Four weeks on the road: halfway into our trip. We are officially heading home now; every mole we drive and town we visit puts us closer home, than away.
Everybody here is Wimbledon Crazy. Andy Murray is the home country boy, and I would be really excited by all this except for the fact that I hate tennis. So I guess he is doing well, and it is huge news here. Meanwhile, I miss soccer.
We are on our way north, as far north as we will go in Scotland; to the Highlands. We drive through fir forests, and see mountains with patches of snow, covered with reddish heather, yellow broom, or just barren grey summits.
Our first stop is Pitlochry, a little stone town on the banks of the river Tummel, surrounded by mountains thick with fir trees. It is sunny, warm no-coat weather, perfect for walking the one, winding main street. But the real reason we are here is not the cute town, but what lies two miles outside, down a single track lane:
The Edradour Distillery.
This is Scotland's smallest whisky distillery, and they tell you with great pride their yearly production is less than the weekly production in most other distilleries. So here we are to take the tour and sample some of Scotland's best. There was a bagpiper outside, of course, and some guy was trying to request a song. He didn't know the name, but it goes like this: (monotone) hmm hmm hm hm. The bagpiper looked forlorn. The tour is pretty interesting, and you sample two "wee drams" (we call them shots) of whisky, after being instructed on the proper technique. We saw an introductory movie. Then the tour: it is a lot like beer brewing, except you have to wait like ten years or longer to drink the final product. Hey George, if you are following this, I tipped my wee dram to you. Perhaps we should try distilling whisky. But if we don't cool it right, the vapors are prone to explosion. Think Molly will mind? We saw a barrel of 1969 whisky, that will be worth over £2000 a bottle when it hits fifty years. They only produce single malts, but they do some interesting things with them. For instance, since you age whisky in used barrels (that is how they pick up color, and some flavor) they have some called "Straight from the Cask." They are matured in a plain cask for 8-10 years, then finished for one-half to five years in a second cask, which changes color and taste depending on if it was a wine barrel, what type and where from. I tried the Chateau Neuf de Pape finish, because I like that kind of French wine, and it had a unique taste up front in which you caught a hint of the wine, but the familiar smooth burn going down.
You lose about 20% of the whisky during the barrel time, due to evaporation. That is called the Angel's Share.
Whisky in Scotland is spelled like that, in Ireland they add the e to whiskey.
Well, the tour was informative, but talking with the guide after was more so. We picked up all sorts of knowledge about different peats and why my favorite, Ardbeg, is so peaty, his favorite types and so on. True fact: the highland peat bogs are more pine dominated, thus "cleaner," while the island peats are more seaweed dominated, thus oily, peaty and smokey.
So I will tell you, if you can get ahold of a bottle of Edradour Ten year old distillery edition single malt Scotch whisky, buy it. It is strong, smooth (think of the BEST quality Jack Daniels as harsh, this is sooooo easy in comparison) not smokey or peaty but just clean and golden. Gail agreed. We also tried the eight year old, but you could tell it was not mature, still too harsh. Gail had Edradour Cream Liqueur, like Bailey's, but she did not like it as much as the ten year. They let us keep the tasting glass, and I bought a couple small sampler bottles of the ten year, which I am trying to figure how to smuggle back into the US. You can't do them carry on (well, I have done two bottles in my toiletries bag before; they scan like shampoo) and you can't mail them (so the question here is, do they actually x-ray the mail? What if they were in a cookie tin?). So, if any of you have great ideas how I can get these sampler size bottles home from here and the next few distilleries, leave a comment at the end of this blog.
Veni, vidi, biberunt. I came, I saw, I drank.
Our final goal for the day was Inverness,on the banks of the Ness river, gateway to the highlands and western islands. The Ness River drains Loch Ness out to the Moray Firth and the North Sea. We are in a great room in a little four room B&B. Ewan MacDonald, the B&B owner, is a Scottish, European and World Champion curler, and has competed in three winter Olympics. Our room overlooks the castle and the little town. There is really nothing to see here, it's just that we needed a place to stop off because it is too far to drive, stringing together today and tomorrow's places in one day. So we walk the two streets, then along the river, and stop into a pub. At the bar, the local beer choices are Light Ness, Wilder Ness, Ted Ness (Are you getting it? If not, go back and re-read the names...) and the fourth one is called Happy...
Happy Chappy.
We ended up eating dinner at Number 27, where I had Scottish smoked salmon and chives in cream cheese, followed by pork chops, apple chutney, salad and fries. It was not memorable. Gail had a good Spanish Frittata, made of peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and leeks bound with eggs, baked and topped with goats cheese.
Interesting Scottish words: neeps are turnips, tatties are potatoes, haggis is yucky.
"Hey Jude" is playing on the bagpipes CD, which leaves a lot to be desired. The Scots think nothing of murdering the most popular rock-n-roll songs on the bagpipes.
Rent signs here say "To Let." I would love to buy a bunch of stick-on letter "i"s and go around putting them on the signs.
Tonight was our first clear sky sunset of the trip. Think about that: for four weeks we have not seen a sunset. But the sky was clear and blue all day, and the sunset over the hills was nice. I like Scotland more each day. This is way better than England.