Category: Speyside

GlenAllachie 12 year old

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Glenallachie 12 Review

Distillery: GlenAllachie
Region: Speyside
Age: 12 years old
abv: 46%

Until recently, single malt GlenAllachie was a relatively rare sight. Although the distillery has been around since 1968, it was later acquired by Pernod Ricard, who used GlenAllachie as an ingredient for many of their blends. It’s easy to see why: GlenAllachie has plenty of body and flavour, but doesn’t overwhelm the senses, making it an ideal blending component. This left little room for single malt expressions to be bottled, but all of this changed when GlenAllachie was sold into private ownership in 2017. Since then, GlenAllachie has released an impressive range of age-statement whiskies, featuring old expressions using stock right from when the distillery reopened in 1989.

GlenAllachie 12 year old is a marriage of different cask profiles, including Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry, as well as virgin oak casks. The result is a bold, fruity dram that’s got quite a lot going on. Let’s explore!

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Glenfarclas 21 year old

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Glenfarclas 21 year old 01

Distillery: Glenfarclas
Region: Speyside
Age: 21 years old
abv: 43%

Glenfarclas 21 year old could teach Roger Moore a thing or two about smoothness – Master of Malt

At a time when most new whisky releases don’t carry an age statement and whole ranges of aged expressions disappear altogether, Glenfarclas provides a notable exception. You won’t find Gaelic words or names of local landmarks on this Speyside distillery’s bottlings. Just plain 12, 15 and 18 year old. Somehow this resistance to the winds of change is strangely refreshing. What’s more, where prices for age statement whiskies have risen sharply over the past decade, Glenfarclas still provides tremendous value for money. This particular expression is one of the cheapest 21 year old whiskies you’ll find on the market. But even more than the cost, there’s one other thing that stands out at Glenfarclas: all of their bottlings are big, muscular whiskies that boast a heavily sherried character. The perfect after dinner dram!

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Glenfiddich Fire & Cane

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Glenfiddich Fire CaneDistillery: Glenfiddich
Region: Speyside
Age: No age statement
abv: 43%

Fire & Cane is the fourth instalment in Glenfiddich’s Experimental Series. Uncharacteristically for Glenfiddich, this bottling features some peated spirit, married together with unpeated stocks from ex-bourbon barrels. To top it off, this whisky then spent three months in rum casks, sourced from a variety of Latin American countries. So the name is apt, but why is Fire & Cane experimental? After all, there’s plenty of rum finished whiskies, and there are peated whiskies beyond count. That’s true, but the combination of the two is quite unique (only Kura and the upcoming Ardbeg Drum that I can think of).

Glenfiddich does have a rum finished 21 year old, and has in the past dabbled with peat in its Caoran Reserve. But Fire & Cane is a different proposition altogether. For one, the distillery actually uses peated barley to achieve its smoky notes, rather than casks that previously held peated whisky. The result is a much sharper, spicier version of Glenfiddich, which then mingles with the toffee notes offered by the rum casks. I think Fire & Cane is best described as a dessert whisky, sweet and indulgent, perhaps even a bit too much so. It’s nice to pair this dram with dark chocolate, to allow the bitterness of the cocoa to balance out the sweetness of the whisky, but I can imagine other pairings could work equally well.

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Glenfiddich IPA Experiment

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Glenfiddich IPA Experiment 01Distillery: Glenfiddich
Region: Speyside
Age: No age statement
abv: 43%

Glenfiddich IPA Experiment was the first entry in Glenfiddich’s Experimental Series, a range of whiskies that is breaking new ground and is rightfully generating some buzz. Glenfiddich describes these whiskies as Single Malts that Rewrite the Rulebook. Of course, Glenfiddich has a history of writing its own rules, being the first company to successfully market single malts. Now drams such as Winter Storm and Fire & Cane are among the more unusual bottlings on the market, a tasteful reminder that distilling whisky doesn’t always have to be all about tradition. And surely, no distiller had dared to mature whisky in an ex-IPA casks before either. The oak in question comes from the Speyside Craft Brewery, which uses ex-Glenfiddich casks to mature their IPA beer, before returning them to the distillery. It’s this symbiotic relationship that has allowed Glenfiddich to jump on the global popularity of IPA, extending those bitter, hoppy flavours to its normally fruity whisky. I’m a big fan of IPA beers, and when I first tried Glenfiddich IPA Experiment, I was so intrigued that I decided to create my very own Arran IPA Cask Finish. But I digress, let’s return to the matter at hand…

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Macallan Amber

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Macallan Amber

My glass may be half full, unfortunately the bottle is fully empty…

Distillery: Macallan
Region: Speyside
Age: No age statement
abv: 40%

Macallan Amber forms part of the distillery’s 1824 Series, named for the year in which Macallan took out a license to distil. The 1824 Series is a range of four whiskies, each exclusively aged in ex-sherry casks. Nevertheless, there is a clear gradation in colour and intensity, from the light, citrusy Macallan Gold to the dark, lavish Macallan Ruby. Amber is the second bottling in the series, balancing the obvious sherry influences with Macallan’s fruity, spicy profile. Although Macallan’s website already lists 1824 under “past releases”, its whiskies are nonetheless still widely available. If you do feel like snapping up one of these drams I wouldn’t wait too long though, they’re not bound to get any cheaper…

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Glen Moray 16 year old

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Glen Moray 16 Review 01Distillery: Glen Moray
Region: Speyside
Age: 16 years old
abv: 40%

Let’s start off with the elephant in the room… the packaging. Although decked out in typical Glen Moray colours, the 16 year old does stand out. For it comes in a tin tube amply decorated with depictions of the Scottish Highland Regiments. Love it or hate it (I love it), you can’t deny it’s educational. Inside the tube we find the distinctive Glen Moray bottle, shaped like a pot still.

