Glenfarclas 1 month on - A collection of bad iphone photos.

It is a month today since I started at Glenfarclas. Here are a bunch of photos of things that have caught my eye in that time.

A whisky cask that was filled in 1957 and has just been hanging out, thinking about how delicious it's going to be, ever since.

I came across these two casks in a storage area and asked why they had bits of branch wrapped neatly around them. I was told this is commonly done with brandy and cognac casks (which these had once been). It is usually Willow saplings that are used, which is a much softer wood than the oak of the casks. The theory is that Woodworm will attack the softer wood and are less likely to bore into the oak, jeopardising the cask's contents.

My kind of smoked salmon

This is a 1950's "Green Goddess" Bedford fire engine that is owned by Glenfarclas. The story relaid to me is that it was bought because the insurance company offered a discount in the premiums if the distillery had it's own fire-fighting equipment. I think in reality it's just a big toy for the boys. I'm hoping to blag a drive in it, because my inner 3-year old would probably wet himself with excitement.

I found this Coventry Climax FWB fire pump engine (that goes with the Goddess above) sitting in one of the sheds. Vintage motorsport enthusiasts will be drooling. Normal people will be thinking "Eh....it's a grubby old fire pump engine that doesn't look like it's run in years."

In years gone by, the distillery would have owned cows that were fed on the spent grains from the mashing process. This is an old cheese press from those days.

The man on the right in this photo is Miguel. He has just spent 2 days driving his articulated lorry from Spain to deliver a load of fresh sherry casks for us to fill. The extent of his English is "Hello" and "OK", but he still managed to exchange some schoolboy banter with the aid of a wiggling little finger, ribald chuckling and references to chorizo.

There is an old farmhouse onsite that is now used for storage of equipment and supplies. This is the wallpaper from what undoubtedly was "the boy's room". Very Royal Tenenbaums.

I didn't so much find this at the distillery as buy it for £1600 and take it there myself. It is a 2003 Renault Clio 172 Cup and I adore it. It is a very small, light car with a powerful 2-litre engine that makes it hopeless in the snow. It breaks my heart to drive it on the heavily-salted Scottish roads.