A Couple of Days in Scotland

I had a couple of days up in Scotland this week. Unsurprisingly whisky featured rather heavily. I didn't do in-depth tasting notes, but here's the ones I tried and any thoughts looking back:

Bruichladdich 1990 (20 yo) Chateau Margaux Cask. Not as heavily wine-influenced as I thought it might be but beautifully smooth and you hardly notice its hefty 50.2% abv.
Compass Box 'Great King Street.' A rather good 'aperitif' blend.
A very clean, extremely smoky Ardbeg 17yo from Cadenhead's. I think this one was from the 'Authentic' collection, bottled at 55.7%.
Ardbeg 1976. This was a lot more earthy than the Cadenhead's bottling. I didn't have a lot of information on this one but it was absolutely superb.
Benromach 10. Steady Speysider.
Two Cask-strength Bowmores, one at 12 and one at 17 years old. They were quite different, the second showing a lot more citrus fruit which surprised me since it was the older of the two, but both were lively and fiery.
Longrow 14. I was, somewhat heretically, on Kelburn's excellent Pivo Estivo by the time we got to the Pot Still, home of the whisky drinker's dream come true back bar (pictured above) but I did a have a cheeky sip of a friend's peaty Springbank.
Isle of Jura 21 yo from the Glenkeir Treasures range. Almost ethereal it was so light.
Isle of Arran Sauternes Cask. I enjoyed this one, great sweet lemon sherbet flavours coming through from the wine cask.
Compass Box 'Spice Tree'. I think the best was the '76 Ardbeg but for the money I thought this was brilliant, and it's one I might go for in the future since by budget doesn't stretch to seventies Ardbeg bottlings!

I'd also recommend the Chaophrya Thai restaurant on Buchanan Street in Glasgow. Good food in a really beautiful setting.

Whisky. A LOT of whisky.

My stay up there was all too brief, although a chance meeting meant I did get a quick look at the Claive Vidiz collection at the Whisky Experience in Edinburgh. By way of contrast my journey back was unfortunately far too long because I was sitting on the train for an hour and a half, looking at the Angel of the North, waiting for some points to be fixed. I began to wonder if the Angel was doing it on purpose, maybe wondering where its share of all those whiskies was?