Another Spirit of Speyside Whisky festival has come and gone, all too quickly, and here is my account of it. Once again, I apologise in advance for any errors in my report as I am relying on scribbled notes and a memory that is not helped by my insistence on leaving my slops bucket bone dry – a quest that I remain undefeated on, so far.
All of the views expressed on the whiskies available are a reflection of my own ability to nose and taste. As such, those seeking articulate tasting notes are reading the wrong report as I am no more naturally gifted at nosing than the Sphinx. To those who were at the same events and did manage better notes than I did, well done to you.
Susan Webster Talk and Tasting
I kicked off the long weekend with the tasting taken by Susan Webster, of Douglas Laing. Susan presented a series of unchill-filtered whiskies from the Provenance and Old Malt Cask ranges.
The session opened with a 1995 Provenance Glen Rothes, at 46%abv. This had an acidic nose and tasted of citrus fruits and acid drop sweets. It changed little with water, except to reveal a shortbread taste on the finish. The tasting notes printed on the bottle were from Susan who assured us that they had improved after being ordered to use a thesaurus by her bosses.
The remaining whiskies in the tasting were Old Malt Cask bottlings, all at 50%abv. Next came a 1991 Dalmore from a second fill hogshead. This had a bitter start and smooth middle with a taste of pear drops and water made it taste vaguely of bourbon, but otherwise, I filed it under ‘decidedly average’.
Matters improved hugely with a 1982 sherry-matured Brora. As Susan told the convoluted story behind the closed distillery and it’s neighbour, Clynelish, I found the whisky to smell of sherry and to taste of toffee and cake with a rich, and delicious, smoky finish.
Even better was an amazingly complex 1982 Tactical, from the Isle of Skye, and Susan explained the legal niceties of the name on the bottle. The wonderful nose was of smoke and seaweed and the whisky tasted of smoke and pepper and yet was both chewy and fresh, at the same time.
We ended with a 1992 Laphroaig, whose official bottling is renowned for it’s ‘love it or hate it’ advertising, but which has diminished in power, in recent years. The nose was lightly smoky and the flavour rich and medicinal and, in keeping with the ‘love it or hate it’ theme, the gentlemen sitting beside me could not finish theirs and so I helped out, kind soul that I am. I filed this one under ‘Result!’
The Independant Bottlers Challenge
Later, I returned to the museum for the Independent Bottler’s challenge, which consisted of the Speyside and Open categories. 4 independent bottlers, Douglas Laing, Duncan Taylor, Cadenhead’s and Adelphi each entered one cask strength bottling in the Speyside category and one in the ‘open’ category’.
The tasting took the format where one speaker would present the case for each company while we tasted a dram. To make matters more interesting for the audience, we were assured that the dram we were sampling did not necessarily ‘belong’ to the speaker whose turn it was.
Susan Webster spoke for Douglas Laing, Mark Watt spoke for Duncan Taylor while Steve Oliver spoke for Adelphi and Mike Lord spoke for Cadenhead’s as neither company had an employee present. Each whisky available was cask strength and between 48.8 and 60.4%abv, for the Speysiders and between 50 and 59.1%abv for the Open category.
For each speaker, Mike laid down ground rules which included no slagging other bottling companies and no swearing, which tested Mark’s resolve no end, and the audience were to write tasting notes for each whisky and select a favourite for each category. The best notes would win a prize and be announced at the dregs party.
The Whisky Fair
After our usual early morning trip to Elgin, my friend and I headed to the Whisky Fair, being held in the Memorial Hall. The fair is a chance for the relatively small companies of the whisky industry to show off their latest offerings.
At the fair, we met a host of festival regulars including Thomas and Gunnel, from Sweden, Xenia and Sascha, from Germany, Phil, Warren and Gemma, from Yorkshire, Bill and Christine, from Newcastle, and Stephen Lunn with his wife, Pat, and a friend from Sunderland, who they were leading astray.
James, from Dewar Rattray, re-introduced me to Stronachie; their bottling of a single malt from just outside Dufftown, and to a cask-strength 1993 Cragganmore which was smoky and had a shortbread finish.
