In late August, the Brit’s dad was in town so we decided to do a little local travel.
Doune and Deanston are both only a short drive away from Stirling (about 15-20minutes) and they are worth the visit. There is a castle in Doune, which many will know from Game of Thrones, Monty Python or Outlander. Deanston is the home of a small local distillery in Deanston. Paired together they are perfect for an afternoon adventure.
Doune village is nothing interesting, but the castle is nice to visit. For some reason a massive wedding party had taken over the castle so we couldn’t really take photos. Personally I think they should have closed the castle for the wedding. In the instance that you pay for entry, it’s a shame that you can’t fully visit or take photos of the castle.
In the end we stayed there only 20 minutes and headed over to Deanston Distillery instead. Could you believe that in three years of living in Scotland I still hadn’t visited a whisky distillery? I remediated to this.
We visited on a late Saturday afternoon and we were the only people in our tour, making it cosy and easy to ask questions and interact with our lovely guide.
She started the tour at the barrels – explained the importance of the wood and charring on taste. We then headed inside to see all the machinery. I would explain it to you, but I don’t remember much. It went from sifting, to grinding, to washing the grain before fermentation. Then finally it ends up at the distilling part of the process. That’s the one with the big copper pots.
Then they barrel and wait. We were told that to be called ‘Scotch Whisky’ a whisky has to be made in Scotland with Scottish water and be barrelled for at least three years old. They have whiskies that are more than 40 years old.
We all really enjoyed the tour, which ended with tasting their special 10-year-old whisky. I barely took a sip and it burnt my mouth. I’m not used to whisky yet! But the Brit and his dad said it was really good whisky – and they’re connoisseur.
I ended up buying a whisky for my dad, some jam (with whisky) and fell in love with a whisky-scented candle.
I also discovered myself a new mission! Realising that I started truly appreciating wine when I went to a few wine tastings, I’m going to start doing more whisky tasting to grow my taste of it as well!
Have you visited a distillery or tried a whisky tasting?xx
