Firstly I would like to apologise to the readers of the Blog for inactivity ands posts of late. I could make various excuses and reason for not having updated it recently but in reality there is not one and I should be whipped with the Cat of Nine tails as punishment...........
There was a meet held with a number of the members and recent additions a few months ago where a tasting of a number of whisky took place and was very civilised until it made its way over to Johnny Foxes and then turned into chaos with club ties being misappropriated and being used like they were at some 6th form school leaving party. I would put up some pictures and give amore detailed account but some things are better being left in the past. All I will say is that it was a excellent evening and very well organised by our Dear leader who we hold in such high regard and can not thank Kim enough. THE GLENROTHES BROTHERS CASK
After having purchased a bottle of Glenrothes Malt whisky I received a invitation to tour the distillery. What was a little special about this whisky was that it was single cask releases bottled in 1976 when each cask was filed No. 2682 & No. 2685 they were placed side by side in the back of the warehouse and left to mature. They were then locally referred to in the distillery as brothers up until the time came fro them to be bottled, It was discussed how to market them and at that time there were the two brothers the Distillery manger and his brother who had worked in the industry and at Glenrothes a number of years who they were named after. A very good piece of marketing as it will appeal to all those nostalgic type out there that share a affinity with whisky and have brothers that enjoy a good dram.
So what after seemed like what was a life time of planning and trying to arrange a date that would suit the two Rusk brothers it was finally agreed on the 08/10/18 to make this trip happen. The initial plan was to get the train to Elgin so that we could visit the mecca that is "Gordon & MacPhail, the World's Leading Malt Whisky Specialist." https://www.gordonandmacphail.com/our-shop/
For any enthusiast I would highly recommending paying a visit for the sheer volume they have on offer here. There is a whisky for everyones tastes and budgets and they really do have the knowledge and experience to back up the advice on finding something that you will enjoy.
I must say that our visit was just to brief as you could spend hours alone in this establishment.So after a few samples to wet the appetite and as a reference point for returning in the near future we then proceeded to make our way to Glenrothes which is in Rothes incase you get a taxi driver who is not familiar with the Spey side region.
GLENROTHES DISTILLERY
The Distillery is in a nice setting and tucked away up a side road it is not signposted as it is not normally open to the public and does not have any visitor facilities. Fortunately it was for us we were able to have a look round and the tour was being carried out by the previous distillery manager.
The tour was very in depth and what was a little different to this one from the normal was were we were shown the old part of the distillery and its machinery that had been used previously before being shown the modern equivalent. I am sure everyone has heard about the Porteus Mills however one thing we hadn't realised was they also made other types of machinery for use in distilleries.
This was a part where we were way off the mark and were asked to estimate the age of the whisky by looking at the colouring when it was drawn from the casks. Lets just say do not judge a whisky by its colour or even smell in some cases.......
Finally to draw the tour to a end we went for the tastings, all the standard range of Glenrothes which is available and it is very much personnel preference, but my own favourite was probably 12 year old.
As a wash up meeting we headed to a lovely bar in Rothes which is the Station Hotel http://www.stationhotelspeyside.com/ and indulged in a couple of drams and talked about our experience of the day.
Saviour the moments and experiences you have in life and not the belongings.
Comments