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Scotland
On Bonnie Back Roads
"Glenlivet it has castles three,/ Drumin, Blairfindy and Deskie,/ And also one distillery,/More famous than the castles three!" It's not Glenlivet we're visiting on our Edelweiss Royal Tour of Scotland, but tiny Cardhu in the village of Knockando on the River Spey. The tour buses have disgorged at the famous Glenlivet, just down the road, while Emma, our kilted guide, takes our small party around Cardhu's nineteenth-century distillery.
Crime doesn't pay, goes the adage. But moonshiners have successfully evaded the excise man over the centuries, often building thriving and eventually legal businesses. When whisky smuggler John Cumming started distilling at Knockando in 1811, his wife synchronized her cooking with the operation of the still to disguise the telltale smoke. In 1872, Elizabeth Cumming took over the 50-year-old family "enterprise," and such became the reputation of The Cardhu that one John ("Johnnie") Walker of Glasgow came calling and bought the business. Cardhu remains a "single malt" distiller, in which only malted barley is used for fermentation, and the spirit is never "married" to other malts.
As we walk between the vast, conical, copper stills, Emma tells us that Cardhu's unique flavor comes from two distillations and the liquor's storage for 12 years in American oak barrels The casks may be used up to five times, so many here are over 60 years old. She also says that when tasting malt whisky, it's important to add a bit of water to bring out the smooth, smoky taste, "but never ice!"...
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