Today was all about experiencing some quintessential Scottish culture - whiskey! We couldn't visit Scotland without seeing at least one distillery, and Glenfiddich distillery was just over an hours drive away, so we set off for a drive into the mountains. The winding roads were beautiful. The distillery itself is in the township of Dufftown, set in the hills, for reasons made clear in the tour.
It's a family owned company, and when the founders built the distillery, they also purchased 1200 acres around the source of the spring which provides the water. This means it's apparently the purest water used for whiskey anywhere in the world.
The geography of the town itself was historically important, as the locals could see inspectors coming and hide their stills, aided by local women who would hang out red washing to warn they were coming. The tour was fascinating, we saw the whole process, smelled forty year old whiskey, and I now understand why some bottles are $47000. Sort of.
There was a tasting at the end, I was ambivalent really, but because I was the driver I got to take a little bottle home. By the end, it was very dark outside, so we drove back to town for food and shopping. We had some excellent burgers made with Jimmy's rare breed cows, and I bought some gloves and a beanie. We also bought some wrapping paper, so we could wrap presents upon our return to the hotel.
Everything was fine, we were happily wrapping things up, when there was a blackout. At the time of writing it's been nearly two hours without power. We went down to reception to see what the issue is, and it's the whole area that's out. They had the fire going, so we stayed for a chat, and took a candle back with us. Luckily our room was toasty, so we should be fine for the night.
*Power went off at 9.45pm yesterday, came back at 4.10pm today, around 19 hours without power.
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