Page 127 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2024 LIMA

There’s no “fore” play for me, as I prefer
dance-clubbing to golf-clubbing, but my
tour features whisky and luxury aplenty, in‐
terwoven with an overview of city sights
and country delights. My friends and I rico‐
chet between the cultural attractions of Ed‐
inburgh, where the Royal Mile stretches
between Holyrood Palace and an imposing
hilltop castle, and Glasgow, famed for its
music scene, street murals, and museums.
Traveling further north and west, we’re
wooed by the wild, windswept beauty of the
Highlands, where we encounter mountains
familiarly dubbed “Bens,” and take a wind‐
ing road through the cinematic, snow-
dusted peaks of Glen Coe.

Local Tastes and Tipples
The tour offers a true taste of Scotland,
in the literal sense, as well. We sample exot‐
ically flavored chocolates—lemongrass and
lime or raspberry and black pepper, any‐
one?---at the award-winning Iain Burnett
Highland Chocolatier near the quaint tourist
town of Pitlochry, and I welcome the warm
burn of Scotch on an Oban whisky distillery
tour.
Every night, we stay at a different ICMI
Luxury Collection hotel, which provides top-
notch repasts. Impressively, Inverlochy Cas‐
tle, Crossbasket Castle, and Greywalls all
feature fine dining restaurants from
renowned chef Michel Roux Jr. At the Isle of
Eriska, I’m wowed by Eggs Balmoral for
breakfast (poached eggs with haggis atop a
toasted muffin; delicious)—and the decanter
of complimentary whisky in my room. My
most surprising meal is at Glasgow’s Ox and
Finch, a casual brasserie serving Scotland-
meets-the-Mediterranean small plates that Dessert at the Michel Roux Jr restaurant at
are simply superb. Crossbasket Castle.
Top: Ox and Finch in Glasgow, Scotland
serves small plates featuring creative flavor
Left: This modern-day depiction of
combinations.
Saint Mungo by street artist Smug is
one of 22 murals on Glasgow’s City
Centre Mural Trail. Mungo is Glas-
gow’s patron saint.

WINEDINEANDTRAVEL.COM 127