Mark Watt, of Duncan Taylor, nearly floored me by showing me an opaque bottling of Glen Grant, which he said had been in a bourbon cask but then added that the cask was vatted with a 1970 Oloroso sherry Cask to produce the darkest whisky I had ever seen. I took a taste of their 38 year old blended whisky and grabbed a bottle of ‘Auld Reekie’ for an Islay fan, of my acquaintance.
Angus Dundee had Glencadam and their full Tomintoul range available, and I tasted the new Ballantruan whisky, which is unchillfiltered and bottled at 50%abv. This exciting dram was released only a few weeks before the festival and is a rare example of a heavily peated Speysider with a full-bodied, well-rounded fruity and smoky taste and this meant more punishment for my already hard-pressed wallet.
Airdrie based distillers, Inver House, were showing off their new bottlings, together with their widely available whiskies, including their 17 and 21 year old versions of Old Pulteney which were well received. My recommendation, however, is the unchillfiltered 1991 An Cnoc which is heavier and fuller to taste than the 12 year old standard bottling, itself an under-rated gem, in my view.
Benriach Distillery
After lunch, we headed off to Benriach distillery, by bus. Chivas brothers owned Benriach, until 2004, when it was sold off and is now independently owned. Our host was to be Master Distiller, Allan McConnochie.
Benriach opened in 1898, closed in 1899 and resumed production in 1964. Allan was an expert guide, keeping the party interested with lots of technical and historical information about the distillery and it’s production of up to three million litres per year, about three quarters of that of it’s more illustrious neighbour, Longmorn, still owned by Chivas.
We were shown round the dunnage warehouse where Benriach fell is better for maturation than a racking warehouse and their whisky is matured in casks formerly used for port, claret, burgundy, rum, bourbon, Madeira and Pedro Jimenez sherry.
We then had the chance to nose some new-make spirit from both peated and unpeated malt and some vintage casks dating from the mid 60’s to the early 90’s.
The tour was rounded off, in fine style, with a taste of 10 year old ‘Curiositas’ at 46%abv which was delicious, thick, peaty and fruity and was Mike Tyson to the Chivas bottling’s Julian Clary, in terms of it’s flavour. Allan also gave us a sample of 21 year old, ‘Authenticus’, again heavily peated and bottled at 46%abv. A slight addition of water opened up an impressively complex dram and gave the feeling of peat dancing across the tongue. We congratulated Allan on a fine tour and headed off down to Glen Moray distillery, in Elgin.
Allan McConnochie at Benriach
Glen Moray Distillery
Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable host for the afternoon was Graham who informed us that the distillery opened in 1897 and that Gallow Hill was nearby. The last hanging, on that hill, was in 1690 and the next would be in about 1 hour if any of us didn’t like the whisky!
Graham told us the malt used was 2-3 ppm of phenol as opposed to 50 ppm in Glen Moray’s sister distillery Ardbeg. Again, our host was excellent and knowledgeable, leading us swiftly round. We had a chance to taste some sweet wort, from the process, and to nose some yeast, which smelled of stewed fruit.
Glen Moray is relatively small and produces two million litres per year, about half that of it’s sister distillery, Glenmorangie. Most of the spirit is matured in ex-bourbon casks and the Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc wine finishes, of recent years, had been abandoned as it was felt that it was a lot of work and did not change the whisky sufficiently to be worth the effort.
We then headed to the visitor’s centre, which was refurbished in 2004 and Distillery manager Graham Coull took over and gave us the choice of the ‘classic’, 12 year old and 16 year old version to start with. I tried the 12 year old, which was pleasant, slightly winey and undemanding, as Graham told us that Glen Moray had risen to being the third best selling in Britain and second biggest in Scotland. We then had a 1992 Manager’s dram at 59.6%abv, matured in a sherry cask as Graham told us that Glen Moray was a good spirit which did not become overly ‘woody’ with age. He offered, in evidence, a 30 year old bottling which was both delicate and floral and gave an overall feeling that we were tasting a great springtime dram. We thanked the two Grahams for a great afternoon and then headed back to Dufftown.
