The Whisky Makers Cellar Experience at Johnnie Walker Princes Street

22:00
September 3, 2021

PR visit / All thoughts and opinions are, of course, my own.

Johnnie Walker Princes Street has been the talk of the town in the whisky sphere here in Edinburgh, ever since it was announced. I had the pleasure of visit for a pre-launch event to check it out and it certainly made me even more curious about what the rest of the building would hold. When I got the invitation to The Whisky Makers Cellar Experience I was thrilled to come along and check it out.

The Whisky Makers Cellar

The Whisky Makers Cellar experience is held underground in the building’s ‘ private cask area’ where you get he opportunity to try whiskies straight from a cask. Throughout the tasting you get to choose two single malts, one experimental whisky and one single grain before finishing with a so called Makers Blend. Everyone get to choose from a menu, which changes over time, and the host assists with describing characters and flavours so that even those who might not know that much about whisky yet, can make their choices. If you are doing the experience with a partner or a friend I can also recommend making different choices so that you can share the whiskies and try a sip of all the different choices.

I must say that the absolute highlight of our tasting was our brilliant host Gordon who managed to make the experience both entertaining and educational. Each one of the four of us who were taking part in the experience got a go at drawing samples from the casks. When we got to the last whisky, Gordon chose a Makers Blend that he thought would suit us all and it’s quite an interesting way that they have put this all together. But I won’t spoil this part of the experience for you.

I love tasting when you get to compare whiskies right next to each other. Not only can it be really helpful when you are trying to figure out what whisky notes you prefer, but there’s also something so wonderful about seeing how different whiskies can be, in spite of them all being made from the same ingredients. And since I love a grain whisky I was thrilled to see one included in the line up, which also makes total sense since it has such an important part in blended whisky.

The only thing I would’ve changed is to have a little bit more time as we got more chatty towards the end of the tasting and had to leave just as we were in the middle of interesting whisky conversation with the other couple in the room. But I of course understand that there needs to be a time limit for tastings like these.

All together it was a well designed experience which would appeal to whisky enthusiasts who like sitting down to have a closer look at various whiskies straight from a cask.

The Explorers Bothy Bar

Following our experience we had a table booked in the Explorers Bothy Bar. This is the bar which is opposite the 1820 Rooftop Bar and doesn’t have access to the terrace, which can be good to know if that’s what you are here for, but The Explorers Bothy Bar is well worth a visit on it’s own. I’d recommend checking out the whisky ‘vessels’ that are displayed as the centre piece in the room as you can find some really interesting drams here. We tried a delicious single cask grain whisky which ticked all the boxes for my flavour preferences.

We also tried several of the cocktails and there’s a really fun whisky cocktail menu with lots of variation so there’s sure to be something for everyone. The most fun is probably the Smoky Giggle Juice with Guinness and ice-cream, inspired by the Lagavulin super-fan Nick Offerman, aka Ron Swanson. I love that there’s finally a place that do more than only highballs, old fashioned and whisky sours (although I love these!) because whisky is so versatile so why not do something a bit more experimental? If highballs and old fashioned’s are your favourite then perhaps the Journey of Flavour experience is for you, as this introductory tour offers these as well. You can read more about my previous visit to Johnnie Walker Princes Street here.