Aberlour Distillery

High Street, Aberlour

History: The original Aberlour distillery, also located by the Spey river, was established around 1826. The current distillery was the creation of entrepreneur James Fleming, who built it in 1879 using water from St Drostan’s Well, which is situated on the site. In 1898 it had to be rebuilt after a fire devastated the distillery. During the Second World War, when the distillery was working on limited production, locals used to smuggle wash up the Aberlour burn and distil illicitly under the Linn Falls. The distillery became part of Campbell Distillers in 1945, passing onto global drinks company Pernod Ricard in 1974, the year after it had been expanded from two to four stills and wholly modernised internally to increase the output. Its ownership means the brand has a strong and loyal following in France.

The whisky: The range is a big one, with many different variations on ex-sherry and ex-Bourbon cask-matured whiskies. Whisky geeks love the small batch range, 100 per cent sherry-matured, cask-strength variant A’Bunadh, which has run since 2000. Aberlour was also one of the first distilleries to offer a "bottle your own" whisky to visitors, which is now seen at many of Scotland’s distilleries.

Favourite tipple: It has to be the 16-year-old for me: spicy, fruity and matured in a combination of sherry butts and first-fill bourbon casks. Jim Murray scored it 94.5/100 in his 2015 Whisky Bible, describing it as "a malt of unbridled magnificence".

Why visit? If you were to get someone who had never been on a whisky tour to imagine what they think a Scottish distillery would be like, then this place would come very close: a postcard-perfect distillery set in beautiful scenery. The tours are also great value for money. The Aberlour Experience tour includes a nosing and tasting of five of their finest malts straight of the still. There's also the opportunity to fill and purchase your own, personalised, bottle of the single cask selection, which is exclusive to visitors on the distillery tour. Your visit is expertly curated by knowledgeable guides, who will talk you through the distillery's history and production methods. It takes approximately an hour and a half and costs £12. The Founders Tour is an in-depth, tutored nosing and tasting of four Aberlour expressions, paired with handmade Scottish chocolates, a specialist nosing of "new spirit" cuts, exclusive sampling of whisky drawn from the cask and the opportunity to fill and purchase your own, personalised, bottle of the single cask selection. The tour takes around two and a half hours and costs £30.

Geek alert: Aberlour is made in the whisky region named Speyside. The region takes its name from the River Spey, which runs through the area. This relatively small location is home to more than 50 of Scotland's single malt distilleries – and in some places, these are almost sitting on top of each other. There is a big debate among the whisky companies about the area and which whisky and isn't a Speyside or a Highland single malt. This led to the Speyside region being defined in The Scotch Whisky Regulations in 2009. Under the new regulations, distilleries including Glendronach, Ardmore, Tomatin, Macduff, anCnoc and Royal Brackla, previously considered by many to be Speyside distilleries, became officially classed as Highland.

Interesting fact – The name "Aberlour" is Gaelic for "the mouth of the babbling brook". This refers to Saint Drostan's Well, the local spring which is seen on the labels of many of their bottles.

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