Whisky hub visitors get bearings with ‘flavour map’

Published on Monday 13 February 2012 00:00

AN OVERHAUL of Scotland’s major whisky centre will see the introduction of an electronic “flavour map” to help visitors pick their ideal dram.

Distilling experts at Heriot-Watt University have helped devise the one-metre-wide map which will cluster dozens of malt whiskies available at the Scotch Whisky Experience, in Edinburgh, according to their flavour and character.

The “round table” feature is being introduced to help the 80 per cent of visitors to the shop who are from overseas, but are unsure of what whiskies to buy.

The new-look for the Royal Mile attraction, which sees more than 250,000 visitors a year, will also see the centre’s shop expand on to a second level, the introduction of touch-screen technology to showcase whisky production in different parts of Scotland, and the creation of a new VIP room for anyone planning to spend thousands on rare malts.

The plans have been unveiled three years after the world’s biggest whisky collection was installed at the centre, which opened in 1988. The changes at the new £1 million whisky shop have been made after a 12 per cent increase in overseas visitors last year, and turnover in the shop soaring by 55 per cent over the last three years.

Julie Trevisan Hunter, marketing manager of the attraction, said: “We get a lot of visitors who know a particular whisky and are looking for something similar, but don’t know enough about whisky.

“The flavour map breaks down more than 80 whiskies we have into different clusters and gives people an idea or other whiskies that are similar in taste or character.

The new self-service screens in the centre’s shop will be translated into 40 different languages, including Arabic, Korean, Hungarian and Brazilian.

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