Speyside Blended Malt 1993 (Whivie)

Whivie is a Belgian whisky blog managed by Mark, Niek and Ilse. To celebrate their 10th anniversary they decided to bottle a whisky.

It’s a single cask blended malt, blended at birth apparently. Most of these undisclosed Speyside blended malts of late originated at (former) distilleries of the Highland Distillers group and were intended as the malt base of their blends. This particular release is probably something along the lines of a Macrothes, if you know what I mean…

Speyside Blended Malt 25 yo 1993 (47,1%, Whivie 2019, sherry cask, 100 btl.)

Nose: leafy sherry, with raisins and plums, roasted malt, plenty of toffee and brioche. Also brighter fruits like juicy apricots and orange juice, maybe mirabelles. Shoe polish. Back to chocolates filled with coffee ganache. Subtle tobacco and menthol too. Rich, clean, all good.

Mouth: same dark style, with a lot of stout beer, croissants with a burnt edge and just a hint of cough syrup. Big caramel sweetness, mixed with herbal notes. Bitter Turkish coffee. Sour oranges, tobacco and leather. Roasted nuts. Liquorice.

Finish: long, slightly earthy with oranges, pepper and a few drops of Fernet Branca.

A very rich and rather dark sherry bottling with echoes of cough syrup and such. Plenty of character. Head over to Whivie if you want one of the few remaining bottles.

Score: 87/100