We were looking for a unique experience during our recent weekend trip to Scotland and found it in…read morethis unique walking tour. It turns out that Dufftown has the highest concentration of distilleries anywhere in Scotland. Michelle, the proprietor and leader of the walking tour, is fabulously knowledgeable and entertaining on the couple mile walk around town. I learned so much both about the whiskey making process, about the history of scotch, and about the area. Going into this, I had very few expectations but we enjoyed this so much! We ended up drinking more than a few wee drams along the way to keep us warm and really enjoyed all the local commentary. This is the most fantastic way to explore Dufftown - highly recommended!

We had been planning our trip from the US to Scotland for many years. We cancelled twice due to…read morethe pandemic but FINALLY got to go. Although there for a couple weeks, we wanted to plan something awesome in advance in terms of learning and tasting the fabulous whisky of the Speyside area for a couple days. After carefully researching all options, we selected Michellle and Speyside Tours. We arrived in Dufftown in the afternoon, checked into our B&B and then met up with Michelle's walking tour. It was a delightful day and a fantastic experience. Michelle has lived in Dufftown her whole life and is a wealth of knowledge! She knows EVERYTHING about whisky, the region, the people, the history and chocolate! That's right, we were on the Whisky & Chocolate Tour! Michelle selected precisely the right chocolate for each whiskey tasting. We started at her home office garage where we were issued whisky glasses tied to a lanyard that we had around our heads. We hiked through town and the beautiful countryside, taking relevant stops along the way. Michelle had a large backpack full of great whiskies and a several tins of different chocolates. We would stop in front of a distillery, and she would give us all the background while pouring tastings and serving chocolate. It was so cool! The walking tour was a group tour of about 12 of us. We weren't done with Michelle. The next day, we had booked a driving tour with her. She used her van and took the 4 of us to Speyside Cooperage where we got to see how whisky barrels are refurbished. Then we went to Cardhu Distillery where we got a professional tour from the distillery. It ended with a nice group tasting plus a cocktail. Then Michelle drove us to the River Spey where we hiked down the riverbank and had a delicious sampling of more whiskies from the area. Then we went to Glenfiddich / Balvenie and did more sampling and gift shopping. From there, Michelle cooked us a traditional Scottish lunch with amazing food (salmon, venison) and delicious desserts....PLUS - a cocktail. Following lunch, we took a digestive walk, looking for local botanicals suitable for making gin. This was so fun! We came back to Michelle's office/garage, and proceeded to distill our own personalized gin using some of our fresh botanicals! Overall, I highly recommend Michelle and Speyside Tours. We felt that it was well worth the cost. This was one of the best parts of our entire Scotland adventure!

We highly enjoyed our time at The GlenAllachie!…read more The GlenAllachie isn't one of those fancy, sprawling corporate distillers. It's smaller, more personal, and a welcome breath of fresh air after a few of the big names down the way. We found our way to the tasting room, which is apparently quite new, and delightful. My only suggestion for improvement is some sound absorption materials around. One loud guy can really take over the whole room in a place like this, and from what I've seen, there are often loud guys at places such as this. We each selected a flight for tasting, and they were expertly poured. We were given detailed info about our selections and were happy to head over to the small but well-appointed gift shop to make some purchases. Definitely make The GlenAllachie a part of your Whisky adventure in Speyside! Their Whisky is delicious and the folks there are kind and fun.

Our tour guide, Kaleigh was very friendly and informative. The tour was comprehensive and…read moreinteresting. The tasting at the end was great and it was to meet others.

Run, don't walk over to Benriach. This is a beautiful facility and the staff is so friendly! I came…read morehere on a private whisky tour and had a lovely tasting. Benriach truly makes some amazing expressions of whisky. The whisky was smooth and balanced. The tastings were priced reasonably and the staff gave wonderful notes on the available whiskys. I had tea while I was here as well which was lovely. The visitor center had a small gift shop and I was able to purchase small bottles that would fit in my suitcase. My Favorite whisky I tried was the one from 1993. These are Speyside whiskys and are not peated so they have deep fruity notes. I highly recommend stopping here if you are on a Speyside tour.

We had such a wonderful time on our tour! I think they only downside was that our tour was "early"…read moremorning (10am) and there are very limited options in the area for breakfast and going to a distillery tour on an empty stomach is not an ideal situation. However, we still enjoyed touring the property and learning about its rich history from our wonderful tour guide, I wish I could remember the young man's name as he did a great job with answering all the questions people had and still getting through everything at a nice pace. I was driving and unable to really enjoy them at the distillery but they gave me take home bottles and I enjoyed them back in our hotel room. I would definitely recommend making this one of your stops if your in the area! I can't wait to come back and enjoy them on site next time

Our first distillery stop in Scotland, and it set the bar *high*! We joined a tour and got the full…read moreGlenlivet experience--learning fun whiskey facts, admiring the pristine facility, and, of course, tasting some incredible drams. Our guide was an absolute gem--super knowledgeable with just the right amount of humor to keep things engaging. We sampled the Glenlivet 12 and 15 (both smooth and delicious) and learned that the Glenlivet 13 is a Taiwan exclusive--who knew? Our tour group was a fun mix of folks from America, Britain, and Germany, making the experience even livelier. Everything was well-organized, clean, and welcoming--definitely a fantastic way to kick off our whiskey journey. If this was just the beginning, we knew we were in for a great trip!

