VIP trip to Macallan in Speyside.

MCLEANSCOTLAND were the chosen whisky tour company for The Global Connection Pty Ltd, Australia, to look after VIP guests in Scotland. David Weir, Chief Experience Officer (CEO) Golden Carrot (a division of The Global Connection Pty Ltd)

“Hi Paul, It was great to chat with you earlier. As per our discussion we have been asked by our client, Beam Global Australia, to create a tour of their Macallan Whisky Distillery for one of their channel partners and his family”.

Trip January 2013 Andy Grant, Driver/guide for the trip.

“I collected Avril, Chris and Kinsy from the Hotel du Vin in Edinburgh’s Old Town. Be warned! Edinburgh is a really difficult place to navigate by car at the moment, due to roadworks for trams. It took me nearly an hour to travel about three miles!

We then headed straight out of Edinburgh, heading straight for the small village of Craigellachie (Speyside) and the hotel there. The road up there is, to be honest, not very interesting but I informed them of some of the history surrounding the road which helped to pass the time. Thinking back it was mainly regarding battles! It took longer to get there than we thought due to unforeseen circumstances but did have a quick visit to Culloden. We arrived at the Craigellachie hotel and the clients swiftly checked in to the hotel in a painless fashion and then met me in the Inn across the road for a couple of drinks. I introduced them to my favourite whiskies, Aberlour 10yo and Highland Park 10yo, which went down well in more ways than one! I, unfortunately had stop there as any more and Avril & Chris would be going nowhere the day after.

The next day saw the very short trip to the Macallan Distillery where Chris had a private tour arranged by Paul. A small problem was that Kinsie was too young (6 months old) to go on the tour so we made other plans! As it had been snowing, we went on the short run to Grantown on Spey via some absolutely stunning scenery – really impressive.

Our return coincided with Chris’ return from the tour and we were invited into the Board room for Chris & Avril’s whisky tasting. I did try to get Avril to drive back to Edinburgh but she gracefully declined! They got to taste four of the Macallan’s products and I took some on the tip of my tongue. The 18yo is absolutely stunning and the Macallan can rightly be proud of it. All too soon the tour came to an end and I can say that Elizabeth did everyone proud in the way she coped with us. She was seriously thinking of kidnapping Kinsie as she’d fallen in love with her!

On the way home the road again threw a few problems at us, but this was more than made up for by the closeness to the snow covered hills, with Chris doing his best to fill up his memory card…………and so back to the Hotel du Vin with Avril doing a better job of navigating Edinburgh than I could have done – awesome!

Summing up, a very quick trip, but a pleasure to drive two such nice people around my country…….and never forgetting Kinsie:”  Andy Grant. (left in photograph)

The tour was arranged and planned by Paul McLean and David Weir, to accommodate the family on their trip to Macallan. Said Paul “Starting in Edinburgh, we provided a driver guide to take the family up into the Highlands, staying overnight in Craigellachie. Over the two days, we had arranged a VIP tour of the Macallan Distillery, hotel, sightseeing and generally took good care of them – as we do with all our guests”.

Wee note; we all know Macallan is an Edrington brand, Beam look after marketing and distribution in Australia.

“We were happy to work with Beam Global on this trip, as we work with many distilleries and companies in the whisky industry, this is what we do!”

Paul McLean

www.mcleanscotland.com  info@mcleanscotland.com