Spey Trutina & 18 Reviews

Hi everyone,

The Speyside distillery is the cheekily named, newer distillery on the border of where you may term ‘Speyside.’

I realised that I hadn’t really tried any of their official range, partly because it was only being sold in Asia with the help of a famous footballer or something. Anyway, it is sold under the name Spey to avoid confusion with Speyside the region I guess, which isn’t confusing at all… Definitely doesn’t conflict with Glen Spey, Speyburn or the brand Speymalt (Gordon & MacPhail’s Macallan).

I can heartily recommend the new cask strength versions they’ve done of the range (if they haven’t already sold out everywhere but I haven’t reviewed those yet, only these two:

Spey Trutina 46%

Colour: Light Straw

Body: Light

Nose: Very light, slightly bready, new make spirit, pretty young but not bad for it, just a little boring, apple, pear, esters. Very clean.

Taste: Very very light, barely there at all (despite the strength), pear and green apple, lots of lemon, very fresh and easy.

Finish: Medium length. More here with vanilla, toasty, dough, a little ginger spice.

The definition of breakfast whisky. Not bad but there really isn’t much there in terms of complexity. An easy drinker.

61/100

 

Spey 18 46%

Colour: Straw

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Fresh and fruity, fruit salad with green grape, green apple, some lime, some leather from the oak, melon and Macadamia nut.

Taste: Light and delicate, fizzy lemon then dry oak, leather and chocolate, dark malt, some grape, melon, some spice with white pepper.

Finish: Medium length. Quite soft with a little lemon, leather. Quite a quiet finish.

1999, 'fresh' Sherry casks, which it definitely isn't. There is a nice balance of fresh and old here actually, again showing off the same style as the Trutina. Fresh and quite delicate whisky.

72/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #752-#753

Whisky Network Reviews #892-#893

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Lot 40 12 Cask Strength & Canadian Club 41 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Do I know a lot about Canadian whisky?

No, I absolutely don’t and I’ve tasted very little. I just know that you’re allowed to add 9.09% of other alcohol to your whisky and still call it whisky, something that no one else is allowed to do… Like, in the world.

These are two pretty impressive releases, one is a well respected younger bottling and the other a seriously old Canadian whisky.

Lot 40 Cask Strength 12yo 55%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: A really nice woodiness, resin and wood glue, the rye is clear with some black pepper, oak too with liquorice and clove, lovely fruit coming out now with fruit gums and powdered sugar, some vanilla custard.

Taste: Soft arrival, really balanced, fruit gums then oak with really good liquorice, some clove, some green peppercorns, more resin and wood glue as it develops.

Finish: Long length. More oak here, quite dry with clove and pepper, liquorice.

2017 release. Canadian Rye Whiskey. Many thanks to Roy from Aquavitae for this sample, remember it isn’t whisky until its shared!! Lovely nose and taste on this one but a bit of a let down on the finish.

75/100

 

Canadian Club 41 45%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light

Nose: An old grain whisky, oak and ethereal acetone, old paint stripper, old paint tins.

Taste: Sweet start, red apple, grain, cheap leather and then oak oak oak and eventually a sweet hit of orange.

Finish: Long length. An old grain here too, oak, orange and a light floral note. Quite a nice long finish.

Distilled 1977. Compared to a 1970's Canadian Club (which was rubbish). Apparently this has been blended with a small amount of Cognac, Rye and Sherry (would those also have to be 41 years old to keep the age statement?) The age is super obvious on this and the whole thing very much reminds me of 40+ year old Scotch grain whisky.

72/100

Thanks for reading!

Canadian Reviews #2-#3

Whisky Network reviews #890-#891

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Daftmill 2005 Inaugural Release Review

Hi everyone,

I’ve been wondering for a while how to approach this review…

Last year I tried a whisky called Daftmill, made by the Cuthbert brothers on their farm distillery in Fyfe, released by way of Berry Bros & Rudd.

The place is small, as it only produces about 20,000LPA but the amazing thing was that the distillery was completely self-sufficient in terms of using their own barley and the funds used to build the distillery coming solely from themselves. This meant they could wait as long as they wanted to release the whisky. And wait they did.

And wait. And wait.

Where most distilleries would have released a three year old or even started selling bottles before they had a distillery(!), Daftmill wasn’t first release until early 2018. And for that, they are to be commended.

Enter me, giving their 2006 Summer Release a fairly average review, courtesy of a plastic-y off note that I couldn’t quite get past. This seemed to be just me though, as loads of others gave it very good scores and reviews. The whisky sold out pretty quick and a bunch of it appeared at auction and sold for a hell of a lot more.

THEN, a truly interesting thing happened. Francis Cuthbert actually approached me at a festival in Glasgow and asked me about my review. I was dumbstruck for a moment, then embarrassed. I don’t have a big whisky blog or following I wouldn’t say. I didn’t realise anyone would take notice or even care. But Francis did. He told me that he didn’t understand why I got a plastic note to his whisky because he took great care to make sure that the distillations came out clean and fruity. I didn’t really know how to react to be perfectly honest. Do I defend my review, my palate to the man? When confronted with the person that made the whisky, I felt a little ashamed that I had reviewed it at all.

Anyway, like a gent, he invited me to taste one of the others that he had on the stand that day and the new make spirit.

Funnily, the new make was very clean to smell. Fruity, a little spice with none of that plastic I got from the 2006 Summer.

Anyway, I also was able to taste the initial release that was pretty hyped among those that tried it.

 

Daftmill 2005 Inaugural Release 55.8%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Sugared almonds and cinnamon, plastic sheets (in a good way), model glue (again, not an off note), almond croissants and fruitcake, better as it opens up with very soft praline chocolates.

