Still lives
Drinks tourism is big business, with millions visiting distilleries and breweries each year. In this extract from his book Britain in a Bottle,
Author Rupert Wheeler on the rise of whisky tourism in Scotland
Food and drink tourism was slow to take off in Scotland (asitwasintherestofthe UK) as many producers regarded their premises as places of work where potential breaches of health and safety lurked in every corner. The whisky distilleries led the way, opening up to tourists, but this did not start to happen until the 1960s with Glenlivet, Glenflarclas and Glenfiddich being amongst the first – by 1999 there were 44 and today that number has climbed to just over 70. With whisky leading the way it was not long before the gin distilleries and breweries followed suit as sales in the visitor centre and the fees for taking guided tours was all good for cash-flow and word-of-mouth was great for marketing. With the turning of the millennium you did not have to be an enthusiast to enjoy a guided tour and tasting.
Scotland has gained a worldwide reputation for producing great whiskies but it has also developed a growing standing for producing great gins as well as brilliant beers.
Today 15 per cent of Scotland’s 14.3 million annual tourists make a visit to a distillery or a brewery. The drinks industry realises that visitors are big business with The Scotch Whisky Experience, for example, welcoming more than 300,000 visitors in 2019. As part of a £150 million investment Diageo are transforming the former
Frasers department store on Edinburgh’s Princes Street into the Johnnie Walker Experience, as well as upgrading and improving many of their visitor centres in most of the 28 distilleries they own in Scotland.
Whether you are living in Scotland or just visiting, to really appreciate this burgeoning industry you have to take a road trip where not only will you learn about the fantastic whiskies, gins and beers of Scotland but you will also appreciate the most evocative and stunning scenery as well as many of the other tourist attractions along the way.
There are many ways you could do this but one of the most enjoyable, if you are heading north, is to trace the route of the A9. However, you could take a route up the west coast say starting in Glasgow, reach Oban and literally island hop to Barra, and South Uist ending up on Harris and then take the ferry to Ullapool and make your way back via Inverness and finally Glasgow. Another alternative is to take the North Coast 500 (northcoast500.com) starting in Inverness, across to the west coast and up to Cape Wrath, over to John O’groats and back down the A9 to Inverness. An absolute classic. ■