The morning started with weather straight out of Silent Hill ( Pitch black and foggy). I was definitely mulling over not going, another look at the forecast – promises of sunshine… Suited and booted and adequately caffeinated and snacks packed. Into the thick fog I cycled.
The route went north out of Edinburgh. Around 80 Miles of cycling would take me to Aberfeldy Distillery, where I was booked for their 16:00 tour. The first place of note was the Forth bridges, which gave brief respite from the mist with lovely views of dawn light to the east.
Continuing Northbound, I would ordinarily follow the National Cycle Network Route 1 before it changes to route 77 at Kinross. Looking for different scenery and a change, I took the more direct routing from Inverkeithing to Kinross. Thanks to the thick fog, I saw nothing of note the entire way to Kinross, a swing and a miss if you will. As I was approaching the town, the fog just started to lift, and the sun slowly started to break through, if only briefly.
Throughout the town of Kinross, there was a little sun on my back, but it was short-lived before breaking out of Kinross to be engulfed by the fog once again. Leaving Kinross I again deviated from the NCN option in pursuit of some new scenery, and the climb was long but just as I reached the highpoint after 650 ft of elevation gain, I could feel the sun warming my back and within a few moments of that I saw my own shadow, a glance back confirmed the sun shining bright against a lovely blue backdrop, as I crested the hill the road threaded it’s way through forests briefly before opening up into lovely farm land, ahead of me was about 15Km of undulating hills through some super rural feeling landscapes of hedgerows, live stock and rolling green hills, all this was interspersed with a couple of incredibly steep uphill’s but they only lasted a few moments a piece. The payoff for climbing through the mist was well worth it, exactly the day that was forecast, revealing itself to me at long last.
Carrying on with a decent pace, Perth was marked by a pop into a Gregg’s for water, but otherwise I abstained and headed onwards. Once again, the sun had left me, having had the blessing of the good weather earlier, made this sting even more as I knew there was a lovely day somewhere, and indeed quite close, but not for me to enjoy. There were points where I was certainly questioning my choice to cycle; some sun would have put those feelings to rest, but the miles were unrelentingly cold and grim.
At dunked I treated myself to a coffee and in the few moments I was inside getting this the sun appeared as if out from no where, I perched up to ‘enjoy’ and I certainly did, accompanied by a sausage sandwich and chased with a ‘Racer’ bar from Aldi I was well on my way, again straying from NCN, taking an unnamed road to the east of the A9. It traced the hillside and occasionally joined a small cycle lane adjoining the A9; it was a lovely well well-paved road and was a nice change from my normal route, and I also suspected it had considerably fewer leaves on it than the NCN would have provided me with, which does wonders for the confidence on the bike.
Arriving at Aberfeldy distillery – the Home of Dewar’s, I locked up my bike at the designated bike rack just opposite the visitor centre. Always nice when it’s in sight of the front door, as at least for me it feels like it wards off any Wrongdoers, or wrong-Dewar’s if you will.
The welcome I received was fantastically warm from the entire team. Having arrived very early, I ordered a little coffee to enjoy before the tour. While having a peruse of the dram list, there were a few drams In particular that caught my eye, ‘Double Double’ I was drinking a black coffee at the time but my mind instantly cast away to my time in Canada where in a ‘Double Double’ was the term used to describe a coffee with two cream and two sugar, though I love an Irish cream I suspected this was something a little more involved than that. I made a mental note and would press my guide for an answer later on the tour.
I won’t ruin the tour, but I will say it’s worth while, a really affordable price, in a lovely setting, with an option to upgrade with an additional dram and a Glencairn glass. I really love the way that it allows the standard tour to run at the lower price point for more to enjoy but have an option of adding an additional dram. The thing I most enjoyed about the tour was how well they married together the idea of a single malt distillery and blended whisky in a really seamless way. The spotlight they put on their master blender, Stephanie Macleod, was also admirable. A really inspiring individual who has worked at Aberfeldy for as long as I’ve been alive, and over those years has been awarded Master Blender of the year six times.
Having had our introduction to Stephanie it was time for us to all make our own minds up about the quality of her work in the tasting room, the tasting started with a dram of Aberfedy 12 and a second dram of your choice, via the interactive quiz it recommended I try the 18 year old blend – but with my mind thinking back to all those Double Doubles in canada I suspected this was the right time time ask more questions about this Double Double.
It got its name from the method used it mature it, A.J. Cameron (the first master blender at Dewar’s) pioneered double maturation in 1881, where he’d take aged spirits of malt and grain, blend them, then age them together as a blend, and this is where they say the magic for their smooth spirit comes from.
In 1901, after a 20 further years of experimenting, he developed the double double method, maturing malt and grain spirits. Blending the malts and Grains separately, ageing them in parallel, before then bringing them together as one and once again, allowing it to age and mature in a final cask. And for us today, the Double Double of choice as the 21 year old, finished in an Oloroso cask. Bloody hell, it was fantastic,
yet to write up my full tasting notes as it’s still in its to-go bottle. I’m firmly a convert to the Double Double method. I’d love to try a vertical tasting of it, they have a fantastic dram bar where samples are available at honestly insanely good prices for the 21 and 27, unfortunately, a bit of a jump for the 36.
As a distillery, Aberfeldy finds great balance and a natural way to speak to both single malt and blends. As a destination to reach by bike, it’s fantastic, a short jaunt from either Dunkeld or Pitlochry, or if further afield, from Callander / Killin if you’re keen on more miles. I’ve heard some great things about the food offerings in Aberfeldy. I’m certainly keen to return for another visit with some more pocket money to try the 36 if it doesn’t arrive in the wedding gifts pile (Hint, Hint 😉 )
Gregor