Our stop at Balblair the historic distillery from 1790 was exceptional. The history and seeing the…read moreprocess from start to finish was entertainingly educational. Simon, our guide made sure everyone understood his teachings and answered everyone's questions. We tasted the 12 and 15 year Scotches and were even given free Scotch glasses. It was really worth it to see a small local historic company.

We toured the distillery with Angus, and he showed us the entire distillery process, from grain to…read morebarrel, in about 90 minutes, giving us a chance to ask questions whenever we wanted. After the tour we went to the tasting room and tried the 12 yo and 15 yo whisky. It was exactly what I wanted in a tour, not too much, just enough detail and personal attention. I highly recommend a visit, approx 50 min drive north of Inverness

Means "meeting place" in Gaelic, its an interesting Highlands Single Malt brewery where you can…read morejoin tours or go for samples and flights. Interestingly, its now owned by Diageo which is known for their Johhnie Walker Blended Whiskey. The distillery is located near fresh spring water and abundant peat from the nearby bogs. It is also the highest distillery in Scotland, sitting in the mountains of the Highlands. The history dates back to the late 18th Century and though its changed owners multiple times you still get a deep sense of tradition. They have aging barrels stained black from generations of whisky sitting around as decoration. 30 Year Old: 11 quid a dram, they told me they are never going to use the specific combination of barrel, temperature, timing so this batch was very special. I finished it so much the glass looked like it was brand new when I gave it back. There's also a large giftshop with clothing, accessories, home goods, foods, and of course a multitude of different Whiskys. They also had an interesting "bottle your own" 12 year with custom label for 130 pounds.

As you embark on your journey towards the Highlands, a stop at Dalwhinnie is worthwhile. We weren't…read moresure of our timing so opted to just drop in rather than book a tour. This was a good decision as you never know how long your journey will take while traveling throughout the various parts of Scotland. They have a tasting room inside and many interesting offerings to explore. The prices may seem high at first but it's because they are pouring a lot more than the usual 25ml pour. While they have a lot of flight options, we chose to build our own with options that are only available at the distillery. Why try something you can get elsewhere. I love that they were paired with chocolate. That really set the experience a part. I wish they served smaller portions so you could try more, but it was a good experience and we appreciated the knowledgeable staff!

Ugh! I wish we would have done a tour and tasting here. We did, however go to the gift shop, since…read morethis year marks their 200 year anniversary. This place is soooo beautiful and while my husband was able to purchase a distillery exclusive bottle, that wasn't even the best part. The best part was getting to feed digestives to the highland cows. We had heard that one of the distilleries had highland cows that we could feed, but couldn't remember which one. So I was ecstatic when we saw the cows on the way into the gift shop. We checked with the friendly staff inside to make sure we were allowed to feed them and after purchasing a bottle I practically ran to car to get the digestives. The cows were kind of far out so I tosses several digestives like a frisbee toward them and I was able to lure two of them close enough to feed them. One in particular was very eager and licked his tongue out to grab the digestives. Come prepared for a beautiful tasting and bring digestives if you want to make a couple bovine friends!

Excellent whiskey tour, very informative and fun. Highly recommend taking tour with Daniel.read more

American Tourist here…read more The property is not particularly impressive in either size or scenery. The tour is cheap (6 GBP) and you can reserve easily through their website. The tour itself is pretty standard, you walk through the production area and the guide gives a explanation of the distillery process. At the end you get your choice of a dram of the standard 12 year, the distiller's edition, or the special edition distillery only single malt. At least those were the options when we were there. You can get everything done in around an hour. If you are a tourist pressed for time I would suggest visiting one of the other bigger more impressive distilleries like Macallan or Glenfiddich instead...those would be more of an "experience." Unless of course you are a big fan of Cragganmore, in which case check it out.

An excellent and highly knowledgeable tour (thank you, Carol!) featuring many of the un-modernized…read moreaspects of distilling at Cragganmore. Some places use stainless steel where they use Douglas Fir, for example, and the condensers are of an older sort. Very good to have the tasting in the Club Room rather than a shop. Recommended!

This was the first distillery my two brothers and I stopped at in Scotland. It set a very high bar…read more They offer two tours a day, at 10am and 2pm Monday-Friday. Unfortunately for us we arrived right in the middle of these two times. Fortunately for us when we went into the office Lavigne offered to do a private tasting for us for a donation to some local charities. Lavigne sat us down in the tasting room which smelled amazing. She was incredibly personable and knowledgeable. My brothers sampled five whiskies (I as the DD received three very generous vials full of the whiskies to drink later which is standard in Scotland. Not the pour size, that was unique, but the vials of liquor to go). She answered all of our questions and gave us some great info. She easily spent thirty minutes with us. She didn't stick to a stiff script and cut a lot of the crap about tasting guidelines that some other distilleries spew out. She also gave us some great advice on other distilleries to go check out. The manager came in and joined us for a few minutes just to chat. The whole tasting felt more like a conversation than an informational session. It was a great experience and we'd all gladly come back. We ended up buying a few bottles of their whiskey which was fantastic.