Whiskey noob wanting to learn a bit before tasting

[T Bone]

I'll do some googling, but I thought I'd ask here as well. In a couple of weeks, my wife and I will be going on a mixed business/pleasure trip, so we'll be doing some sightseeing for a few days on either side of a professional conference. The conference is in a very small town in Scotland and one of the things to do there is tour the local distillery. There are 2 tours available. One is an expensive tour and tasting of "six extraordinary whiskies" afterwards. The other is a Very Expensive Tour & Tasting of single malts from old to new, "rare and aged to perfection, drawn straight from the cask".

The thing is, I'm mostly a beer and wine guy, so I'm a complete idiot as far as spirits are concerned. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the Very Expensive Tour & Tasting fits better with our plans right now. So first off, can a couple of whiskey noobs possibly appreciate a very high-end whiskey tasting, or would it be completely wasted on us? We might be able to rearrange our non-conference plans to fit in the less expensive tour, but I'm not sure. And second, well, just broadly, what should I know going into this, regardless of which tour/tasting we do? If any whiskey aficionados have any wisdom to impart to a newbie, I'd love to hear it!

 

[Whisky]

Which Distillery is it? I think you and your wife would really enjoy it. Let them know that you’re new to Scotch and they will probably go out of their way to make sure you understand what you’re tasting.

 

[T Bone]

Thanks, @Whisky. It’s the Blair Athol distillery. The descriptions have me a bit intimidated, but I suppose they mostly get whiskey "connoisseurs" and "aficionados".

 

[Whisky]

I don’t think I’ve ever had anything they produce. Looks like most of their production goes into Bell’s whiskey which according to Wiki is the most popular blended scotch in the UK. The only problem you may have is if your first example of Scotch are some very well aged drams you may find the “regular” offerings when you get back home a bit dull.

 

[Multum in parvo]

Currently there is only a 12y as distillery release available (50ish for the bottle). Whatever you will taste on the tour you won’t be able to buy anywhere because it’s destined to go into Blends. Diageo, the owner is doing over 12bn £ turnover in spirits so the premises might be charming but it’s far away from a small romantic operation.

If you like to see a distillery, book a tour. If you want to learn about Whisky and tasting visit the local Pros Rare and Exclusive Whiskies - Whisky Tasting - Robertsons of Pitlochry - https://www.robertsonsofpitlochry.co.uk/

If I would be in your shoes this would be the distillery to visit Edradour distillery - Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edradour_distillery

 

[T Bone]

Thanks, @Multum in parvo. The Eradour web site said it's closed for tours and tastings in 2023 unfortunately. I did find a more modest tour and tasting at Blair Athol, 17 GBP each vs the 55 or 100 GPB ones. I missed it because it's not listed under the "book a tour" link for some reason, but there's a link on the main web site, I just had to scroll down to it. But that one seems more geared to an intro level, so we'll most likely book that.

I will take a look at that Robertson's link this evening though, thank you!