Benromach Distillery — Attraction in Great Britain

Well, this one is not going to be pretty. 3/5 at most.

Our Benromach tour was simply disappointing.

In the distillery shop, our guide came to get us. She introduced herself and, without a hint of a smile — something you notice after visiting dozens of whisky distilleries from Slovakia to Texas — she rattled off the rules for the tour. "Photos can be taken anywhere except for the stillhouse building" sounded quite promising. And it also meant we'd be able to take photos in the warehouse, even better!

Our faces quickly dropped when we left the shop for the first production building and realized that all the production happened in that single building, meaning no photos were allowed anywhere in it. Not even by the malt mill or the mash tun. Just as I was about to loudly grumble about this obvious nonsense, it turned out the guide did allow photos from an antistatic mat next to the mash tun, from where you could see the stills through an opening in the wall. Better than nothing.

In the stillhouse, it turned out the guide also didn't tolerate us straying from her or freely walking around the equipment — at least one colleague got a telling off for looking around the stills, which is a completely standard activity on every tour I've ever been on.

After seeing the building where casks are filled, we moved on to the warehouse, where the guide suddenly remembered that photos weren't allowed in the warehouse either. As if the experience so far hadn't been embarrassing enough. Disappointed, we returned to the shop where everyone sat down in front of three glasses of Benromach single malt — 10-year-old, 15-year-old, and Cask Strength 2014 — and after quickly reciting what was in each glass, the guide vanished.

That was an embarrassing experience, which was all the more surprising three days after an amazing tour of the Cairn, Benromach's...

Having been a fan of the whisky for years, I was super excited for the Exploration Tour, and it did not disappoint.

The good: Our tour guide Brian was knowledgeable, charming and funny. We were only two people on our tour, and he quickly tailored the tour to our knowledge, and answered all our questions. The distillery itself is small, so it's easy to grasp the process and understand the full storytelling. The other employees were really friendly, too. The distillery is closed during weekends, so we got to experience it without the usual heat and noise, which was nice.

The bad: Photo opportunities were limited. The tasting was fine, but nothing we couldn't buy in shops. Our guide didn't stay with us throughout the tasting, but did check in a few times. The tour is also on the expensive side. Minor quibbles, to me, but might matter to someone else.

Overall, it was a great experience. We're definitely considering returning for one of the longer tours....

Please don’t waste your money! We came here with such high expectations based on friends’ recommendations and had booked the most expensive tour (Heritage Tour). The tour started off fine but very soon it became clear that our guide (an older man) was more concerned about wrapping up the tour than taking the tour explain the unique aspects of the distillery. We also weren’t allowed to take any photos in ANY part of the distillery. More importantly, the tour was supposed to include a “tutored tasting of Benromach’s liquid history”. After 45 minutes-1 hour, we were left in the tasting with our drams and our guide just left!! We saw him on the way out. We’ve done a number of other distillery tours and this was the worst and the most expensive of all the tours!! One the plus side, the other staff that we met were very friendly and they even made me a cup of tea as I was driving and not tasting...