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.
“Trutina, in Latin, translates as honest & pure, and this release signifies the natural, simple characteristics of our distillery. 100% maturation in bourbon casks, bottled at 46%, non-chill filtered and with no added colour. Limited release of 18,000 individually numbered bottles.” – Speyside Distillery
Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky Cask: Bourbon Bottles: 18,000 Available from the @SpeySingleMalt Snug for £42:00
Appearance: Very light, diluted white wine. Hairline swirl mark, thin legs
Nose: On the nose: Nice level of ABV, confectionary sugar, green apple, raspberry and sharp red berries, a touch of fresh mint. It’s a summery nose.
The berry elements are growing for me, very fresh and now with whipped cream and icing sugar. Buttery pastry, so a fruit pie essentially. Getting a touch of white wine on the nose now, as well as a fleeting tobacco/lemon whiff just then? New one on me!
I’m definitely getting faint sweet pipe tobacco. There might be some salt in there too, not coastal, like salted honey. The aromas come in waves for me, cycling through fruity and then to baking, with flashes of eclectic aromas around the edges
Palate: On the palate, a nice fairly viscous delivery. White chocolate, that salty/sweet element still there from the nose, I really like that and it’s unusual. Thought I got a touch of peat. A little drying. Some spice emerges in the form of fresh ground black pepper, with green apple.
Finish: Dry, sweet and spice with the salty honey edge to it
Overall: Very nice and quite unique in my books. The consistent sweet/salty element works really well here.
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Intro copy from The Whisky Wire/Speyside Distillery
