A Visit To Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery Proves That You Can’t Buy History – Part 1

When I sat down in my assigned seat on the train at Manchester Deansgate Station, with a 6.5-hour journey ahead of me, I found myself wondering what my two days at Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery would be like. Any scotch whisky fan who has visited a number of scotch whisky distilleries is liable to say that they are much of a muchness – you have seen one, you have seen them all. 

Of course, it is not as simple as that. Having visited a few distilleries myself, I can say that each of them has its own charm. However, smaller distilleries and producers often find themselves having to go the extra mile in order to impress travelling whisky fans. During the last week of June, I was one such fan. And I wanted to be impressed. 

Arriving in Pitlochry 

My train pulled into Pitlochry Station at 12:30 pm, just in time for lunch, catered by the wonderful Ballintaggart at The Grandtully Hotel. Greeted by a whisky highball and a spread of delicious bites crafted from local ingredients, the trip was certainly off to a good start. 

Then, we travelled on to our hotel, the stunning Dun Aluinn, located about a mile and a half from Aberfeldy Distillery. The beautiful 5.5-acre estate boasts a 9-bedroom house, all with en suite bathrooms, a separate lodge with additional bedrooms, two lounges, a cinema room, an outdoor hot tub overlooking the River Tay, luxury interiors, and an outdoor fire pit. I selected a bedroom on the first floor, with a steam shower and a very comfortable four-poster bed.

After freshening up in our rooms, we gathered downstairs for canapes and cocktails (made with Aberfeldy 12, of course) before heading off to the distillery. 

On To Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery 

Located on the side of the A827, Aberfeldy Distillery is quite hard to miss. A large sign reading “Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery Tours – Shop – Cafe” shepherds you up the sweeping driveway and behind the still house to the entrance. 

In true Scotland style, we walked into the reception area through drizzling rain and bagpipes playing ‘Scotland the Brave’. Now is when the truly authentic journey through the history of Dewar’s and Aberfeldy begins. 

Immediately as you enter the visitor’s centre, you are greeted by the distillery gift shop. A curated selection of Dewar’s, Aberfeldy, Craigellachie, and Royal Brackla whiskies are lined up along one wall. Glencairn whisky glasses, coasters made from oak cask staves, mini bottled cocktails, t-shirts. You named it, they have it. 

On a large table sits a cask of whisky with the vintage 1999. More on that later. 

To the left of the gift shop is the distillery bar with many of the same bottles as in the shop open and ready for drams to be poured. On the opposite side of the room is a cafe offering coffee, cakes, and sandwiches. 

We are given a few minutes to browse and chat with distillery representatives before we head to the museum. 

The Dewar’s Aberfeldy Museum 

The entrance to the Dewar’s Aberfeldy Museum is tucked away in the corner of the gift shop. As the ceiling lowers you notice cask staves curved around the wall, guiding through the doors and into the museum. 

Inside you are greeted by historic Dewar’s and Aberfeldy bottlings, displayed in carefully lit glass cases. One such bottle is, as far as anybody knows, the oldest surviving bottle of Aberfeldy “Old Scotch Whisky”, distilled in 1899. There are also bottles of Diageo’s famed Flora & Fauna whiskies (white and black capsules) displayed in the cases, followed by more recent Aberfeldy bottlings. 

However, the entrance area itself is dominated by a scale model of Aberfeldy Distillery’s pagoda roof, designed by famed architect Charles Doig. The ‘pagoda-style roof was designed by Doig in 1889 to better ventilate the kilns in which malted barley was dried. Marrying practicality and aesthetics, these pagoda roofs began appearing in distilleries across Scotland. The so-called ‘Doig Ventilator’ became synonymous with the image of whisky distilleries in Scotland, despite their near-redundancy in modern distilling. The image of the Doig Ventilator is even used as the symbol for the Malt Whisky Trail on Scottish road signs. 

Moving past the pagoda, you enter the world of Dewar’s Aberfeldy. The museum, carefully curated by a Dewar’s team headed by Global Heritage Manager, Jacqui Sargeant, boasts items that intricately tell the story of Dewar’s from its inception in 1846. Such items include the old warehouse lock and keys, distillery clogs (to protect the worker’s feet), and a purchase ledger signed by John Dewar himself for the bulk purchase of Islay whisky in 1860. 

