A few years ago we were on a friends boat and traveled from Scotland to Ireland. Our first stop, which as just an overnight stay on the anchor was in a wee, small, itty bitty harbor on an island. We did not step foot on land but I found out later we were 1/4 mile from a distillery. Course there are many islands in Scotland making Scotch. Our next stop was in Campelltown which now has three distilleries. We visited two of the distilleries and were told there used to be 30ish distilleries in town. I asked how many illegal distilleries were there? :laughing::laughing::laughing: The manager laughed and said too many to count.
I asked where the heck they got all of the water for that many distilleries and he said it was a problem. The town had one lake/lough but the distilleries were using all of the water so they had to build another to supply drinking water to the town. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
The first Scotch we had was a Springbank when we had lunch. I figured it would not be good but it was VERY good. Even the wife liked it. We moseyed over to the distillery and did the samples. The wife does not drink so it was just me. They samples were given in what looked like a dining room on the second floor. They poured the samples from bottles that were filled from casks in the main room on the first floor. There were 5 or so whiskeys which were all good but I really liked the Springbank and the Hazelburn. The Hazelburn is supposed to be a ladies Scotch according the manager and some American woman got ticked off about the idea of a certain Scotch would be liked more by women than men and she was very negative on Trip Advisor.
The manager had just told this story and my wife came intot he room and wanted to try some of the Scotch. She tried the Springbank again and then the Hazelburn. She loved the Hazelburn. :laughing::laughing::laughing: The manager and I were laughing or a...ses of and we had to tell the wife why. She was ticked off that they got a bad review on Trip adviser.
We bought some Springbank and Hazelburn.
The next day we went to the Glen Scotia distillery down the road. The distillery has been in business for a gazzilion years, is in a gorgeous complex built of stone, and an elementary school is across the road. Can't imagine that in the US. It was too early in the morning to drink, and we had to hurry since we were leaving on the tide, so no sample drinking. We just bought a two $100 bottles of the good stuff, one for us and one as a gift for our friend who owned the boat.
It really is good but we only drink it now and then since we can't easily get this stuff in the US.
This summer we went back to Ireland and visited the Teeling distillery which is the first distillery built in Dublin in over a century. Teeling's is just a short distance from Guiness and is an area of Dublin called the Liberties, supposedly because you were at liberty to do what you wanted. It was outside the city wall and considered lawless at some level. The same area had the city water supply, shipping canal, and fresh water port for the canal boats. Part of the east west tram line runs on part of the filled in canal. The street layout is still setup around what used to be the canal and port. Anywho, Teeling's was pretty good. We did not make it over to Jameson's but at the sampling we met a German couple who did go over there and enjoyed it. Long story for another time with the Germans.
This part of Dublin used to have quite a few distilleries but they all went out of business due to the bad economy after the Irish Republic freed itself from the UK, the depression and then US Prohibition put the nail in the coffin for the distilleries.
Another interesting tid bit of history was that there was a fire that flooded the streets with flaming whiskey that was eventually put with the soil, gravel and manure, :laughing: But not before people scooped up and drank lots of free whiskey in the streets. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
One of our plans was to get a supply of Hazelburn and Springbank as well as anything else we found we liked. The problem was we did not have room in our suit cases and the cost to ship back to the US was half as much as the Scotch so we did not bring any back home. :thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:
We have found a peaty Scotch in the ABC store that we like. :licking: Surprised the wife likes it but she does.
Later,
Dan
