It’s funny that the distillery named Speyside is technically not located in the Speyside region, because the river Spey is running on the wrong side of the distillery. But anyway, it’s the closest distillery to the source of the river, hence the name.

Apart from their malt whisky production (bottlings are very rare), the distillery is home to the Scott’s Selection independent bottlings, as well as the Cu Dhub black whisky (basically caramel with a dash of Speyside whisky).

Speyside 15yo 1993 (61,7%, Malts of Scotland 2009, sherry cask #636, 180 btl.)

Nose: quite tingling (well, not surprising at this strength). Hints of rum raisin (molasses, very dark raisins) and natural caramel. Cereals. Toasted bread. Plums. With water, notes of red berry jam emerge. Mouth: sweet, almost sugarish. Plums again, a little pepper. Slightly grainy, hot and not very expressive. Water doesn’t help much, I’m afraid, it stays rather flat. Finish: plums, malt, caramel. Another variation on the same theme. Still hot, even with water. Lots of camomile tea in the end.

This Speyside is quite alcoholic, rather closed and it doesn’t open up with water. Basically it displays the same aromas from the beginning until the end. It’s going in the right direction, but there’s not enough depth for me. Around € 70.

Score: 79/100