On the other side of the museum is an impressive replica blending room, showing visitors where scotch whisky makers would meticulously craft the best blends from malt whiskies sourced across Scotland. The blending room is fronted by a large, shelved wall of old sample bottles. These trade samples would have been used by Dewar’s to experiment with blends to achieve the perfect whisky. Such trade samples include a Macallan distilled in 1919, a 1924 St. Magdalene, and a 1909 scotch from Dalmore. 

The impressive curation of artefacts and information is presented by knowledgeable tour guides, through whom the legacy of Dewar’s is keenly felt. You really do get the sense that each employee at Aberfeldy is immensely proud of the legacy that was left by John, Alexander, and Tommy Dewar. Such a legacy is safely guarded by the team at Aberfeldy. 

The Warehouse Experience 

Following a production tour of the distillery we are led to the purpose of our visit: The Dewar’s Aberfeldy Warehouse Experience. 

Now, Aberfeldy does not cooper on site, nor does the distillery store its casks on site. There is no warehouse, as such. But, that is not what the Warehouse Experience is about. 

We slip inside an unassuming door and are instantly greeted by a stunning sculpture. Reflecting the “stave wall” – as it was called by Distillery Brand Home Ambassador, Mike McGinty – at the entrance to the museum, the space is lit up by huge, sweeping cask staves lit up with LED lights. At the side of the room is a small seating area, where we are invited to watch a short video about the importance of cask coopering in whisky production. 

Depending on who you ask, around 50-80% of a whisky’s profile comes from its cask. And, just because Aberfeldy does not cooper on-site (they source from Speyside Cooperage), it does not mean that the coopering process is skimmed over. The cask is an extremely important vessel, without which scotch whisky would not be where it is today. 

The importance of the cask in the whisky-making process is reinforced by a wall of cask heads to our right, which Global Brand Ambassador, Single Malts at John Dewar & Sons Ltd, Matthew Cordiner, opens to reveal the shining star of the Warehouse Experience.

The Aberfeldy 40 Year Old Hand-Fill Experience 

Inside the hidden room is a single cask of Aberfeldy single malt scotch whisky, aged for 40 years. Cask #5030, to be exact. Flanked by two backlit walls of shelves displaying empty bottles and boxes, the cask invites you to hand-fill your very own bottle of Aberfeldy 40 Year Old. 

As any scotch whisky fan will know, aging a whisky to 40 years is no mean feat. It requires meticulous cask management to ensure that the ABV does not drop below 40%, therefore stripping the liquid of its right to be called ‘scotch whisky’. 

In addition to this, the longer a whisky ages, the less liquid there will be in the cask. This is due to the, on average, 2% per year evaporation of the liquid in the cask known as the ‘angel’s share’. As such, the bottling yield will be much lower for a 40 year old cask than it would be for a 10 year old cask, for example. You can imagine, then, how it felt for me to stand in front of a cask of Aberfeldy 40. Special, to say the least. 

To get the chance to hand-fill your own 40 year old single malt is a rarity indeed. Such rarity is bolstered by the fact that this is a single cask, and only a very select few visitors will get the chance to have this experience before the cask runs dry and another takes its place. 

The hand-fill experience plus your very own Aberfeldy 40 Year Old (personalisation available) has a price tag of £3,000. 

A Symphony of Flavors 

Now, onto the brand-new tasting experience at Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery. Aberfeldy is, of course, a single malt brand in its own right. However, the distillery is also the home of the Dewar’s brand of blended whisky. 

Master Blender, Stephanie MacLeod, was recently named ‘Master Blender of the Year’ by the International Whisky Competition for a record-breaking sixth time. It is no wonder, then, that Dewar’s is the world’s most awarded blended scotch whisky. Stephanie MacLeod is able to seamlessly blend together the finest whiskies from across Scotland to create a harmonious blended whisky. In fact, Stephanie herself compares whisky blending to conducting a symphony in the next part of our tour. 