Taste: Sharp lovely citrus, great arrival, lemon juice, grapefruit juice, creamy vanilla and some interesting plastic. Develops some spice and oak with gingerbread and cinnamon tea.

Finish: Medium length. A little more plastic here with green tea, green apple and praline chocolates.

The plastic! Wherever does it come from? Perhaps it is just me. Maybe I’m super sensitive to it. But this is much more to my liking than the 2006. This is good whisky. It is. I love the Christmas spices and fruitcake-y notes. I really enjoy the unusual character and slightly weird notes and I would love to try Daftmill again at some point…

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #751

Whisky Network Review #889

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Port Ellen 1982 XOP Platinum [Scotch Review #750]

Hi everyone,

Seven hundred and fifty reviews of Scotch whisky later, we arrive at my coronation of the red crown tartan! It has been and continues to be an absolute pleasure to be a small part of this amazing community. A big part of me continuing to review whiskies, isn’t only my own passion and curiosity but hopefully helping people and getting the knowledge out there about the whiskies that I try. Being part of the industry, I get to try loads of stuff that people aren’t normally able to and I feel extremely, extremely lucky to be in that position!

This one in particular is one of those dream whiskies that would cost you a buckload to actually buy a bottle of and many thanks go to Claire for this sample.

I have heard from a few people now that Fred Laing (the original Laing behind Hunter and Douglas) had a certain favourite distillery; Port Ellen, and managed to acquire quite a few casks of the stuff, meaning that both the Laing’s may well sit on more casks than Diageo (no idea whether that is true but it sounds good, right?).

Anyway, this is a newish one from a Sherry cask.

Port Ellen 1982 Douglas Laing Platinum 54.4%

Colour: Amber

Body: Full

Nose: The most muscular cherry chocolate cake ever made, sooty chimney, chocolate coated dried cherries, black cherry gateaux, old ethereal coastal smoke. Seriously delicious nose that strikes somewhere between an old Beninnes and Lagavulin. One of the best noses I ever had the pleasure to set my nostrils to.

Taste: Very soft arrival, some tingling spices with ginger and clove, silky oak, sweet cherry and orange, some old coastal smoke (more into the finish), quite a bit of dry oak but good.

Finish: Long length. Smoke and cherry, some fresh orange, chocolate. Not so in balance here, quite drying.

Well, it would get 91 for the nose but there's just a bit too much oak on the taste and finish I think. The age and the Sherry has also had a hand toning down the smoke, which I think would have helped the whisky stand up to the cask a bit better. Perhaps should have been bottled 5 years ago. Perhaps. Still, awesome to try.

88/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #750

Whisky Network Review #888

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ledaig 2004 Blackadder, 2006 SMWS & 2007 SMC Reviews

Hi everyone,

More Ledaig?! Yes, always. There’s always more of them to try and we love to try and love trying to try and getting to try and all else besides.

Need we more introduction than that? No.

Ledaig 2004 Blackadder Raw Cask 60.8%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Oily and butter at first, but then a little tropical fruit (which is unusual), and a school rubber (eraser for those American’s) from your pencil case, alcohol hit from the abv.

Water: Woah, different. Floral, soap and lemonade. There's also some peach and apricot, peach yoghurt, funk. A mix of spice comes out too, dry oak, quite perfumed actually. Complex stuff.

Taste: Soft arrival, then really fills the mouth, some mango, very peaty, black pepper, a little school rubber, then malty and buttery with lemon, some mineral notes come in near the finish with chalk and salty rocks.

Water: Softer and better arrival, lovely intensity then with nice sharpness from lemon juice, white grape, oily smoke, salty.

Finish: Long length. Lovely. Great oilyness, buttery, sea salt and chocolate. Some salty fish with water.

Bottled 2015 at 10 years old. From a little 20cl bottle I picked up. Love the char floating around! Such a great gimmick.

83/100

Ledaig 2006 SMWS 42.27 59.4%

Smoked Aged Riesling

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: A very clean modern Ledaig. Salty sea spray and lemon citrus, powerful smoke lurking underneath ready to punch out, green apple and that gristy note I often find, like literally crushing a load of grist in your hands and smelling them.

Water: A little too clean and youthful for my tastes.

Taste: Surprisingly soft arrival, building this nice clean but powerful smoke, lemon citrus balancing and freshening it, green apple then that gristy note, very oily mouthfeel with a petrol-like note. Really follows the nose. More green apple into the finish.

Water: As with the nose, it becomes more clean and youthful. Lemon, green apple and salty smoke.

Finish: Medium length. A heady hit of petrol then green apple, sea salt and fading smoke.

Thanks to u/xile for this one. I love Riesling, so this one was awesome to try. There's moments of genius shining through here. Immaculately distilled spirit. But other moments of a spirity youthful whisky. I see where they got the Riesling reference now with the petrol coming through.

81/100

Ledaig 2007 Single Malt Circle 59.3%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: Ethereal, oily and buttery. Peat smoke and malt but very maritime with sea salt, oysters and crushed seashells, candied lemon peel, ashes and soot.

Taste: AMAZING. Incredible arrival, super soft and clean, pure delicate crystalised lemon then very peaty and mineral, granite and salt, somewhere between Laphroaig and Kilchoman, crushed rocks.

Finish: Long length. More maritime and oily, some seaweed, sea salt crust.

Bottled 2018 at 11yo. Exclusively available in Germany at a good price. (Sobs into hands) I had a chance to buy a cask from the same batch of casks but didn't have the money (Yeah, I was buying a house… apparently having a roof over your head is more important than whisky). About as good as you get from Ledaig and Bourbon.

85/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #747-#749

Whisky Network Reviews #885-#887

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?