Arriving in Speyside I was greeted by our host, Sophie and introduced to Christopher of Bexxonn.com – a thoroughly nice chap with a gorgeous website about the luxury world of whiskies and watches, please do check it out, the photography especially is incredible.

We got to know each other a bit over the next hour or so, trading stories of our favourite whiskies, tackling inevitable football woes and generally having a laugh as we were driven to Rothes house through the rolling hills and picturesque scenery of the Scottish Highlands.

Excitement levels were building as we meandered through the hills and passed some classic distilleries in Dufftown on our way. It really is a ‘spiritual’ place for whisky lovers and me specifically, excuse the pun, as depite spending a fair amount of time in Scotland nowadays and having spent four days in Speyside just three weeks earlier, I always get a buzz when I go.

Upon arriving at Rothes House we were welcomed like royalty and shown to our very comfortable and spacious rooms, Ronnie who heads up heritage brands for Berry Brothers & Rudd walked us round and gave us a few minutes to freshen up after our travels before sitting down to a homemade fish pie and chatting about Scottish and distillery history.

If ever a brand had a strong character pushing it, its Glenrothes. In Ronnie they have someone so full of energy of life, of fun, of personality and of great stories. When he speaks, you listen and are fully engaged as his manner is down to earth but, and I hope he does not mind me saying so, sage-like in the depth of his intimate knowledge about both Glenrothes and Berry Brothers & Rudd.

Once done with lunch we headed over the distillery, a lovely walk in the crisp Scottish air, here Ronnie handed over to Eric who took us round the distillery, politely pausing now and then for me to get a selfie or two with the stills or casks as I always do.

We heard stories about how the distillery manager’s house is smaller than the house given to the excise man of old in order to keep the tax man at bay, we walked through the cemetary with its intriguing head stone carvings and learnt about how Knockando actually loaned Glenrothes the cash to finishing building the distillery following the ‘Big Crash’ of 1878-1879.

Glenrothes itself was founded by the chap behind The Macallan as he saw the need for a different style of spirit to be in production.

As we walked around the distillery we saw a mash tun that was decomissioned many moons ago but has been kept as a memory of production gone past, we were told about two unused stills also being present but behind a wall we were unable to pass.