I had a trip to Scotland booked for next week (March 15th – 20th). It’s a trip I’d been looking forward to for months, with planned visits to about four different distilleries booked well in advance. Unfortunately, that all went out the window now thanks to the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus, with most distilleries deciding to close their doors to visitors for the duration of the outbreak.
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Balvenie was one of the first ones to let me know that they had decided to cancel their tours with a very nice note:
This means, unfortunately, your Balvenie visit is cancelled. If your visit is able to take place any time in the future (after this April) we will honour it free of charge.
If you are able to rebook your visit sometime after April then please contact us and we will be delighted to assist.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your valued co-operation.
Late on the 10th of March, Glenfiddich also joined in, cancelling tours and refunding people for their tickets.
We regret that the site is currently closed to all visitors.
This is to protect you and our people in accordance with government and World Health Organisation guidance on COVID-19.
We will of course refund your booking with us, and would like to offer you a complimentary visit to Glenfiddich in the future.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your valued co-operation.
While some distilleries are still trying to advertise their tours, especially Glendronach touting their brand new visitor center, with the outbreak worsening at the moment it seems like more distilleries are likely to follow suit and close for visitors as well.
The moral of the story is that visitors to these areas should keep a keen eye on distilleries they plan to visit to make sure they are still open. Not all of the distilleries on our itinerary have closed, and at the moment it’s still a minority of facilities that have taken these steps.
Especially as the outbreak continues to spread, it’s probably a good idea to re-evaluate any planned travel anyway (my wife and I certainly cancelled our own).
Whiskey might be mostly alcohol, but it’s not quite as germ killing as the antiseptic version.
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