A Taste of Scotland at the Scotch Whisky Experience

On a night in December when the weather outside was frightful, I was delighted to be welcomed to the Scotch Whisky Experience, along with a group of travel bloggers.  The team there made us all very welcome, and had a few surprises for us as they prepared for the Year of Food and Drink.

highland breeze scotch whisky

Scotch Whisky Tasting

We were greeted with a welcome cocktail featuring the newly-launched take on a historic whisky: Haig Club.  The Scotch Whisky Experience features the world’s largest collection of whiskies, collected by the Brazilian collector, Claive Vidiz, and during our visit we were able to see some of the older bottles of Haig whisky which form part of the 3,400 bottles in the collection. Nothing quite prepares you for the sense of wonder when you first enter the room containing the collection – so much to see! But we were quickly getting down to the serious business of the evening: testing our whisky knowledge to see if we could identify one of four whiskies which had been chosen for us to sample.  Julie Trevisan Hunter was soon giving us pointers and suggestions to help us, but at this point I could only “nose” hopefully as I’d opted to drive.  The group proved that we have a long way to go to become whisky aficionados.  Our tutor revealed that we had been tasting Balvenie, Highland Park, Glenmorangie and Oban single malts.

Julie Trevisan Hunter of Scotch Whisky Experience

The Connection between Food and Scotch Whisky

The connection between food and whisky was soon to be explored as the enthusiastic staff bore platters of Canapés perfectly matched with the areas of the four selected whiskies.  The Amber Restaurant at the Scotch Whisky Experience are masters of the art of pairing whisky with food.  We were treated to North Highland Venison Carpaccio with Heather Honey Dressing, Mey Castle Beef Fillet with Wild Mushrooms, Loch Etive Trout Smoked by R R Spink of Arbroath and Gruth Dhu Tart – each morsel evoking delight from the assembled group.

pairing whisky with food

Following our testing and tasting, there was time for me to take a few quick snaps of some of the quirky bottles in the collection – you can’t possibly take in the variety in one visit, so I’ll have to take time to return again.

Scotch Whisky

During our time at the Scotch Whisky Experience, we were all made to feel welcome and the enthusiasm of the staff shone out, even at the end of a long day welcoming guests from near and far.  We were delighted to be allowed to continue talking and Tweeting for #EdinHour before Julie presented us with some keepsakes of our visit – a cute little Christmas Angel with a miniature of Royal Mile blended Scotch and a game card to take us off on a Whisky Adventure round Edinburgh. We’ll be off on a whisky adventure when that Highland Breeze calms down a bit!

How to get there:

The Scotch Whisky Experience is only a short walk up the Mound from Princes Street. Turn right at Deacon Brodies and walk up the Royal Mile toward the Castle Esplanade. You will find the Scotch Whisky Experience tucked in on the left just before you come to the Esplanade.

Find out more:

To find out more about the Scotch Whisky Experience click this link

Dine At Amber Restaurant

Go on a Whisky Adventure of Edinburgh

Whisky Cocktails on the Scotch Whisky Experience Pinterest board

Regular Twitter chats featuring Scotland (#ScotlandHour), are ways to find out more about what’s happening around the country for visitors and those involved in Scottish Tourism.

If you’ve read all this and found it interesting you might like to read some more of our blogs about what there is to see and do around Edinburgh. Click on this link www.2edinburgh.com to return to our home page.

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