toured the new facilities and were unfortunately not allowed to make any photos - while being such a massive place, we still got individual attention and tasted three whiskies. Edradour was the least 'friendly', if I may say so. But we never got the feeling that we were not welcome. But the visit at Auchentoshan was out of this world (but that has a lot to do with the fact that we visited behind closed doors, doing research for a book I'm writing and the fact that I'm A Toshan Man, of course).

I have only ever been on one distillery tour, and that was at the (extremely) obscure Hellyers Road distillery in Tasmania, Australia. Unfortuantly it is a very new distillery, so you didn't get that great feeling of history, and when they designed the distillery they very obviously did it with guided tours in mind. This means that you spent the whole time on nice, carpeted walkways and viewing platforms kept very much seperated from the actual distillery workings... This made for an educational but not very emotive tour, and also a fast one... I think from walking in to walking out was under an hour, and you did not get a free dram. On the other hand, this was the tour that got me to taste my first peated whisky, which in turn is the reason that whisky is now both a hobby and a passion for me! My biggest ambition as far as whisky goes is to take a very, very slow lap of Islay.

I've visited two distilleries so far, and both have been different yet wonderful experiences. My first was to the St Georges Distillery in Norfolk, it's a small place out in the middle of nowhere really! I did the tour, and was impressed by the friendly and informative nature of the staff, i couldnt sample too much as i was driving but i allowed myself a nip or two of the samples at the end of the tour! Small but perfectly formed!

The second visit was at the start of this month, i was one of the lucky people to get drawn to attend the Glengoyne distillery with other Connosr members. It was a spectacular evening, the staff were brilliant, helpful and friendly, the tour was detailed and personal, and the drams we sampled were fantastic. I guess the combination of the visit along with meeting many other members made the experience that much more special.

I plan to visit a lot more in the future, due in no small part to the great time i have experienced at these two distilleries.