Production at The Speyside Distillery started in 1990. The distillery took its name from the original distillery of the same name, located in Kingussie, which was operational from around 1895 – 1911. The distillery currently uses Concerto barley, sourced from Crisp Malt, Portgordon. Normally unpeated, but peated distillation takes place for a small amount of time each year (December).
The distillery uses a wide range of casks. The majority of these are American ex-bourbon barrels, but they also use casks sourced from Spain, Portugal and France.
The distillery now only produces single malt, and all samples (casks and marriages) are reviewed and approved for bottling by the Management team – Patricia Dillon (MD), John McDonough (CEO) and other team members are involved in the process.
The below notes are taken from my participation in the Speyside Distillery tweet tasting, hosted by The Whisky Wire.
“Initially aged in bourbon casks, this bottling has been finished in the Tawny Port casks from the family-run winery, Quinto de Filoco, for 6 months. A limited release of 18,000 individually numbered bottles. Bottled at 46%, non-chill filtered and with no added colouring.” – Speyside Distillery
Cask: Bourbon / Tawny Port Finish Bottles: 1,500 Available from the @SpeySingleMalt Snug for £61.50:
Appearance: Rose wine, an almost pink tinge, a unique colour. Decent thick swirl line and medium/thick legs
Nose: Nice ABV hit, biscuit wheat, thick strawberry jam sandwiches, stoned fruits and sugar. Great stuff. Might be getting some Turkish delight on the nose now.
Palate: Wow, the explosion of syrupy jammy sweetness, followed by chilli and pepper heat and tingling. Salted caramel ice cream, pepper dusted strawberries, buttered toast and undiluted blackcurrant cordial. That’s the ticket!! Great mouthfeel, lovely and oily. Tad drying again, not a negative though. That’s some proper flavour right there, uncompromising cask strength, love it.
Finish: Sweet and spicy, more of the sweet. Pepper, blackcurrant cordial, some dryness and dark fruits.
Overall: This is my favourite expression so far (I’m a sucker for Tawny Port though). Love the bold CS nature and huge waves of flavour and sweetness/heat.
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Intro copy from The Whisky Wire/Speyside Distillery
