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12 reviews for Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre
All Reviews
If you were wondering how whisky was made (scotch being the drink of the country) then this is the place for you.
Located right next to the castle it offers a tour of about 15 people around a "distillery" from grain to drink in glass as well as explaining very well all the processes and differences from area to area in Scotland. Its entrance is a bit pricey but there's a complimentary dram at the end.
Its good if you can't make it out to an actual distillery but were still curious about whisky.
It costs nearly £12.
It isn't a proper distillery.
There's no information availabe here that you can't find by going onto Wikipedia and typing in "whisky".
Don't be a mug.
AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Synopsis:
I'll start with the positive(s); the aroma room is an interesting and moderately useful concept to assign the nose and flavors of scotch to the essential elements. This merits one star.
Negatives: Pricey, info is mostly derivative, the tour is horribly rushed with NO time to spend in the beautiful display room, tasting room is poorly managed and poorly stocked; staff was rude and not well informed.
Detailed Description:
If you MUST do this tour, do the basic tour (11 GBP) and skip the Gold tour (19GBP). If you don't know anything about scotch you might find it interesting. If you have marginal knowledge of scotch you will find it useless. The barrel ride is a joke and has no useful info.
We found ourselves up at the royal mile with time to kill before a tour reservation so decided to check this out. Initially I was against it, but then read the reviews and decided to spring for it. My wife (not a scotch drinker) did the basic tour and I did the gold since the included 4 additional tastings seemed like a bargain; was I WRONG!
Barrel tour was waste of time and insult to intelligence.
Aroma room was moderately useful and well presented; hence one star.
The display room of over 3300 bottles of scotch from a private collection was beautiful, but we were allowed less than 3 minutes in the room. I could have spent much more time but was forced out into the tasting room.
Ah, the tasting room was massively disappointing. The four additional tastings of the gold tour tastes were pre-selected; which they do NOT inform you at the beginning of the tour, nor do they tell you that the tastings are less than 1 dram. WTF! OK, I get that I won't be able to try high end rare scotches as part of a tour, but I wanted to try something new as I had tried two of the four scotches, but was told no. Guests should be given a choice of scotches from a list of about a dozen for the tastings. They do have an extensive scotch menu in the tasting room, but many of them are not stocked. In the hour we were in the tasting room over a dozen patrons wished to try scotches that were on the menu only to be told they were unavailable. Just before we left I inquired about the lack of availability and was informed that the tour gets the dregs of what is available and the disgruntled staff member told me where in Edinburgh to go to sample a wide range of scotches.
VERY DISSAPPOINTING EXPERIENCE!!
If you're a fan of some good old scotch then you will love this place, if like me, you hate the stuff, this place will be of little interest. As whisky is Scotland's drink this distillery is a rather appropriate tourist attraction and just an excuse for a good old fashioned knees up.
On the tour you find out all about how whisky is made and the journey it goes on before it ends up in your hip flask. At the end of the tour you come to the big guns and end up in a room surrounded by whisky, in fact, it's the largest collection of whisky in the world. Thrilling.
A ticket on this tour is £11.50 and you're given a dram of scotch on the tour... I can't help but think this is a bit measly considering the tour is so pricey plus you get teased by being surrounded by 3,500 bottles at the end. Hmm...
WOW selection of whiskies, WOW collection of 3000k whiskies!
good tour, explaining how whisky is made and then giving you the opportunity to taste your favourite type
i love this place.. check out the my avatar.. that's me sitting at the bar drinking scotch..
the barrel ride is a bit dorky.. and their store is quite expensive... however.. they have one hell of line-up of scotch.. and really knowledgeable staff..
if you even like alcohol.. you must visit here while you're in edinburgh
The whole tour (barrel ride and tasting) borders on being cheesy, but informative. Kind of like going to Disneyland to learn about how it's a small world after all. But if you're ready to embrace the cheese and learn a little bit about how whisky is made and learn a little bit about Scotland geography (from a whisky glass), then this is a must-see.
I don't drink a lot of scotch, but this was an interesting stop because we actually learned about the different regions of Scotland and the type of liquor they produce. We even smelled things that are added to the mix. We didn't get a chance to go on the barrel ride, which was a bummer. I liked the fact that this isn't a brewery tour...it's actually more like a mini-course. The store is fun, too.
If you love scotch whisky, you must stop here. Despite my ancestry, I've never developed a taste for Scotch. I tried again but I remain unable to cultivate a taste for it. I have a certificate from this facility on the wall in my office along with the more predictable certificates. The tour isn't amazing, but it's part of the experience & you should go for it.
In two trips to Edinburgh, I've skipped the tour here both times, but I would never miss the shop. They have almost every brand of scotch in here, most in multiple variations and sizes. This is a great place to come if you want variety. They have many small (50ml) bottles, which make a great opportunity for sampling new whiskies and loading up the nooks and crannies of your luggage for the trip home. I bought twelve of those bad boys last time, and one of them turned out to be my favorite scotch of the last few years.
The tour is a great introduction to Scotch, giving a good orientation to the regions and flavours. Shop and cafe are quite good, and perhaps even a better highlight. Though when I was there, they were revamping the whiskey barrel ride feature, which I imagine makes it somewhat different than the conference room PowerPoint approach the tour takes now.
the barrel ride was a bit corny, but the information and demonstrations are very informative!
you get a free whiskey glass and test out 1 (or 4 for the more expensive tour) whiskey!
they do carry rare(r) whiskeys too like Oban!!! (yay!)
if you have small kids (under 12 ish) dont waste your money on this tour for them (unless you want to teach them about whiskey making), they will think its boring, and they will just annoy all of the adults!
