Speyside as a distillery is generally a fairly nondescript thing. It exists, but you don’t see it all that often, and since it is also a region, I generally have to look thrice to actually remember whether it is an undisclosed distillery, or from the distillery with the same name. From a marketing perspective, I can imagine this being a bit of a disaster.

However, a little while ago during one of the #StayTheFuckHome tastings I hosted, several people started talking about this bottling for some reason. It came quite highly recommended by several folks in the tasting, nad RvB ordered himself a bottle based on the description (or had a bottle) and decided to bottle-share it.

I got myself a sample and to my own surprise I actually already tasted it. Generally, these samples end up on a shelf and get more-or-less forgotten until I’m grabbing some things for a holiday or so.

Let’s see what everyone is on about!

Sniff:
Warm vanilla, pie crust, baked apple and a whiff of acidity like dried pineapple. A few minutes later, it’s mostly vanilla and pastry sweetness that remains. A whiff of straw too.

Sip:
A gentle arrival, with straw and barley. Some white pepper, some oak. There’s dried apple, apple peels. Dried pineapple, icing sugar, barley sugar.

Swallow:
The finish is a little bit more dry than before. More oak, and the dryness of dried apples. Not so much sweetness.

First of all, this is far from a bad whisky. There’s nothing to not-love, but I also have to admit I don’t see the appeal as much as the guys discussing it during the tasting. I see 90 and 89 point ratings from them, but I don’t get that high.

The dried pineapple notes are very nice, but apart from that I consider it to be a little bit too generic for a higher rating.

87/100

Still available in Germany for € 100