Visitors to Glasgow looking to get a real taste of the Highlands need look no further than the entrance of their hotel lobby, with the introduction of Scotland’s first ever Whisky Bus.
Offering a daily door-to-door service from six of Glasgow’s largest hotels and George Square, tourists will enjoy a unique whisky-themed experience en-route to the Glengoyne Distillery, located just 14 miles away. An onboard Glengoyne Whisky Expert will host each journey, bringing the distillery to life with interesting and exciting stories from the distillery’s 175-year past, from Rob Roy to whisky smuggling. Using scientifically approved kit from the Malt Whisky Research Institute at Herriot Watt University, a daily nosing competition will also take place. The ‘Best Nose’ each day will be entered into a draw to win a once in a lifetime opportunity on the Glengoyne Selection Panel and be responsible for choosing one of the Limited Edition Single Malts that will be launched in 2009.
Stuart Hendry, Brand Heritage Manager for Glengoyne commented: “With the rising popularity in internet holiday planning over the past few years, there has been a growing trend towards independent travel. This has resulted in more visitors than ever before arriving by car. This new trend, combined with increasing international awareness of drink driving, proved a peculiar problem for the distillery and one that The Whisky Bus solves perfectly.
As well as promoting a strong message against drink driving, the Whisky Bus will also save hundreds of litres of Glengoyne Single Malt Whisky from going down the sink each year. Stuart Hendry explained: “As you would expect, all of the Glengoyne whisky tours include at least one free dram for our visitors to sample. We’ve found that on average, 25% of our 40,000 visitors per year are designated drivers and were therefore only nosing their Malt and leaving the glass un-drunk. This means that a whopping 10,000 drams or 400 bottles of Glengoyne were going down the plughole each year!”
As well as appealing to tourists, it is hoped that locals and whisky loving day-trippers will take advantage of the daily Whisky Bus pick-ups to visit the distillery and sample Glengoyne’s amber nectar. The Whisky Bus and tour can also be arranged for private use for large groups. A ticket on the Whisky Bus costs £18.50 and includes transport from one of seven collection points in Glasgow and a tour of the distillery, washed down with a couple of drams of the award-winning Glengoyne 10 and 17 Year Old Single Highland Malts. Tickets can be bought by calling 0800 0141 495 or visiting www.thewhiskybus.co.uk.
