The Glenlivet Distillery Tour Reviews[photos]Speyside/scotland
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We joined the tour at The Glenlivet Distillery.
It’s a whisky we ourselves love and often have at bars, so we joined two tours: the regular tour and a slightly more luxurious tasting-only tour.
Here’s a look at our visit.
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目次
Features of the Distillery
Founded in 1824, the year after the spirits tax law was reformed and the era of illegal distilling came to an end.
George Smith started The Glenlivet as the first government-licensed distillery.
By the mid-19th century it was even called a byword for malt whisky, and other distilleries started calling themselves Glenlivet to ride on that fame.
So a lawsuit was filed, and after winning, the only one allowed to call itself “The Glenlivet” was The Glenlivet.
It uses only non-peated malt, and has 14 pot stills in total.
It’s the number-two selling single malt.
The father of Andrew Usher — the inventor of blended whisky — who shared the same name, began handling George Smith’s Glenlivet from the 1820s.
In the 1840s he obtained exclusive sales rights.
His son Andrew combined Glenlivet malts of different ages to create Usher’s Old Vatted Glenlivet.
With the 1860 spirits tax reform, it became possible to combine malt and grain, and Usher immediately took up the challenge and perfected today’s blended Scotch.
Getting There / Access
The Glenlivet Distillery is a bit far from the main town, and there’s no bus, so we went by taxi.
The parking lot is large, with room for plenty of cars.
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The Distillery’s Exterior
It felt like you head quite a way in from the entrance.
There’s nothing around but the distillery, so the scenery was really beautiful.
The Tours We Joined
We joined two tours.
On the regular tour, after hearing about the distillery’s history, we couldn’t take photos, but they introduced how whisky is
made with modern video production.
The stills were huge and so cool!
At the end, we got to do a tasting in a lovely setting.
In the afternoon we joined a separate tasting tour and had some rare whiskies you don’t often get to drink.
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Shop and Bar
There’s a cozy space to wait until your tour, plus an area with lots of whiskies on display.
The shop was well stocked too, of course.
My personal recommendation is the bar-cum-cafe at the very back.
We enjoyed having a coffee while waiting for the next tour, and afterward drinking whiskies we hadn’t tried yet.
Summary
As you’d expect from the first government-licensed distillery, the atmosphere was cool and the tour content was stunning.
It’s a little hard to reach by public transport, but we were able to enjoy a full day here.
Each distillery has its own character and they’re all interesting, but The Glenlivet really is one distillery you can’t leave out.