I loved my whirlwind trip to the U.K. but I was in search of something I was struggling to find -…read morewhisky I could not buy in the U.S. I wanted to bring back a few bottles for my whisky loving friends and I didn't simply want something that was cheaper than I could get at home. If that was the objective I simply could go south to Oregon to buy cheaper alcohol. No, I wanted to find something unique. And I had a hard time finding it. While my friend bought expensive bottles easily enough I wanted something I could give easily without spending an arm and a leg. Yet everywhere we went I didn't find anything until I went here. The Whisky Shop lived up to its name and provided tons of whisky. On top of that they had small barrels that offered small bottles of whisky you could only buy there. I ended up buying quite a few bottles as I determined I also wanted some for myself! Everyone there was so helpful. After seeing how much I purchased they offered to store the bag while I continued my tour of the city. They offered me samples of everything I wanted to try and they provided great suggestions. I was immensely pleased. I would highly recommend the Whisky Shop!

Friendly and knowledgeable staff with a good selection of modern and traditional Scottish Whisky. I…read moreleft with two bottles and $200 poorer with a smile on my face.

This is just another general Victoria Wine store. The shop is very well laid out in sections of…read morewine, spirits etc. The prices are what is to be expected though I usually find Tesco cheaper for spirits but they can be well priced if there is an offer on and of course they have a better selection of wine than some Tesco stores. There are only a few members of staff but they are helpful when you ask them.

I have used the Williamson Group for years and have been ordering produce from them for nearly 20…read moreyears you can but from 1 sack of potatoes to a tonne. They supply most of the restaurants, hotels and small food outlets across the Highlands. Williamson's are trade only and can supply any requirements from fresh fruit to vegetables, you can also buy cases of juice and branded crisps that you cannot normally find in the supermarket. You can call them and place an order by phone or fax, and in a day or two they will deliver your order to your door. In the years that l have used these guy's l have never had any problems and have always been reliable, would highly recommend these guys to anyone looking for a supplier to their food business.

From the owner: Williamson Foodservice is the North's leading fresh fruit and vegetable distributor and…read morefull-service wholesaler to the foodservice, catering and retail industry. A family run business for 60 years Williamson Foodservice is trusted by some of the biggest name in the food and hospitality industry with an ever-growing product range which includes, dairy, soft drinks, dry store, speciality & delicatessen. Our fleet which delivers daily is entirely temperature controlled and our expansive warehousing is modern and temperature zoned.

The service was great and the guy who served me spoke perfect English. It was fast and very well…read moreexplained on how the whole process is done. There is no food other than a couple bags of single serve snacks. The location has plenty of seating and has a large variety of offerings. I enjoyed my whisky and would definitely recommend.

Great tasting opportunity since the menu includes almost every whisky option. The staff is super…read moreknowledgeable and friendly. The even gave us complimentary whisky for tasting, chocolate and nuts. The tasting room is not over the top, bit the ambience is great. They also provide a short facility tour... is a must.

Victoria Wines, another franchise, struggles to compete with Haddows being just down the road,…read moreespecially with Haddows being just a little closer to the town centre. Despite this, it seems to do a roaring trade, and like Haddows, always has very strong offers, although Victoria Wines tends to avoid the beers offers and sticks to the Spirits and Wines. The staff are always much friendlier in Victoria Wines than they are in Haddows or Oddbins, and will often let you know about offers on similar products if you haven't noticed them.

My distillery tour and accompanying whisky tasting were enjoyable because of the…read moreup-close-and-personal tour of the inner-workings of the distillery and our superbly engaging and humorous guide Alex. We arrived after the last stated tour time, but since there was another couple with the same fate as us, they offered to do one more basic tour for the 4 of us. Alex immediately plunged us into his whisky world, with a thick but understandable Scottish accent. I haven't been to a large distillery, but from what I've heard Benromach's tours are intimate in the sense that we can walk right up to the mash containers and take whiffs of the premature spirits (it's NOT called whisky until it's finished :)), as well as smelling and even rubbing our hands with the different by-products of the whisky making process (the "head" and "tail"). One of those products had the effect of a nice hand lotion which smelled like whisky. At the end of the tour, Alex was nice enough to let us try small samples of some whisky's which weren't part of the normal tasting. I think it's because we were good tour takers :) If you aren't so lucky at tour's end, I recommend tasting the organic Benromach.

While in the Speyside region of northern Scotland, we toured a few whisky distilleries. Of all of…read morethem, my favorite was Benromach. This small distillery is a short (~30min) train ride from Inverness to the town of Forres. It is then a short walk down the road to the distillery. What I liked about this distillery was that it was a small operation. Because of this we were given a really up close tour of the facility. Our tour guide was an older Scotsman who was pretty funny and also fluent in Spanish. In addition to an overall cool feel to the distillery, the actual tour was really cool, too. Well, if you've done a tour or so, they're pretty much all the same (harvest grain, distill with famous Speyside water, and age it in a wodden barrel, etc.), but I liked this one because we got to see how the whole process works and we were able to ask lots of questions. There's a little museum area where one can see some displays related to the whisky-making process. This is the only place one is allowed to take a picture while going on the tour. Oh, and FYI--Benromach has a barrel which Prince Charles sealed a while back, and is due for a tasting. The tour was then topped off by a tasting of a couple of different Benromach whiskys. I was not a whisky drinker before going to Scotland, but I let half of my heritage kick in, grew an appreciation.