Does Scotland Have Good Wine? Or Just Single Malt?
Today, I decided to do some research on Scottish Wines, Vinyards, & Tasting Rooms.
I typed into my Google search “scotland wine”. Here is the first listing in Google’s return:
Scotland Wine – Ratings and ReviewsSnooth has the largest online selection of Scotland wine wine ratings, reviews, and wine labels.
www.snooth.com/wines/scotland/1/0/ – 70k – Cached – Similar pages
Obviously Snooth.com is an example of artifical intelligence gone awry. It appears that the word ‘Scotland’ carried more weight in the search than the word ‘wine’. Plus, it’s a boring website. Let’s just say GaryVee doesn’t have anything to worry about from them! 😀
I dare you to find any wine in their 300 plus listings under the category “Scotland Wine”
Unfortunately, there weren’t many other sites to help me educate myself. In fact, in my brief research, it appears there are only two wineries in all of Scotland. And both of those make fruit wines rather than grape wines. On the upside — one of them is on Orkney, a place we will be spending the third week of our trip. The other is near Perth, and we will be driving past there on our way from Aberdeen to Edinburgh for our fourth week.
Here are their two links:
http://www.orkneywine.co.uk/
http://cairnomohr.homestead.com/
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Thanks for writing such a great blog!
I don’t know about wine but I used to date a guy who was madly in love with Scotland AND with Single Malt Whisky(no e, I learned from him). He had toured many of the distilleries and you’d think they were cathedrals, to hear him talk about them. 🙂 Many of them are very old and have ghosts and legends etc. I tasted lots of Single Malts with him, and while all of them are way too strong for me, I did like the ones from the coast that have this briny kick to them.
Deborah responds: Hmmm, Annie. Are you still on speaking terms? I’d love to know which distilleries he recommends. We have a week in the Caringorms and will be within an easy drive of the Whisky Trail.
Deborah, Deborah — think about climate, and geographical position. Not conducive to growing wine grapes, my dear. You will have to content yourself with single malt scotch and some good British ale. Judy
Deborah responds: Interestingly, Judy, I did come across an article by a British scientist who proposes that global warming may be setting Scotland up for an opportunity to enter the wine world, especially with some of the whites. According to him, Norway is having some real successes already. — plus, I strongly dislike beer and ale.
Hi Deborah, alas my ex passed away a few years ago but I emailed a friend of his who had traveled to Scotland with him (Jim and I broke up before I ever went over there with him).
Here’s the scoop:
“The best distillery we visited was Springbank on the Kintyre peninsula. Most distilleries don’t malt their own barley, or they don’t bottle, or they don’t do this or that. Springbank is one of the few that still does everything (except grow the barley). It’s out of the way, though.
On the so-called Whisky Trail in the Speyside region, there are dozens of distilleries all within a stone’s throw. We went to Macallan and Glenfarclas. They’re both very modern and polished, especially Macallan. I’d suggest that she seek out something smaller and less famous. (Glen Grant or Strathisla, for example).
We didn’t get a chance to do it, but if your friend finds himself/herself over on the west coast, I bet the Islay distilleries are good ones to visit.
Avoid Glenturret. It was purchased by the Famous Grouse, and now it’s kind of Disney-like.”
Deborah responds: Thanks, Annie! We will be on the west coast during our first week. Not far from Islay. We will be on the Isle of Seil just south of Oban. We’ll be sure to avoid Glenturret.
Nope, no Scotland wines mentioned in Sooth.com
I’ll be curious to know what you find out about this.
I think you could do well with the whiskeys and the beer :).
Deborah responds: I’ll agree with you about the whisky, Marcia. But not the beer. I don’t like beer. In fact I hate beer. To be totally honest, I think it may be the hops I don’t like. Is there a beer made without hops?
Hi Deborah, Haven’t you read Page 39 of your itinerary yet!!!
We guide you past Moniack Winery on your way back from Glen Affric.
Admittedly, most of the wine is made from stuff like tree sap (yeucchh!) and raspberries (much better), but it isn’t really the stuff for quaffing down with a nice piece of Aberdeen Angus Fillet Steak! Cheers (hic!) Mike
Deborah responds: Well, Mike, with over 100 pages, I have to admit I’ve mostly skimmed so far. I did print off one copy for Dan to go through with his highlighter pen. Page 39, huh? Going to look at the copy on my computer now…