Oban

A two-hour drive from where we were stayed in Dunoon will take you to Oban. Its a fairly small town but has some decent restaurants, a brewery and a distillery. Arriving at lunchtime we went straight for our pre-booked meal at Ee-usk on North Pier. You couldn't ask for a better location, looking right out over the harbour through its glass frontage. Its a shame the weather wasn't up to much.

We were led to a prime table and ordered the drinks in. Unsurprisingly there's a good range of whiskys, including a few from the nearby distillery. Beer-wise there's nothing from the local Oban Brewery but there's some bottles from Fyne Ales so myself and my dad have a Piper's gold. Its a decent bitter session beer with English hops and goes well with the seafood platter we choose as starter. The Thai fish cakes were wonderfully spiced and delicious and the king prawn wrapped in salmon made an interesting juxtaposition of textures. Myself and Daisy also bravely tried our first oyster, straight out of the local loch. It was okay but nothing exciting, not sure I'd pay for one again.

The mains were all decent sized portions, particularly the whole, stuffed sea-bass and haddock and chips. The food all tasted great too. My scallops were cooked perfectly, but I still don't like those orange valve things. The staff were friendly and helpful and food reasonably priced. The only shock came when I saw the price of the Fyne Ales...£4.95 each! Its only £2.25 at the brewery not 50 miles away...

After lunch the plan was to use our Classic Malts passports for a free tour of the distillery and a few drams. Unfortunately all tours were choc-a-bloc and we had to content ourselves with a perusal of the (fairly bare) shop instead. Not to worry though as we had plenty of distilleries lined up for later in the week....

We didn't make it to the brewery, opting instead for some locally made chocolates and single origin cocoa, much better suited to the Scottish April weather.

7 Distilleries, 7 Days

www.islayinfo.com/islay_whisky_distilleries

Well it was actually 8 distilleries in four days, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it. I've just returned from a wonderful week spent on the west coast of Scotland including a visit to the islands of Islay and Jura.

To be honest I never used to be a fan of any Islay whiskys (or so I thought) because to my palate they were all phenolic peat-bombs with not much other flavour. However through trying whisky-cask aged beers such as Brewdog's Paradox range and Black Isle's Black Islay I came to appreciate that perhaps I had been unfair to them. Indeed not all Islay whiskys are peated and Bruichladdich is now among my favourite malts.

This post is more of a summary of where I went to, a brief overview if you will and I plan to write more in depth pieces on those distilleries I toured.

On Easter Sunday my whisky week began in Oban. Unfortunately they were fully booked for tours. A disappointing start to the week exacerbated by the rain outside,

The order of the day on Tuesday was an early start and two ferries to get from the mainland to Jura. As a long time favourite tipple I was very much looking forward to this distillery and wasn't disappointed.

A ferry back to Islay brought us into Port Askaig, home of Caol Ila - unfortunately closed for rennovation until a week after-bad timing! Bunnahabhain further up the coast were on holiday too, so no visit there either I'm afraid.

Wednesday morning I awoke to find myself in Bowmore (planned) with the eponymous distillery but a stone's throw from our door. That afternoon also saw a tour of Bruichladdich and Kilchoman on the west of the island.

Thursday meant visits to the the south coast "peat monster" distilleries, Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg. Being within a few miles of each other it makes for a great walk, and the sea air certainly clears out the cobwebs!

Not a bad haul!

It wasn't just about the drinking however, I also learnt a lot more about the whisky making process, got to try wash (beer) and new make spirit and chat to like-minded people. I also returned acertain beer to its spiritual home and shared it around with anyone interested. Further postings to come!

All in all a very whisky week, but beer didn't escape completely un-noticed with beverages supped from Ayr, Islay, Oban Bay, Isle of Mull and Fyne Ales. More on these and the whiskys later. I'd definitely recommend a visit to this area of Scotland because not only is it beautiful, so are the drinks.