We enjoyed our tour and tasting with Glen Grant. Learning about the process is always fascinating,…read moreand the scotch was great as well!

There are so many distilleries to choose from in the Speyside area of whiskey central belt and…read morebecause I was in the mood for something less known I choose GlenGrant. Luckily, I was not disappointed. There is plenty of car parking space and the way in is well signposted. You can also walk around the beautiful flower garden or enjoy a coffee in their coffee shop after the one hour distillery tour. As far as I know there is only one type of tour and in the end you can taste a 10 year old (sherry cask) and their major reserve (5-8 years). I paid £5 entry fee and it was money well spent. Jane our tour guide was very knowledgeable and able to answer all of our questions. We were only a small group and that's good. I think tours start every hour. The Glen Grant distillery was founded by the Grant brothers James and John (I think) and has been recently taken over by Campari. Actually, their main export market is Italy and other European, Asian and American countries and less the Uk. We were shown around the Mash and Fermentation room, the still house, warehouse and bottling area. Best is you look around yourself as I don't want to spoil the fun of exploration. Their selection is limited and most of their 5.5 million bottles are exported. They sell the Major Reserve (bourbon cask) and 10 year old (sherry cask) @ 40%. Then they have some limited editions, which were bottled for anniversary occasions like the 25yr and 30 yr olds. Not to forget the 50 year old that goes for £8000 a bottle. It's a lovely, clean, all around speyside distillery for an affordable price and well worth the visit. (it also seems that for the tasting session they don't limit you to a drum only considering that a few people in my group took far more than expected ;-) )

Glen Moray is underrated. First, they have a lovely visitor center with many different types of…read moredifferent whiskys. The gal that served us was very knowledgeable on their different whiskys and they have many different tastings you can choose from. Glen Moray is a Speyside whisky so the tasting notes were sweet with notes of vanilla, caramel, dried fruits. All the whiskys were smooth and enjoyable. This was a great place to come for a tasting and learn about their different whiskys.

My husband and I did a tasting here and really enjoyed ourselves. Ben walked us through each whisky…read moreand was very kind and friendly. Thank you for taking the time to explain and share!

Great tour of my favorite Scotch distillery. We got to learn…read moreabout the history of the distillery and the process of making their amazing Scotch. In the restaurant I got to try a 25 year old Scotch and was in heaven!

Probably one of the biggest tours of a distillery in the area. The team have been doing it for…read moreyears and they have a great story and a couple of tour experiences. If you visit during the summer months, it gets busy. In the off season, you can get a tour almost to yourself and it's well with the £10 for the tour and whisky tasting. This is generally my go to distillery tour when I'm in the area. Good tour, tasting and schedules.

There are places where locals get their share of booze and then there is Macallan. Perhaps the most…read moretouristic distillery in the entire country, as no sane Scot would pay a visit here. Overpriced, commercial scotch owned by a big conglomerate? That's a perfect place for Americans to grab a drink! With all that out of the way, it has to be said that the newly constructed distillery is a piece of art. Integrated into the hills of Craigellachie, this sustainable architecture is a wonder to behold, if you don't have a sip so scotch. The atmosphere inside is modern with very kind people working throughout. It's much more equivalent to coming into a Michelin starred restaurant than most distilleries in Scotland. Yet, the original house, pictured on every Maccallan bottle still stands on the grounds and is an architectural wonder no less than the modern building. The tastings are extremely well arranged with deep knowledge among the staff and many touring opportunities. The vault is a very cool place. The staff even went above and beyond calling our hotel to arrange some food to be ready in the room after enjoying all the drinks. While this experience is without a question crafted by a major commercial entity, it is absolutely worth the visit to Maccallan for the architecture, vast tastings and a carefully assembled team who go above and beyond.