Although there’s a wealth of information on the packaging, little is said about the ageing process this 16 year old has undergone. It’s reportedly a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, and it’s not hard to find this back in the flavour profile. Whatever the maturation process, the 16 year old is another beauty from the ever affordable Glen Moray distillery.

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Glen Elgin 12 year old

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Glen Elgin 12 year old reviewDistillery: Glen Elgin
Region: Speyside
Age: 12 years old
abv: 43%

Constructed at the turn of the 20th century, Glen Elgin distillery was initially off to an ignominious start. Although plans for the distillery were drawn up when confidence was still high, by the time construction finished, the whisky bubble had burst and the industry was in a death spiral. Glen Elgin distillery opened in May 1900, and filed bankruptcy just six months later, selling at a fraction of the price it had cost to construct the distillery. It would remain closed for much of the next three decades, until Glen Elgin passed into the ownership of DCL, the forerunner of Diageo. The distillery continued to limp on in relative obscurity, until in 1964, the number of stills was tripled to six, and Glen Elgin began distilling the raw materials for the White Horse blend. Until this day, Glen Elgin’s fate has remained largely the same, with most of the distillery’s production disappearing into Diageo’s blends. However, Diageo does bottle a widely available 12 year old malt whisky, as well as several other releases that are a lot harder to come by (including an excellent 16 year old). The 12 year old happens to be the first malt whisky I ever drank, so I’ve always had a soft spot for Glen Elgin and I make sure to always have a bottle on my shelf. Lucky then that Glen Elgin 12 happens to be so affordable, this dram represents great value for money!

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Strathisla 12 year old

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Strathisla 12 year oldDistillery: Strathisla
Region: Speyside
Age: 12 years old
abv: 40%

As the oldest and arguably most picturesque distillery in the north of Scotland, Strathisla can be considered the showpiece in Chivas’s whisky emporium. This is not surprising, since Strathisla is the sole single malt in the company’s portfolio and forms the heart of many a Chivas Regal blend.

Strathisla began its life as a farmhouse distillery under the name Milltown. It was destroyed in a fire in 1876, after which the distillery was rebuilt in its current form. The business changed hands several times, until it was acquired by Chivas Brothers in 1950. Since then, both Strathisla distillery and Chivas have gone from strength to strength, with Chivas becoming the world’s best selling premium blend. As a single malt, Strathisla is often overlooked in favour of its larger Speyside neighbours, and this is wholly unjustified. Sure, Strathisla doesn’t have as extensive a range as some of their competitors, with Strathisla 12 year old being the only malt in the Chivas line-up. But it so happens that this 12 year old is a quality drop of whisky, meaning Strathisla is a distillery that should be noted for more than just the beauty of its stillhouse or for being the home of Chivas Regal. If you like Speyside drams, do give this whisky a try.

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Aberlour A’bunadh (Batch 53)

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Aberlour A'Bunadh reviewDistillery: Aberlour
Region: Speyside
Age: No age statement
abv: 59.7%

The story of A’bunadh (meaning The Origin in Gaelic) is an interesting one. How much of it is marketing and how much is truth is hard to say, but the tale goes as follows.

Business was booming in the 1970s, so Aberlour decided to put in a new pair of stills in 1975. When installing the stills, workmen had to remove a name plate, behind which they discovered a time capsule. It was a bottle of Aberlour wrapped in a newspaper from 1892, containing an article about the fire that destroyed the original Aberlour distillery. Although the workmen reportedly emptied out almost the whole bottle, the leftovers were duly handed to the distillery manager, who sent the sample to the lab to be evaluated. The lab results showed that the dram was a marriage of whiskies of different ages, all matured in European oak and bottled at cask strength.

Aberlour A’bunadh is an attempt to recreate this whisky and celebrate the origins of Aberlour. Since only a handful of people ever tasted the original I can’t say whether they succeeded, but oh my have Aberlour created a wonderful dram! A’bunadh is bottled in different batches, each very similar but subtly different. All batches are a vatting of different Aberlours, ranging in age from 3 to 30 years. With the exclusive maturation in European oak, A’bunadh is the ultimate sherry aged whisky, positively exploding with sweet, spicy flavours. Add the high alcohol content (this batch is one of only a few to fall short of 60%) and you have a truly special whisky that is unquestionably the crown jewel in Aberlour’s range.

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