DuckDrams

All good things must come to end: bottles of fine whisky before they overoxidize; whisky trips before we get too used to having drams in the morning… We took the ferry back to the mainland in the morning, and then readied our buttocks for many hours in the minibus seats. The original plan of passing by Auchentoshan distillery had at some point been revised and we instead ended up at Deanston – all for the better, say I. Deanston make fantastic whisky.

Stopping by just before 4pm, we ware a tad too late for the tour, so shop and bar it was. I became intrigued by a £250 29yo port pipe expression exclusive to the distillery and bought a dram for £10 to try. Fantastic! But when I first fell in love with Deanie she was wearing a bourbon cask, and that’s how I prefer her. However, Zoe was persuaded to buy a 20cl bottle of the precious port pipe. Very likely one could’ve bought some 70cl bottles and made a good profit at auction some years from now, but I already had the problem of having more bottles in the UK than I could conveniently transport to Germany (even with the help of a certain Greek smuggler lady).

Leaving Deanston I had another dram of the 12yo, my first dram of the the trip, and it felt like a closing of circles of sorts.

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We made it! To Islay and back, making memories of tastes, smells, sights, sounds, and people along the way, three years after the cancellation of our first plans. Three years – the symbolic amount of time that turns raw spirit into the water of life.