Distillery Experience?

One of the best tours we had was at the Dalwhinnie Distillery. Their whisky (especially the Distiller's Edition and the 25 year) is among our favorites, too. It is easy to get to by train or bus from Aviemore (our favorite stop in the Cairngorms). Plenty of other distilleries in the area, too. You can even get a 'whisky taxi' that will take you to several distilleries in a day, and you don't have to worry about how much you indulge! Here are a few whiskies to try if you get to do a 'tasting' at a local pub (we tend to prefer Speysides).
Dalwhinnie
Gelenmorangie
Glenfidditch
Cragalachie
McCallan
Belvinnie

my favourite on to visit is Edradour just outside Callander.

I went to Blair Athol in Pitlochry as I could walk to it. :) The whisky was good too! The one that I would like to visit but haven't is Highland Park in Orkney. Also, it would be really interesting to go Islay and tour some of the distilleries known for the peaty malts that I enjoy.

We went to Dalwhinnie, Talisker, Highland Park and Cardhu (chosen by our whisky loving friends). My favourite was Talisker but it might have something to do with the chocolate truffle they gave us to enjoy with it.

I don't really enjoy whisky but the 70 year old Highland Park was smooth.

It depends a bit the area you will be in. Are you willing to travel to an area with distilleries? Have an itinerary already?

If just in Edinburgh and maybe Glasgow, there are some good Lowland distilleries nearby, same once you get to the Highlands. Speyside as someone mentioned is prime distillery country, but if I were to make a special trip for whisky, I would probably head to Islay.

Agree with UncleGus that Edradour in Pitlochry was very good. They bill themselves as Scotland’s smallest distillery. We also enjoyed the Oban distillery in you guessed it, Oban.

Do you want to visit a distillery, or simply learn about the different whisky tastes? The process of making whisky is the same no matter which distillery you visit. All the varies is the amount of the process that is actually carried out at any one particular site. Edradour is unusual as it's small and not owned by a large company such as Diageo (they own Talisker among other brands). Much more of the process is therefore carried out on site at Edradour than typically at other distilleries. Many of the larger companies don't mature their product on site, but move it to a large warehouse elsewhere as (for example on Skye for Talisker) there simply wouldn't be room on site to do it in the quantities required.

Anyway, if what you actually want is to learn about whisky and taste examples for the various different regions and islands then you might be better off finding a knowledgeable bar (preferably one that specialises in whisky) and getting the bar person to tell you about what you are sampling.

Hi
Glenfarclas is the last family owned and run distillery left. It is located in the Speyside area just south of Aberlour. We enjoyed the tour and tasting and is one of our favourites, partly because it is family run and not corporately owned. Enjoy.

Dave

We visited four: Oban, Tallisker, Glengoyne, and Edradour. Two of us are not really "into" whisky, one was just learning, and one loves it. For all of us, at various stages of appreciation, Edradour was a favorite tour, location, etc. It was the last one we visited, and we were told things completely different than the others: one was that we COULD take pictures inside the areas where the whisky is distilled! My sister and I liked Edradour because they make a cream whisky (similar to Bailey's only better); it was fabulous, but it is not exported. We also went to a Whisky Experience in Inverness where we tasted about 6 different ones with Scottish history and information in between.

Several years ago I broke down and did the Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile. They actually do a good job of explaining the process. And you do get to taste some whisky. They have a range of tours. I have no idea which one I did. :)
Pam

Thanks all! Lots of different options!

Talisker is terrific, both product and tour. Also came to love Cardhu and Craggenmore due to our tours there.

Did Oban, Tallisker and Edradour. While they were all good, Edradour was the most interesting. As a wine drinker you might appreciate the experiments Edradour are doing with aging whisky in old wine barrels, instead if the typical bourbon or port barrels.