MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1983 - Mississippi Years


Denmark (continued)

For one of our trips to Denmark, I was having trouble booking our SAS flight online, so I called them on the phone. The upshot of it was that if I booked with them right now I would get a ‘two for one’. I paid full fare and Nancy flew for the $75 tax fee only. As a result, we had extra money and we carved out a five-day trip to Islay, Scotland in the middle of our Danish visit. Islay is an island a short distance off the west coast from Glasgow. We had become big fans of Single Malt Scotch Whiskey and the small island had six working distilleries all of which we visited and sampled. As Friends of Laphroaig, we got to claim our one-square-foot of land near the distillery. After each tour, we were given a small dram of their whiskey to drink. At Bowmore, we were served our sample of 12-year-old in a bar setting that overlooked an inlet bay. Most folks on the tour threw their dram down quickly and left. Nancy and I sat on our bar stools and talked about the whiskeys we had sampled. We were the only ones left when the bar maid came to us and asked is we would like to sample their 15-year-old, “but of course,” we said. Bowmore was becoming our new favorite. After a bit she came back again and offered a sample of their 18-year-old. We weren’t driving so why not. After that she figured we’d had enough and wouldn’t move up to their best. We smiled, thanked her, and went away happy. We have always had a bottle of Bowmore in the cabinet since then.