Looking Down the Fall Line » Day 4, The sun is shining on the western shore

Day 4, The sun is shining on the western shore

Tuesday, March 20th 2007
Day4

Last night we decided to revamp our trip strategy to avoid the rough weather, at least for the short term. Rather than heading back North on the morning of the 20th, we made the decision to set out west from Pitlochry with the intention of over-nighting in the costal town of Oban. After checking the weather to confirm that, despite the warming weather, the road north was still blocked, we set out for the day.

Our route would take us on some smaller highways and country roads across heart of central Scotland, into the Western Highlands. Just as we hit the road and started to get up to speed, a detour presented itself. Without thinking it through or explaining what I was doing, I guided the car into an empty early morning parking lot at the Blair Athol Distillery.

We both knew that this would be a quick visit, just enough time to look around. It wouldn’t be fair to our timeline to spend more than a few minutes here at a distillery which neither of us had much personal connection to, at least not so early in the day. Nearly all of the whisky produced at Blair Athol is bound for Bells brand blended whisky, though they do bottle a few noteworthy single malts as well. The visitor centre is nice with some interesting information on the history of whisky making in Scotland and the local area, but didn’t present anything we didn’t already know. They offer tours all day, but we weren’t in a position to wait for a little over an hour to participate. We chatted with the shopkeeper a bit, took the photo (above), and were on our way.

Within only minutes of leaving Blair Athol, the few remaining clouds had parted leaving us with a gorgeous sunny morning. After an hour or so of driving along and enjoying the turn in the weather and the now visible scenery, we came across the Aberfeldy Distillery, just to the west of the town of Aberfeldy. Now, Aberfeldy isn’t one of our favorite expressions, and like Blair Athol earlier, the vast majority (98% or so) of what they produce here is destined for blends. In this case, it serves as the base malt for Dewars brand blended whisky. We decided that this might prove a good opportunity to witness the other extreme of Scottish whisky business, after having visited the tiny Edradour the previous day.

In stark contrast to the tiny vistors greeting room at Edradour, at Aberfeldy visitors first enter the large and modern “Dewars World of Whisky”. Inside is a large shop, a tasting bar, a museum and, as we found, a 40 seat movie theatre which guests enter to watch a rah-rah go us historical film about the Dewars brand. After looking around a bit with tepid entusiasm before embarking on our tour of the distillery itself. The onsite museum is well thought out, but not terribly interesting to a non Dewars brand fanatic. It did however include a few interesting elements. Most notably in my opinion, is a large circle with a dozen or so different “smell stations”, each of which emit a different odor when activated with a button. As a whisky enthusiast, I enjoyed the opportunity to test my nose by identifying different essential aromas which one expects to find in single malt. They also had a couple of non whisky odors in there which stank to holy hell.

Once we were collected by our tour guide and headed into the operating distillery next door, I was happy to learn that unlike any other distillery we visited in Scotland, Abefeldy does allow (non-flash) photography inside their facility. I never did get a proper explanation from any of the guides we visited with why photography was not (or in this case, was) allowed in the operational buildings. My best explanation has to do with the fact that the air in these buildings actually contains a relatively high percentage of highly flammable alcohol fumes. With so many visitors each year, they don’t want to take any chances of a fire. In any case, I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass me by, I grabbed a few photos of the operation as best I could considering the low light conditions.

As expected, Aberfeldy is highly automated and is run more like a large scale factory than a small farm distillery like Edradour. The small number of workers man large computer consoles with LCD screens and keyboards rather than manually operating valves and burners. They have proudly embraced the advances that technology and transportation have brought to all aspects of the industry. Like most distilleries in Scotland today, all their barley is malted offsite and trucked in. At Aberfeldy, the casks are even trucked offsite to be matured in huge warehouses near Glasgow immediately after filling. It’s not as quaint and romantic of a view of the industry as one sees at an Edradour or Bruichladdich but when it boils down to it, this is how the vast majority of the Scottish whisky industry operates, and I’m glad to have seen it.

After leaving Aberfeldy we picked up our pace a bit as the road seemed longer than it had before our mid day stops. Another 2 and a half hours of lovely highland driving brought us past Loch Tay and along the river Tay which feeds it. As it was earlier in the morning, the weather was very favorable for a drive through the countryside and that happy we’re in scotland feeling kept a smile on our faces as the miles flew by.

It was mid afternoon by the time we first approached the west coast of Great Britain, and our destination of Oban. As we were unaware of the availability of tours of the Oban distillery, we made a beeline for the heart of the town where it’s located. Fortunately for us, the last tour of the day was just over an hour away which gave us time to walk around town a bit beforehand. The first thing that struck me about Oban after reading about it and seeing photos in the past was how large it actually is. My mental image was of a sleepy little fishing villiage which, my city standards it is, but after spending two days out in the countryside of Scotland it seemed quite large. I knew that the distillery was very centrally located in town, but it was again a bit of a surprise to see it set in such a densely populated space. It’s one of the few distilleries in Scotland where one has to find paid street parking before entering.

Inside, we were treated to a nice tour which actually presented a little more information on the barley malting firing and milling process than we had seen elsewhere. The tour guide was the same woman who we had met first upon entering the visitor’s centre, and she clearly has a passion for the distillery and it’s product. After the tour had completed and the rest of the group had headed out into the gift shop, Mrs. Fall-line and I hung back and had a very nice conversation with her and another employee. In this way, just by starting a dialogue and mentioning that we are not just casual whisky tourists, we were often able to get a little special attention and learn some interesting facts that others didn’t. In this case we were offered a generous taste of the Oban 14yr Distillers Edition which is finished in a Sherry cask for 8 months after maturing. This is something that, due to the limited capacity of the distillery is not exported out of the UK so it was a treat to enjoy a dram with them while we chatted. Of course we brought home a bottle, which I gave to my sister for her Birthday.

As the day wound down, we were happy to be where we were. An enjoyable dinner was had in a local restaurant within walking distance of the B&B we chose to settle down in for the night. The night sky was clear and despite the lights of the town, the sky was bright with stars. We took our time as we walked back to enjoy the surroundings, our bellies full of good food and excellent whisky. It was starting to really feel like vacation.

Pitlochry to Oban: