The Dalmore Just Launched a New Luxury Visitor Experience
If you’ve been following the news, you know that the whiskey industry—both here and abroad—is in a tough spot. Sales are down and people are drinking less, and that means that some distilleries are not getting as many visitors as they once did. Amidst this turmoil, scotch distillery the Dalmore has reopened to tours after being closed for several years, but it has shifted to a luxury experience for small groups that is only available by private booking. So could this new business model be the key to success?
The Dalmore is a Highland distillery founded by Sir Alexander Matheson in 1839 on the scenic shores of the Cromarty Firth. The distillery ages its whisky in a combination of bourbon and sherry casks, along with some other types of fortified wine, and has become as well known for its richly flavored single malts as it is for its former master distiller Richard Paterson’s antics at tastings (things like saying “Helllooooo!” to his glass and throwing some whisky on the floor, to the delight of onlookers). The distillery closed its doors about five years ago during the height of the pandemic, and never reopened. Instead, the team decided to completely rebuild and rebrand the visitor experience, which I had a chance to check out in person when I visited a few weeks ago. What was once your typical distillery tour is now a private experience only available to groups of up to eight that can be customized to individual preferences, with pricing to match.
A visit to the distillery now begins with a welcome Rob Roy cocktail made with Dalmore 18-year-old and a visit to the Kiln, the reconstructed room where floor malting used to take place. From there you embark upon a three- or four-hour journey around the distillery, the highlight being a visit to the new Stillhouse that houses stills created to match the old ones exactly and has a beautiful floor-to-ceiling glass window that makes you feel like you’re in a church. A guided tasting is part of the tour, of course, and beforehand you can let the team know what whiskies you would like to try or what styles you prefer. Lastly, you can enjoy cocktails and neat pours of some of the distillery’s ultra-aged whiskies, like the 30- and 40-year-old expressions, at prices that are meant to be a bit more reasonable than what you’d find at a high-end hotel bar.
“Closer to the booking time, our concierge team will phone you and we’ll talk about the visit to try and understand who you are, are you visiting to celebrate an occasion, are you staying in the area, where do you come from,” Ludo Ducrocq, global head of ambassadors and brand homes, told Robb Report. “Based on the conversation, we’ll be able to steer the guests towards personalizations. For example, we can offer transport from a nearby hotel. We could tweak the whiskeys you’ll be tasting. We could look at food pairing. We can tweak the content of what we talk about. Some people might be interested in the history of scotch whisky, others might be more interested in the technicalities of whiskymaking. So depending on what you tell us, we’ll be able to tailor the experience.”
This revamped distillery experience is designed with luxury in mind, with prices starting at £250 per person (about $340), and ranging upwards from there if you choose to taste more expensive whiskies or include a dinner as part of your visit. That is actually kind of a deal if you compare it to other high-end distillery visits—for example, a private tour at the Macallan will set you back nearly $2,500. This new model seems to be working, as visits are currently booked through the fall, likely due in part to the fact that the distillery has been closed to the public for so long.
There has been some conflicting data about distillery visits overall in Scotland. Back in February, the BBC reported that whisky tourism, an important source of jobs and driver of the economy, was down. Major companies like Diageo said it would close four of its distillery visitor centers due to poor attendance, and cut hours at others. Other reports, like one from The Scotsman, cited numbers from the Scotch Whisky Association showing that whisky tourism has shown growth over the past few years. The reality might fall somewhere in between these two trends, but clearly the Dalmore is feeling bullish about the future, not just by opening this new experience but by literally doubling down on production instead of cutting back.
Ducrocq points to data from the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions, which shows 2024 and 2025 as record years for visits to distilleries (this is supported by the SWA). “It’s important to differentiate the number of visitors from the revenue from visitors at distilleries,” he said. “Over the past 30 years, what’s happened in whiskey tourism is that most distilleries have, for lack of a better word, ‘premiumized’ their experiences. In the early days, it was more about attracting as many people as possible in order to recruit people into the category. What’s happened lately is more about developing experiences which develop advocates and fans for life.” In other words, the Dalmore is playing the long game, but it remains to be seen how this will play out over the coming years.
If you’re interested in booking a private experience at the newly reopened Dalmore distillery, you can book directly through the website now.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker
