Aberlour

Aberlour is a Gaelic term that means "Mouth of the Chattering Burn" where "burn" means "creek". The Aberlour Distillery is on the Lour Burn which flows into the Spey River.

The town of Aberlour is on the bank of the Spey River. The town is the home of the Aberlour distillery and of Walkers pure creamery butter shortbread's. There is a lovely walkway and park along the river where locals enjoy hiking and fishing.

We took a tour of the Aberlour Distillery given by a very entertaining guide from Canada. At least the Canadian was married to a Scottish woman and he did seem to know what he was talking about. On the tour, we were able to smell and taste the whisky at various stages of the process. Chris passed around tastes of the "beer" during fermentation and before distillation. He also let folks get a whiff of the CO2 of the fermentation tanks.

At end of the tour, Chris gave samples of the "heart" of the whisky before it was aged in a barrel. He also gave us samples of 5 different Aberlour Whiskies. We learned that the key influences of the taste of the whisky are the water, the shape of the still, and the barrels used for aging. In speyside, the water comes from springs that feed into the spey river, the shapes of the stills are unique to the distillery and are maintained even when doing repairs, and the favorite barrels are from Bourbon distilleries in the US. The most interesting fact regarding the process is that two percent of the spirits evaporate during distillation. This two percent is known as the "Angel's Share".