Glenora Distillery

I finally got moving early enough to walk the little loop down to the highway and back through the Distillery entrance and up the hill to our chalet.  Nice little loop that I should have done each day.  The Distillery is really quite easy to look at, nestled back against a big hill along the Glenora brook.  White buildings with black shingles - really attractive view from the highway.  Our plan was to meet Donnie for a private tour at 10:15 so no real urgency to get a move on, but we got all packed up and down to the pub for breakfast.  Requested a table on the patio alongside the brook (which at first was considered an impossibility by our waitress) and had a very pleasant meal in the sunshine.  I have to mention our waitress for a couple of classic Cape Breton comments and actions.  She is from CB, but working winters in Leduc in the “food service” business (Swiss Chalet?), and back at Glenora for the summer.  She was commenting on how much she’s learned about wine service:  “like they have different glasses for different wine - what’s that about?” Or “some guy asks for Cabernet Sauvignon and I’m like - dude that’s two kinds of wine!”  Only somewhat tongue in cheek ;o). She also had the dropsees, which might be a prereq to serve food and drinks near Inverness.  But on to the distillery tour.  Donnie met us at 10:15 (a bit early actually) and walked us through a brief frame up of the Scotch Whisky business origins in Scotland.  The distillery was originally the brainchild of Bruce Jardine who thought the area and water source would be ideal for distilling whisky.  He studied whisky making in Scotland and engaged Bowmore to help design, build, ship and set up the copper pot distillation equipment (double distilled).  Donnie walked us through the various cereal grains used in making alcohol and about the unique nature of using only barley to make single malt whisky.  They had originally planned to sprout and dry the barley in a kiln here, but that proved a bridge too far. On to the Mash Tun to create Wort and timber Washback tubs to add yeast for fermentation.  Then we overlooked the two Copper stills with the Spirit Safe in between.  Then we were off to the warehouse for a special single cask tasting.  Matthew extracted some water in a jar from the brook for scoogling and off to the wharehouse we went.  Donnie walked us through the whole nosing and sipping before and after adding a drop of water and starting again.  He was drawing from a cask dated 1997, so pretty special indeed.  This special tour was a highlight for Myles as he is learning ever more about mixology.  With much gratitude to Donnie and little Jimmy Matheson, we wrapped up our stay at the Glenora Distillery.  There had been some discussion about trying to get up the Annapolis valley to check some wine - but we realized after driving through Port Hood where we were delayed by some sort of community parade that the driving time is just too long when you don’t know the roads and routes.  In the end, we barely made it into Halifax by 5:30 with only a lunch stop at the Dock in New Glasgow.  The Dock was an Irish pub (shocking to find one of those?) in an historic old building on the river.  Had a great meal served by a delightful Irishwoman (likely owner) in a classic pub atmosphere.  In Halifax, we briefly explored the harbour and wharf area before meeting Clara for dinner at Tempo for our last lobster supper.  After we’d pawned all our stuff (cooler box and remaining lunchables) off on Clara over a glass of wine in the hotel, the boys walked Clara home and then found a Ceilidh enroute back (at Concreatery) for one last hurrah before the long flight home.