Union Canal basin, Tollcross

A lovely day. We took the bus towards Edinburgh getting off at Kingsknowle to walk along the Union Canal towpath into the city and down the Lothian Road to the Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience in the old Binns Department Store building.

There were many pairs of Goosanders on the canal and we also saw a trail of bubbles moving across the water. A couple who also saw the bubble trail said they’d seen an otter on the canal hereabouts and that was heralded by a trail of similar bubbles.

The Whisky Experience was a birthday present from last June. It was an excellent experience too, with lots of information about the John Walker story as well as the intricacies of making blended whiskies from 4 main single malt expressions of various ages from many of the 32 distilleries owned by the Diageo Group. All very slick with impressive audio-visuals, guides and actors.

Included in the experience was a whisky highball tasting which was based on a flavour profile which you completed online beforehand. I wasn’t impressed by the my highball.

Also included at the end of the tour was two further tastings, either cocktails or wee drams. The others chose cocktails while I went for the drams: the JW Green Label and JW Gold Label Reserve. Both were acceptable but had the nose of a blend tasting nothing like a single malt.

From the Whisky Experience we walked to the West End for a very fine Indian meal before returning to the 1820 roof top bar of the Johnnie Walker experience for more samples. This time we tried the 12 and 15 year old Cardhu both of which were better than the blended brands.

The 44 bus took us back to Balerno

Today’s blip is of the Union Canal

Notice anything about it?