Day One: Speyside Trip (Glen Moray)
Transport
Train (x2): Edinburgh – Aberdeen (2hrs 50min), Aberdeen – Elgin (1hr 48min)
Itinerary
06:30 – 08:56: Train: (Scotrail: Aberdeen) : Edinburgh – Aberdeen
10:08 – 11:38: Train: (Scotrail: Inverness) : Aberdeen – Elgin
30 mins walk: Elgin Train Station – Glen Moray (30 mins)
13:30 – 14:30: Standard Tour
Hotel – Lachmoray Hotel (overnight)
Speyside is the whisky capital of the world, as there are more whisky distilleries per square mile in this region than anywhere else in the world. It also happens to be my favourite whisky region, with some of my favourite whiskies based in this area, which made it ideal for an overnight trip. I headed up from Edinburgh to Elgin, where I was based so that I could visit three whisky distilleries in the area, which were Glen Moray, Glen Grant and Speyburn.
Transport
It was an early start as I got the 6.30 am train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, and I booked the train in advance to get a decent fare (£15). I had an hour connection in Aberdeen, so while I waited for my next train checked out the Union Square shopping centre, which you can enter via one of the exits at the train station. There is a good selection of shops available, and upstairs there is a wide variety of food options if you get peckish. After wandering around the shops, I then connected onto my next train, which was the Inverness train, which I stayed on until I reached Elgin.
Glen Moray
My first distillery visit of the trip was Glen Moray, which is located around half an hour’s walk from the train station in Elgin. The walk was straightforward; I just took a left from the station (away from Lidl’s) and followed the road north along Wards Road. There is a good footpath most of the way, which takes you up through a residential area. You do need to turn right onto Fleurs Road after around 15 minutes and then left onto Bruceland Road. The distillery is down a hill just outside a residential area where there is also no footpath, although there is a wide grass bank you can walk along or a good road.
At the distillery
One of the first buildings at the distillery is the visitors centre on the right, the centre houses a small shop and café. The shop has a decent range of Glen Moray whisky for sale and really highlights the vast range of available cask finishes available from standard sherry to Cognac and even a peated maple finish. The café on site is also not bad for a quick bite to eat or a few drams if you wish. Although I did not have any food, I saw some people getting some cakes, and the portion sizes and quality looked pretty good. There is also a whisky menu, which has a selection of whisky flights which are pretty reasonably priced. After my tour, I ended up trying a flight of the core range flight which was £10 for three drams.
There is also a bottle your own whisky option, and I think there are usually three casks to choose from, but I only saw two options of a port finish and a smoky finish. The price did seem quite reasonable at only £60 per bottle, which is substantially less than I have seen at other distilleries.
Tour
I went on the Standard tour, which lasts for an hour, and starts just outside the visitors centre. The tour takes you through each stage of the process, and one of the interesting aspects of Glen Moray is that, despite being a Speyside whisky, they have a peated and unpeated spirit. They have two weeks each year when they produce peated spirit (similar to Balvenie, who have a week of peat), and I have to say I think this is something that is becoming more common with distilleries looking to diversify to all tastes. The highlights of the tour were the Porteus mill (which I always love to see), and also the mash tun, which was absolutely massive and gave you an indication of the scale of production which occurs at Glen Moray. They also have half a dozen spirit and wash stills, which again hints at the decent level of production going on. I also found the shape of the still quite interesting, as although all distilleries have unique-shaped stills, the ones at Glen Moray to me seemed shorter than others that I have seen and more unique. The last point of the tour is the dunnage warehouse, where inside there were examples of the vast numbers of casks that they have on offer at Glen Moray, which is how it differentiates itself from other places. I got the chance to smell some of the different cask types, which included red wine, cognac, sauternes, and madeira. The top cask for me in terms of smell was the peated Fino sherry cask, which smelled amazing!
Tasting
The tasting takes place in the visitors centre and you get to sample two expressions of Glen Moray. The first dram was finished in a cognac cask; it had no age statement, but they said it was a minimum of at least 6-8 years old. I have to say I expected it to be very sweet as that is what I have found with other wine casks which I am usually indifferent too, but although there was a sweetness on the nose it was very nice on the palate and ended up being my favourite dram of the day (even after I had an additional flight). The second dram was the Glen Moray 15, which was finished in a bourbon and sherry cask. Again, it’s very floral on the nose, and perfectly drinkable, but it did not wow me, especially for a 15-year-old.
Summary
Price: Standard Tour: £16
Drams: 2
Time: 1 hr
Overnight in Elgin
I stayed at the Laichmoray hotel overnight in Elgin, which is very close to the train station and is less than a ten-minute walk to the town centre of Elgin. The hotel was pretty nice, I was staying in a single room which had a double bed, but was very compact. The En-suite was about the size of a cupboard but had all you needed really (shower, toilet, sink). The room price was £75, which included a very good breakfast the following morning. The hotel did have a very nice whisky bar, but I decided to go into town and try some of the local establishments for a drink. I first went to the Granary opposite the TK Maxx, which is a part of the Greene King chain. It is nice inside, and was very busy, especially with food, but I found it pretty expensive. It was £6.15 for a pint of Peroni, which is about on par with prices in Edinburgh! There was also a very annoying buzzer sound that went off to alert staff when food was collected, which was pretty loud and distracting. The second bar I tried was the Victoria, which was pretty dead, but it was only £3.50 a pint, and I found a couple of locals who were friendly and good company.
