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This distillery wins the price for most picturesque
buildings without doubt. I haven't yet seen any distillery that could
top the way these buildings look like, the water wheel, the kilns and
the beautiful stillroom. A truly wonderful sight, and an excellent choice
for Chivas Brothers to pick as their tourist headquarters for the Chivas
Regal blend.
The tour follows a really unusual path: here you are not taken on a group
with a guide that leads you through the distillery, but you are let go
on your own pace with a leaflet containing all necessary information on
the production processes instead. And where you feel you would like to
know more, you simply ask it to of the production force at had. Excellent!
 After
concluding the 'tour' you are being welcomed in a room where you get to
nose (not taste) a collection of whiskies and where a guide helps you
to identify the different expressions in the glasses. After having had
your dram of Strathisla (too drink this time!) you have a chance to go
with a guide to the warehouse, where he will also open a cask for you
to nose in, excellent.
This tour is quite something else. True, Keith is not exactly in the heart
of the Speyside where the distilleries are concentrated around Craigellachie
and Dufftown, but it is really worth to include a day trip to Keith to
conduct this tour. Keith is also the place the Scottish Tartans Museum
moved too, after having its ground in Edinburgh for years.
Tip: In the weekends there is a tourist railway operational from Dufftown
(close to Glenfiddich) to Keith in which you'll also pass Strathmill distillery.
The line stems back from the day when the railway was used to transport
peat and barley to, and whisky from the distilleries.
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