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Uisge Beatha ~ the water of life
~ Whisky
At The Highlander
Inn we are committed to ensure that one of Scotland's greatest products
and exports should be truly celebrated for it's diversity, quality
and it's unique ability to bring people of all nations and creeds together in a sense
of well-being and camaradarie. It really is "the water of life".
 While
our selection of Single Malts may not be the biggest, it is becoming
one of the most diverse in terms of age, distillery, nose and taste.
Add to this the atmosphere in the bar created by a real mixture
of locals and visitors to the area, talking to each other and sharing
experiences.
Surely this is
the REAL way to experience and enjoy Single Malt Whisky?
Highlander Inn Single Cask Bottlings
Each year Duncan and Tatsuya visit various distilleries and bottlers trying to find a very special Single Cask Scotch Malt Whisky
that we would like to bottle exclusively for the Highlander Inn. This involves going through the warehouses, tasting several cask
samples before deciding at a final 'nosing and tasting' which cask we would like to bottle as our "Annual Single Cask
Bottling".
Duncan started this in 2001 when he was General Manager of the Craigellachie Hotel ~ then one of the top 200 hotels in Britain ~
and it has continued ever since. These bottlings are very much our personal choices, which others also enjoy.
In 2009, Rachel Richard, who has been at the Highlander Inn since 2007, and recently promoted to Assistant Manager, joined us in
the tasting sessions for the first time.
Because of the success of the Annual Single Cask Bottlings, we have recently introduced our "Special Release" series, exclusive bottlings from casks without buying the whole cask.
Conduct your own personal tasting from our
Following the heritage of the art of making whisky, our truly unique 'tasting trays' have been exclusively
made for the Highlander Inn by a local master craftsman. We were certainly the first bar in th UK to produce
trays like this although I'm sure others have now copied us!
They represent the tradition of making whisky; the wood is 30 year old solid oak to represent the casks, the
discs are copper to represent the stills, and the Glencairn glasses are now globally recognised as the best
whisky nosing and tasting glass.
Order up a tray (flight) by menu number - or make up your own selection of 6 different whiskies from our
extensive Whisky List. Enjoy a tray single-handedly, or share it between two of you, the choice is yours.
Currently we have just over 200 different Single Malt Scotch Whiskies available to buy by
the nip.
Have a look at our current
We have a small but professional and friendly team looking after you in the bar and
a la carte restaurant, Tatsuya Minagawa
(Yamagata, Japan) heads up the team, working with Rachel Richard, Claire England, both from Dufftown and Neil Spence
(Aberlour). Scott Morton, our Head Chef and Murray Flett, Chef de Partie also do service shifts to help out.
We have managed to acquire the complete set of 26 bottles of the
"Flora & Fauna"
range of single malts,
bottled at 43.0% alcohol by volume, produced by UDV / Diageo.
It is now on permanent display in the bar and is dedicated to the memory of 2 close friends of the Highlander
Inn:
Jakub Ivanov, our working colleague since April 2006 who tragically passed away on Wednesday 22 August 2007 as
the result of a car accident, and
Michael Jackson, the world's best known ~ and most respected ~ whisky and beer writer, who was a good friend, who died so suddenly after a heart attack on Thursday 30
August 2007.
This series was originally nick-named "flora & fauna" by Michael because of the label designs.
The name stuck and the range has always been known since as the "Flora & Fauna" series.
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