Warming up to Scotch

A tour of the Chivas Brothers’ whisky distilleries in Scotland’s picturesque Speyside region takes visitors through the process of whisky making as it was done 600 years ago.

IT’S too cold this time of the year to hike the Smugglers Trails, three historic routes used by Glenlivet whisky smugglers in the 19th century to transport their illicit products to the big towns and ports. Today, the bucolic hills to the north of Cairngorm National Park in Spey­side are quiet but 200 years ago, many bloody encounters occurred between distillers and excise men looking for casks of whisky buried under the heather.