SCOTLAND, DISTILLED
ON A WARM SUMMER MORNING in Speyside, Scotland, I walked along a gravel path at the base of the Conval Hills, listening for the sound of the Robbie Dhu spring. I stopped to ask for directions from a local passing by, who pointed up the nearest hill: “Go that way,” he said. “Keep climbing, the spring will be on your left.”
As I walked, first I heard a trickle, then a gentle rush of water. I marched off the path and found a splintered wood staircase that led down to the banks of the spring. It