From the warehouse room, we are led into a dimly lit yet modern space with what looks like a blending table at the front of the room. At the press of a button on a side panel, Stephanie strides into view and her projection explains to visitors the complex nature of whisky blending. Like instructing musicians to work in harmony, a whisky blender must carefully pick out and match notes and profiles across a variety of whiskies, methodically picking out which flavours will work best together. 

In this part of the tour, you are not just asked to take Stephanie’s word for this because, once again, a secret door leads you to the next part of the experience: the tasting. 

The Dewar’s Aberfeldy Tasting Experience 

We are led into a small room decorated with cascading, glittering bronze walls. In this room, Brand Home Visitor Operations Manager Jonathan Wilson explains, guests will be invited to take a virtual quiz on one of the many tablets that will soon be installed. The quiz asks you questions about your whisky knowledge, your experience with tasting, your preference for sweet or savoury, and so on. At first, it may seem like a redundant exercise; a virtual part of the experience to keep guests busy for five minutes. However, when you enter the next room, the purpose becomes clear. 

We walk down a small corridor and into the next room, which is certainly a whisky-lovers paradise. The room is somewhat reminiscent of a lecture hall, only far more warm and welcoming. Semi-circle tables and chairs all face a screen at the front of the room.

I find my seat and, to my delight, there is a glass of Aberfeldy whisky and a whisky highball waiting for me. The drinks were selected based on the quiz that I had taken earlier in the day. I consider myself to be something of a whisky explorer, who loves the classics, but isn’t afraid of a modern twist. And so, in front of me is a glass of 12 Year Old and a whisky highball made with Dewar’s 12 Year Old. 

Also on our whisky-tasting desks are water jugs and pipettes, and tasting cubes with which you can show your companions the notes that you are tasting in your drink. Our lovely tour guide, Michelle, also displays a scotch whisky-tasting wheel on the screen in front of us. The tasting wheel is very useful if you are a whisky novice, and can help you to identify what it is that you are tasting in a particular dram. 

The best part about this room, I think, is that the small, semi-circular tables allow you to easily see and speak to your tour companions about what it is that you are drinking. Straight desks, I imagine, would make this space feel much more like a classroom. And, I think I am safe in assuming, that none of us would particularly like to go back to high school. Michelle, our guide, is very much there to guide and not to teach. She encourages us to taste, talk, taste again, and compare. 

As a woman working in the whisky industry, I know from personal experience that entering this typically patriarchal world can be daunting. In my first whisky tasting, I found myself nervous to speak for fear of getting something wrong. (Spoiler alert: there are no wrong answers). This tasting room at Dewar’s Aberfeldy is not too large that you feel lost, but not so small that you feel exposed. The atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable, which is how everybody should be able to start their whisky-tasting journey. 

Dinner By Balllintaggart 

Following our tasting experience we were led back into the museum where, to my astonishment, the team from Ballintaggart had set up a beautiful dining table complete with flower arrangements, candles, and charcuterie boards to begin our evening. 

What followed was a stunning three-course meal with whisky pairings provided by Mike McGinty, Jonathan Wilson, and Matthew Cordiner. Of the three whiskies sampled, the Aberfeldy 21 Year Old Argentinian Malbec Cask Finish was my favourite. Aberfeldy’s classic honey and vanilla was accented by notes of tart blackcurrants and sweet red berries. A hint of spice leads to a long, sweet, and smooth finish. 

Back To Dun Aluinn 

After dinner, we arrived back at Dun Aluinn where our (rather expensive) nightcap was a dram of the Aberfeldy 40 Year Old that visitors can hand-fill in the Warehouse Experience. 

It is amazing how much complexity can come from 40 years in oak. The liquid is multi-layered, with the traditional honey and vanilla accented by notes of lavender, toasted oak, and cinnamon spice. The finish is smooth and slightly drying, lingering on the palate for just the right amount of time. It was the perfect way to round off a jam-packed day. 

Well and truly whiskied-out (and having been up since 5 am), I headed to bed, with another morning of whisky revelry to look forward to. 

To Be Continued… 

My experience at Dewar’s Aberfeldy was such that it is pretty much impossible to fit it all into one article. So, heading to bed at Dun Aluinn seems like a good place to end for now. 

Keep an eye on The Whiskey Wash to find out what I got up to the following day, and read my overall assessment of my visit to Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery.