Before I go into all the details of what we learned about making Scotch whisky, I want to interject a comment about our experience in Scotland overall.
When I put this trip together, it was for my husband Don. I wanted to surprise him with something great for his birthday as a way of saying "thanks" to him for all the great things he does for my life.
I was "going along" to someplace I had never really been deeply drawn towards because I wanted to see his delight in the experience. I expected to see gray, rainy skies and temperatures that would require a great deal of layering to be comfortable -- especially coming on the tail end of a nice warm summer in Ohio.
As you can see by the pictures here of Islay, I neither needed my raincoat nor my heavy sweaters. The only two days it rained were the day we arrived and the day we left. The rest of the time the sky was vibrantly clear and the temperatures were in the low 70's. The water looks like something from the Caribbean or Hawaii.
As if the weather wasn't enough to win me over, the PEOPLE of Scotland were such a delight! From the first stop at our B & B with Val and Keith, through the Bruichladdich experience with Ella, Andy, Adam, Alan, James, Peter I and Peter II, David, Budgie and so many more, though our new friends in Glasgow at Whisky Live and right up until our final dinner where our waiter offered to take our picture and did a fantastic job of it, everyone was delightful!
I only hope that in my travel planning profession, I am as successful at exceeding expectaions as of of these folks were for me.
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