My Adventures at the Speyside Whisky Festival

@talexander, welcome home. looking forward to hearing about your trip at SoT. nice pics....

@talexander, great trip - thank you for sharing the pics on flickr - looks like you had a blast.

@talexander: looks like an wonderful experience. It also looks like I need to visit Tomintoul distillery asap

Looks like a blast my friend!!! I want you to know that my wife and I are super envious of you!! I've just friended you on Facebook.

Fantastic photos, thanks for sharing! That cooperage looks like an amazing place! I never thought to see barrel "mountains"! Very cool.

@systemdown Mountains so tough you can't climb on them! ;)

Thx a ton @talexander, just very nice pictures with comments informative and funny. I never visited Scotland, but I guess it's just beautiful. Also beside the whiskys, but visiting distilleries has to be lots of fun. Can you say something about the prices for a guided tour incl. tasting the range of the distillery?

I really like this picture: flickr.com/photos/talexander84west/…

And watch out the sheep! flickr.com/photos/talexander84west/…

:D

@Wills, I purchased the distillery tour tickets through the Festival, so the prices may not be the same - best thing would be to check the distillery websites as they will give pricing for the different levels of tours. I took the more expensive tours, which are more in-depth and have more whiskies to taste. The one distillery tour I really wanted to do but couldn't squeeze in was Aberlour.

Pretty envious over here! I need to make a trip to Scotland in the near future, your pics have sealed it.

Outstanding pictures, @talexander! Those are some of the best snaps I have seen of the distilleries and towns. I'm glad that you are such a visual, show-biz kind of guy.

You have also demonstated excellently, as have others, such as @markjedi1, that if you are willing to "walk the talk", namely, to invest the time, effort, and coin, that you will have the opportunity for some very intimate personal encounters with the people, the places, and the whisky itself. A 'Whisky Social Network' finds its fullest expression in being social with the primary participants of the whisky culture: the makers, bottlers, and sellers of the whisky at the source.

@Victor - wow, thanks! I'm actually not much of a photographer - it was gorgeous out there, the pictures pretty much took themselves...

@talexander, and...the untold story, Canadian and provincial customs...how did that go?

That's a great trip @talexander, we did it last year and your excellent pics make me want to go back...NOW. We really loved the tasting room at Glenfarclas, and the Speyside Cooperage was a highlight. Start saving now for a trip to Islay, Skye and the Orkneys. That is a whole other dimension to the whisky trail.

BTW, was that Eddi Reader singing around 4 or so pics in? If it was, and you liked her, she has a bunch of albums including a great one of the songs of Robert Burns.

Slainte Mohr!

@BlueNote, yes that is Eddi Reader, she was fantastic. She sang some of the Robbie Burns songs and they were the highlight of the set! And yes, I'm seriously considering an Islay trip for next year...

@talexander Awesome photo journal. Really gives the whole experience of a Speyside trip, not just what is in the distillery tours, but what food and lodging you can get.

I enjoyed your photos! Thanks for sharing them :) I was in Scotland touring distilleries last fall, and it was fun to see some of the same places through your lens. My photos are here (flickr.com/photos/evarees/…). I never thought to share them before!

We hope to return to Islay for Feis Ile in 2013, I think the Speyside Fest will have to get put on our wishlist as well.

@EvaRees, these are incredible pictures! Isle of Skye looks incredible...and I'm planning on an Islay trip next year. That pic with the rainbow at the Necropolis is gorgeous too. Amazing!!

@EvaRees, thanks very much for including your very nice photo montage. They give a lot of useful information.

@EvaRees Thx for sharing Eva!

@EvaRees - the photos are fantastic. My wife and I poked around the Necropolis when we were in Glasgow about 12 years ago (we were in Scotland for two weeks), and found it strangely beautiful.

@EvaRees. What time of year were you on Skye? We were there last October and it absolutely bucketed down the whole time we were there. We made it up to Talisker after a long hard drive but we really could not appreciate the spectacular scenery the way you did. After seeing your fabulous pictures I think we will give it another chance at a better time of year.