Heading to Glasgow in July, what distilleries should I visit?

[Heashfus]

My best friend, whom lives in Glasgow is getting married in July so what a perfect reason to visit. Any recommendations for distillery visits?

[squire]

Can't speak for the distilleries but would love to hit the pubs.

[BourbonJoe]

That would be scotch - yuk - can't help you there.

[Darwin]

I think Auchentoshan is close by. The link below, Google and the single malt forums should help.

http://www.visitscotland.com/en-us/about/food-drink/whisky/distilleries/

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zN865WOI0OQs.kHcKQ9B3mUbk&hl=en_US

Have fun a bring back photos.

[tanstaafl2]

Auchentoshen is indeed very close by. You practically land on it when you go to Glasgow airport! Glengoyne is a lovely little distillery that makes some interesting whisky that is maybe 20 minutes north of Glasgow on some twisty little back roads. The Teapot Dram is a distillery only bottling. I also got a 14yo Glengoyne from Cadenheads that had been matured in sherry that I thought was excellent. Gets a fair amount of traffic as it is one the way to a nearby park.

I find the map from Malt madness to be useful. http://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/map/Scotland/

Loch Lomond is also nearby but we didn't make it there. Kind of unusual as they make both malt and grain. Glasgow used to be home to several large grain distilleries but some have now closed. David Driscoll at K&L wrote about plans for a new distillery in Glasgow but I don't know what if any progress has been made.

Most distilleries are going to require some driving to get to. We visited about 23 distilleries in our recent 10 day trip covering all 5 whisky regions but we did a lot of driving as well to make that happen!

[unclebunk]

That would be scotch - yuk - can't help you there.

[VT Mike]

As mentioned above, Auchentoshan is in the city and Glengoyne is well worth the 30 minute drive. I've been to both. If you don't mind driving further Deanston, Tullibardine and Glenturret are all close to each other and about an hour from the city. 45 minutes to an hour further north you can visit Aberfeldy, Blair Athol and Edradour. I haven't been to any of those six, but Edradour looks the most interesting to me. It has a lot of Victorian era equipment still in use and is the only distillery left in Scotland that has a functioning Morton's Refrigerator.

[tanstaafl2]

As mentioned above, Auchentoshan is in the city and Glengoyne is well worth the 30 minute drive. I've been to both. If you don't mind driving further Deanston, Tullibardine and Glenturret are all close to each other and about an hour from the city. 45 minutes to an hour further north you can visit Aberfeldy, Blair Athol and Edradour. I haven't been to any of those six, but Edradour looks the most interesting to me. It has a lot of Victorian era equipment still in use and is the only distillery left in Scotland that has a functioning Morton's Refrigerator.

Edradour was one of the many we toured last month and I think well worth a stop. The warehouses there also houses much of the diverse Signatory inventory as well and has both Edradour (and the peaty Ballechin label) and Signatory bottles in the gift shop. Edradour is now owned by the same group that owns Signatory.

Also a nice if pricey chocolatier shop nearby if you are traveling with folks less interested in whisky. Some surprisingly good pairings with chocolate and whisky as we learned when we visited Caol Ila where they used the chocolate from this particular shop called the Highland Chocolatier to pair with whisky samples.