The Scotch Whisky Experience

🛍️ Update from our retail team! 🛍️ 2024 has been a year of collaboration for our retail team at SWE. We have had the pleasure of working with local designers, artists and manufactures to create and produce a number of exciting new ranges, that are as diverse as Scotch whisky itself! We are so delighted with the results, bringing colour, vibrancy and a sense of fun to the shop floor! A big thank you goes out to our wonderful suppliers – you have done us proud!

We are deeply saddened to hear of the recent passing of Claive Vidiz. His passion and enthusiasm for Scotch whisky was, and continues to be, an inspiration to all of us. We are honored to be the home of the Diageo Claive Vidiz Scotch Whisky Collection, and are committed to preserve the legacy and passion which led to his wonderful whisky collection. Every day it is a joy to tell Claive's story and for our visitors to marvel at the 3384 bottles that he amassed over 35 years. When Claive visited us to see the Collection in situ for the first time, he said: “We have an expression in Brazil, the good son returns home’, and in my view the collection is back with its family now.” Our deepest condolences to Claive’s family and all those who were close to him.

Last week Ross and Lenka attended an on-site training session with Evac+Chair. They learnt how to use our evacuation chairs, giving them the tools to teach our team to successfully operate them. Evac+Chair, are the global leader in emergency evacuation chairs, for the mobility impaired. Independently tested and proven to be the safest and fastest means of evacuation in emergency situations to assist in saving people's lives. A huge thank you to Adam Evans for coming up to Edinburgh!

For #worldmentalhealthday2024 we took inspiration from Mental Health Foundation and hosted our very own "Tea & Talk" station throughout the day here at The Scotch Whisky Experience . It sparked some lovely conversations (What biscuit do you think goes best with tea?) and thoroughly enjoyed tasting all our amazing regional whisky teas (made by PekoeTea Edinburgh) as well 🍵 . Thanks to everyone who joined for tea & talk yesterday! Slainte 🥃

Excited to announce that we are finalists in the Scottish Whisky Awards 2024 in the Tourism Destination of the Year category. Up against our friends from Isle of Arran Distillers - Lochranza Distillery, Isle of Raasay Distillery – Borodale House and Rosebank Distillery. We are looking forward to the award ceremony on 28th November when the winner will be crowned!

This months 'Meet the Team' is Brett Campbell, our Assistant Restaurant Manager in Amber Restaurant. Brett joined us in June, and has been a great addition to the team! 🥃 What do you like best about your job? I really enjoy that my job offers a lot of variety each day, from looking after large groups to couples, to having chats about whisky and everything in between. Everyone is very friendly and helpful at SWE! 🥃 What do you like to do in your free time? When I'm not working, I enjoy family time. I have a 7 year old daughter who loves the outdoors, so lots of bike rides, visits to parks, and playing sports including football and basketball. I also enjoy watching movies, seeing live comedy (Edinburgh is the perfect place to be), football and F1. 🏎️ 🥃 What is your favourite whisky? I currently am enjoying the original Loch Lomond whisky, but also enjoy Oban, (it's the nearest distillery to where I grew up). I'm really excited to try many others including Isle of Raasay and Nc'nean.

DISTILLERS’ FAIR Tickets now available! 🥃 Once again, we are hosting our ever popular Distillers’ Fair on Sunday 29th and Monday 30th December. This year, our Distillers’ Fair will take place in our Whisky Bonds, where you can enjoy the rare opportunity to chat with the people behind the whiskies first-hand. Following our guided tour, the Gold Tour whisky tasting element will be delivered as part of the Distillers’ Fair BOOK the Gold Tour between 11am-4pm to gain entry to the Fair. Keep your eyes peeled on our event page for more announcements soon! BUY TICKETS: https://bit.ly/3BrYCBH The Glenturret , Lindores Abbey Distillery, Gleann Mor Spirits Company, Holyrood Distillery, Bladnoch Distillery, The Glasgow Distillery Co., Ballindalloch Distillery, Kilchoman Distillery, Annandale Distillery

Gillian and Georgie are here at the National Museums Scotland ready to welcome students as founding members of Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) China Ready. We hope that they all enjoy their studies in our beautiful city! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What a night! We are thrilled to have won two awards at the VisitScotland Central and East Thistle Awards: Best Visitor Attraction and the Rising Star award for Annika Schneider. 🌟 Having invested £3.5M in our three new immersive tour areas at the end of last year, it’s great to be recognised in the Best Visitor Attraction category. The investment is the backdrop to allow our brilliant team to shine when welcoming the world and helping them on their journey to fall in love with Scotch whisky. We pride ourselves on being a hotbed of rising stars who have made their way through the tourism and whisky industries over the decades, and last night was all about Annika, She has truly made her role her own as PA to the Chief Executive, while also driving sustainability initiatives, enhancing staff communications, and managing the creativity club. Our phenomenal team in Amber restaurant and events were also shortlisted for Best Eating Experience, so we are raising a dram to them too. A big thank you and well done to all our teams at SWE, now onwards to the national finals! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Susan Morrison, Angela Dineen, Lucy Hawk-Walker #ThistleAwards.

Today is International Day of Sign Languages! 👋 To celebrate this we would like to highlight again our audio-visual handsets which now help us deliver our new tour experience in both British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL). We are also excited to now offer International Sign and seven further languages are available in subtitles. Thanks again goes to Deaf Action for working with us on this project.