Edinburgh - Loch Ness

The distilleries in Scotland are divided into five regions. However, three smaller regions with more distinctive characteristics are Speyside, Campbeltown and Islay. Highland and Lowland are rather general geographic areas and there are not many representative characteristics. I used to think that all Scotch whiskys are smoky (band-aidy), but I found the most smoky ones were made in Islay region (and Campbeltown whisky is smoky also), so these weren't my top choice of destinations (in addition, they're very inconvenient locations to visit...). Instead, I found that the Speyside region has the highest concentration of distilleries in Scotland. Although the distilleries in this region use peat to create smokiness, it's at a much lower level than ones made in Islay. Besides, the pioneer of Japanese whisky studied at a distillery in Speyside, first. So, I decided I should focus on Speyside for this trip to Scotland.

The tour I joined today is "Loch Ness (famous lake for Nessie) and Highland Distillery." I wasn't crazy about distilleries in the Highland area. But I thought this could be a good preview for what is coming next (in Speyside).

The tour company's choice of distillery was Deanston. I had never heard of the distillery before. Because that was the first stop of the tour, we arrived around 9:00 am and started the tour of their production facility. Unfortunately, there wasn't any actual production going on, since it was Sunday.

Although there are many types of Scotch whisky, such as single malt, blended malt (blend of two or more single malts), blended grain (two or more different grains, usually wheat or corn), in general single malt is considered as the highest quality among these. This is like single varietal wine versus blended wine. Although single varietal wine is considered as better than blended in the US, blended wine is more common in Europe (rather region-specific). I'm sure it's more cost effective for the whisky makers to produce blended whisky in order to provide consistent quality. However, I prefer single malt in order to highlight each whisky maker's expertise (not the blender's technique). I'll be focusing more on single malt in this trip.


Here are some beautiful pot stills. In Scotland, double distillation is common.

Most single malt whisky is sold at different age levels, such as 12yr, 15yr, 21yr, etc. I thought that these are the same whisky and that the only difference was how long the whisky was aged in the casks. It is, in fact, not only a difference in the number of years the whisky is aged, but also a difference in the choice of casks. Traditionally, sherry or port casks are used to develop the flavor but American bourbon casks are another option also. It seems higher-graded whisky (longer aged) is aged in sherry casks and the other (shorter aged) is often aged in bourbon casks. Distilleries use the same casks several times (up to 3 times in many cases), but the first use will transfer the most flavor from the previous product in the casks (such as sherry, port and bourbon).

After the tour, they provided two versions of 12-year single malt tastings, the right is regular 12yr and the left is also 12yr but aged in new casks (first time used). We completed the tour at 10 minutes before 10:00. However, we had to wait until 10:00 for the tasting, because it is prohibited to serve whisky at distilleries before 10 AM by law.

Obviously the left had more complex flavor. As I expected from whiskies from the Highlands, I didn't find any smokiness. I'm not sure if they used peat at all. Very clean finish and easy to drink.

That was a very good introductory course in Scotch whisky.

After visiting the distillery, we moved on to Loch Ness. Unfortunately, I didn't see Nessie, though....





We got back to Edinburgh pretty late, so I went to a restaurant near the tour drop-off location, called Indigo Yard, a very hip restaurant with a mostly young crowd. The service in Scotland in general is pretty slow. But this restaurant was even slower.... plus the waiter didn't bring the right beer. This is Franciscan Well, a brewer in Ireland. I'm going to Ireland after Scotland but wanted to have Scottish beer, though... This IPA is pretty light despite the color. Like the IPA I had last night, it's less hoppy than I usually have. I guess this is more the standard level of European hoppiness.

Since the starters looked more interesting, I ordered a few dishes. I wanted to have Scottish eggs but they were out..... So, the first dish is a chicken and chorizo terrine. The terrine is made with small chunks of chicken rather than chicken pate. Some terrines smells like cat food, but this one had a very fresh smell.

This is crab and crayfish macaroni. I was expecting something like mac 'n cheese. But the white sauce is much more soupy. Still, the flavor and seasoning were excellent.

Steamed mussels in garlic cream sauce with beer, shallot and mustard. Too much liquid at the bottom and I didn't taste anything but cream. I wonder if they forgot to add the other ingredients....

This is the entree pork dish, spit-roasted porchetta pig. The pork skin was rendered well but very tough (rather than crispy). Like the chicken I had last night, the meat was pretty dry. Probably, it's the Scottish style to cook meat well?? The au jus that came on the side was very tasty. I was happy with the seasoning at this restaurant overall.

Although the service was a bit questionable, the food was pretty good.


Tomorrow is the highlight of this trip. I'm going to the Speyside region to visit 3 distilleries and then go to the Brewdog brewery, which is a leading craft beer in Europe (maybe not "craft" beer anymore because they are pretty big now). Got to get up really early to catch the 5:30am train to Aberdeen...