Ok, I'll start by saying that this place is visually impressive on another level, but that's where…read morethe pros end. We arrived on a cold rainy day, and from the parking lot and it was unclear which direction to go in to get to the entrance. We figured it out, but with the weather it was not nice to be in the elements so long between the parking lot and the lobby. We were greeted by an attendant who checked us in and we had a chance to look around before our tour started. When the tour started the guests were provided a "cocktail" which was a mix of whisky and too much vermouth. Since I was driving I was giving a glass of house made peach soda, which wasn't bad. We were informed by our guide, Collum, that their video projector was down and he would have to provide the history of The Macallan the old fashioned way, by mouth. This was frustrating since the tour was supposed to be a visual marvel. This tour was the most expensive of the local options and we could have simply read the plaques instead of listening to him paraphrase. When we got to the distillery he gave the shortest talk on how whisky is made and distilled I've ever heard. Given all the money they spent on grand high ceilings and renewable energy, the small lit up table showing the stages of production was underwhelming. Nothing against Collum, he was friendly and engaging, but the whole place wreaks of pretension, and it is definitely not worth it. Save your money and take a tour somewhere else. We were given some Macallan glasses to make up for part of the tour being unavailable, but I can't say it was an even trade. I will add, that I am not a whisky drinker, but their 18 year old Colour Collection was served as part of the tasting and that was one of the better whiskies I ever gotten to sample.

Glenfiddich was one of our three stops during a Speyside whisky tour day. When we originally went…read moreto book a tour (in advance from the States), staff at the distillery informed us our particular date would not be possible as they were in an annual shutdown period when essential maintenance was taking place. We decided to go anyway to sample the goods in the Whisky Lounge since we were touring 2 other distilleries that day. (And how many times do you need to learn the same whisky-making process?) When we arrived, they informed us they WERE doing tours that day, but they were fully booked. We would have liked to tour this one as it was the one larger / bigger name distillery we were visiting, so we were bummed to hear that we may have been misinformed by their staff in advance of our trip. That having been said, we continued with our plan to taste some of their whiskies - asking for guidance from staff on what we should try that would be more difficult to get back in the states. (The same question we asked at every bar throughout Scotland.) We were given a little guidance and selected 3 drams to create our own tasting flight. We liked what we got (perhaps more so than the tastings we had at the other Speyside distilleries that day) There's a huge whisky menu to choose from, including existing flights...so it's a bit overwhelming, but ultimately we were happy we stopped in, even despite the miscommunication about the availability of tours.) Bonus - on the way out, a very friendly cat found its way to us and did its best to convince us to either stay forever or take him with us...ahh, if only it were possible.

If you only go on one distillery tour while in Speyside, this is the one to go on! You're gonna…read moreneed reservations because it fills up, but it is an in-depth tour of the distillery and their process. The warehouses are fantastic and they have a really good taste after the tour. If you just wanna go to the tasting room because you can't give them a tour, you can spend the lot of money, but you'll have an experience like no other The grounds are amazing and the Balvenie castle ruined is within walking distance and a nice place to have a picnic lunch depending on the time of year. You also walk beside barley fields. Barley that goes in the scotch that you just saw being made or being engaged.

Came to Scotland for some whisky, and GOT SOME WHISKY! haha…read more First distillery tour was scheduled at GlenDronach distillery as I very much enjoy the juice and was curious about their process as I heard it was very much hands on and smaller. Yep, just as I was told. This is a great tour if you are looking for a small place that still does things the old fashioned way and puts out good juice! Our tour guide did a great job at explaining their process and enjoyed the tastings afterwards. If visiting, keep in mind this is a bit far off the main road on a single lane road so mind others driving. In addition, keep in mind that dirver's are not allowed a tasting and will be given some take-away samples. Lastly, no much photos are allowed during the tour which kind of sucks but still very much enjoyed my visit.

a great tour and knowledgeable guide. No rush just on the tour and well explained. Followed by 5…read morevery nice and different whiskeys. Well worth the money.

Our Explorer Tour was amazing! We were with Morag, who made the tour so great and memorable. She…read morewas fully of energy, had a great voice that projected, and had a great knowledge base. It was very interesting to learn how Balvenie is unique from other distilleries and how they do things by hand (that has been automated in other places). Despite doing multiple tours prior to Balvenie, I felt like I learned a ton of new information on this tour. The 5 tastings after were well curated, interesting, and well explained by Morag. We loved it!

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.