Bill and Laurie's European Invasion

Whisky and air travel

4/19/2018

Originally published 12 March 2012

Barrel House, Edradour Distillery, Pitlochery, Scotland

Today, we toured the Edradour Distillery in Pitlochery. This is the smallest distillery in Scotland, but after today, it's my favorite. And I don't even drink scottish whisky!

Laurie in whisky heaven

We arrived and parked our car, and met a forklift with a cask of whisky coming down the lane. Turns out that today and tomorrow are the two days when they fill the casks. And we also found out that where whisky making is concerned at this distillery, it is all done by TWO guys!!!! They do everything, mashing, distilling, filling casks, etc. Talisker, which we visited yesterday, produces 20,000 liters a day. This distillery produced 100,000 liters A YEAR.

Our entire tour group. With Theona, our guide in the center

Barrels from Jack Daniels in Tennessee....a bit of home

There are only twenty total employees, which included truck drivers, office personnel, bottlers, tour guides, everyone that works there. The entire distilling process took place in one building the size of my race shop....and as I said before.....by two guys. We were taken all over including barrel storage.

The stills where ALL the Edradour in the world comes from

It is amazing the differences in whiskey based on what kind of barrel they use. It was really fascinating! And Theona was a wonderful guide. Very engaging and very knowledgeable. If you see only one distillery, make it this one. If you're seeing more than one, make this one of them. It's one of the last independent distilleries in Scotland. What a wonderful treat to visit it! And Laurie loved their whisky. She only regrets that we can't carry all that whisky around with us....or she would have bought a bunch.

This small building houses the stills

We left Pitlochery and headed toward Edinburgh. We returned the rental car and checked in for our Easyjet flight. This is twice we've flown with them over here and they are my new favorite airline. On time, well run, and cheap cheap cheap. We arrived Amsterdam and checked into our hotel. Hotels in Amsterdam are quite expensive....so we decided on Easyhotel again. The room we have here is 3 times the size of our London room. It's still small but very workable. And it's 49 euros a night!