It’s not just my own reviews that I get around to with a huge delay, but also Tom’s. So, this one he wrote about half a year ago, and I’m only posting it now. There’s one more in the pipeline that has been flagged in my inbox for months, but that’s for sometime next week.

Funky Speyside from an excellent sherry cask

Speyside must be the most unluckily chosen name for any distillery in Scotland. A name so connected to a region, and also associated with a particular light and accessible style, you could argue it brings a certain broadness that is difficult to overcome. Lord knows they have tried themselves. Their core ranges have been far and between with illustrious names like Glen Tromie, Drumguish and the infamous Beinn Dubh, a retarded cousin of the already questionable Loch Dhu. To confuse things more, is the fact that these days there are a lot of “secret Speyside” around.

Nowadays the Speyside Distillery bottles their output in beautifully shaped bottles under the name Spey. A visit to the distillery near the little town of Kingussie is certainly worth your time. The distillery itself is a gorgeous operation. If only the whisky itself could get some more spotlight (and I don’t mean marketing). Upon my only visit there, during Spirit of Speyside in 2019, I was able to taste some expressions. None of them memorable.

Once, at an Amsterdam whisky festival, I happened to stumble upon a single cask bottled by Berry Bros & Rudd. This independent bottler is to me one you can trust blindly. In the case of the subject of today, I was surprised to learn its origins. A revisit was long overdue after finding a bottle, so here it goes.

Sniff:
The quite rusty color could influence you in a certain direction, but there is an unmistakable red fruit component. Cherry, strawberry, grapes both red and white. Underneath it all there is a more spicy note, like you would expect from a herbal Ben Nevis. Leather polish, tobacco, dry leaves. Very complex and rather luscious. Truly lovely.

Sip:
One would expect a fruity arrival but no, that’s subdued. There is juicy cigar smoke and mouthwatering chocolate of the dark kind. The maturation was in a sherry cask, upon tasting there is no doubt this was an excellent oloroso cask. There is restraint in wood influence, and the spirit and 18 years of quiet maturation did the rest. Beautiful balance, unbelievable this is one single cask.

Swallow:
A bit edgy on the finish but then a fruity and smoky warmth linger on. There is a bitter note that is a tad too dominant. This is where the Speyside loses a few points.

An extremely quaffable whisky. I did not play with water. Redemption for Speyside Distillery or just a very lucky batch of (sherry) casks? When researching the vintages on Whiskybase, the middle 90s output seems to score rather well. If I was at the helm of the Speyside Distillery, I would source these casks and give new energy to the brand. On quality, not just presentation and a pretty façade.

88/100

About Tom van Engelen

I’m a writer in a variety of fields and have a soft spot for whisky, mainly malt, mainly from Scotland. In other times I enjoyed a stint as editor-in-chief of one of the first whisky magazines in the world. When not sipping a good glass I like to write some more, read, watch 007 movies or listen Bowie music. I’m married to Dasha, I have a sweet daughter and I live somewhere between the big rivers in the middle of The Netherlands.