This will appeal to all you single malt guys (plus a few others):
In 2011, I was invited to a birthday party that was being thrown in a small castle in the Scottish Highlands. What was particularly interesting about it was that the castle is leased to Diageo which was created when Grand Metropolitan PLC merged with Guinness PLC in 1997. The company owns many big-name brands including Smirnoff, Baileys, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan...and over a hundred whiskies including Cardhu, Dalwhinnie, Lagavulin, Oban, and Talisker. If I remember correctly, the company owns something like eighteen Scottish distilleries.
Diageo uses the castle for corporate retreats for itself, but also makes it available to outsiders. In fact, if you can rustle up a minimum of sixteen people, you can rent the entire castle for a weekend for a very reasonable price...and the price is all-inclusive. The castle's library, which includes a full size billiard table, has given up about half of its shelf space to whisky from Diageo's brands (there are other drinks available for the non-whisky drinkers).
When I say that the price is all-inclusive, it includes all the whisky you can drink - you just help yourself! You can construct your own tastings based on whatever criteria take your fancy, sample a variety of some extravagantly expensive whiskies, or simply enjoy your favourite brands. In case that's not enough to get you in the spirit, the staff will kit you out with kilts, lay on a piper to pipe in the haggis for dinner, followed by a ceilidh for kicking up your heels after dinner. They also gave us a tour of the Cardhu distillery with its own tasting, but I was severely hung over at that point and couldn't manage more than a few sniffs.
I mention all this not just because it was an experience I will never forget, but also because it occurs to me that it would be a very cool trip for a group of AudioCircle whisky-heads and their partners (even though there would be no audio content). It's not the easiest of places to get to, especially from North America, and the total cost for me from the west coast of Canada was probably about $2,500, which is quite a lot for a long weekend. If I were to do it again, I'd spend more time and money to see more of Scotland.
Here's the link:
http://www.drummuircastle.com/ - enjoy!
Martyn
