Whiskies from the Speyside region of Scotland.

AberlourBalmenachBalvenie
BenRiachBenrinnesBenromach
CardhuCragganmoreDailuaine
Glen MorayGlenAllachieGlenburgie
GlenDronachGlenfarclasGlenfiddich
GlenglassaughGlenlivetGlenrothes
GlentauchersLongmornMacallan
Mortlach SpeyburnTomintoul
October 1, 2016
Compass Box Spice Tree

Compass Box Spice Tree review

Compass Box Spice Tree gained much reputation because of Scotch Whisky Association and its regulations. Making Compass Box Spice Tree “illegal whisky”. I’ll get to that later on but first: some basic information about this vatting of Northern Highland malt whiskies. Clynelish malt is the core of this blended malt […]
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January 4, 2016
GlenDronach 18yrs Allardice

GlenDronach 18 year old Allardice review

GlenDronach has made a great reputation with its sherry matured whisky, offering quality drams with age statements. Just like The GlenDronach 15 year old Revival, this 18 year old Allardice has been matured in Spanish Oloroso casks. The GlenDronach distillery was founded in 1826 – being one of the first licensed Scottish distilleries owned by BenRiach nowadays. The […]
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November 26, 2015
Benromach logo

Benromach 2004 Peat Smoke review

Benromach 2004 Peat Smoke is a 9 year old peated single malt from the smallest distillery in Speyside region. It’s been matured in first fill Ex-Bourbon casks and it has a phenol level of 53ppm – it has no added color and un-chill filtered. Benromach distillery is owned by Gordon […]
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November 25, 2015
Glenglassaugh logo

Glenglassaugh Evolution review

Glenglassaugh distillery was closed in 1986 but resurrected in 2008. After the distillery was reopened, they made Glenglassaugh Revival – matured in first and refill bourbon casks and finished for 6 months in first fill Oloroso sherry butts. Glenglassaugh Evolution is a limited cask strength release follow up to Revival. […]
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November 24, 2015

Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old review

I got a chance to try bottle number 19 from batch 8590 of Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old single malt at our local whisky society blind tasting. Maturation started in Ex-Bourbon casks in August 1997, bottled in October 2012. With a maximum of only 350 bottles per batch, the […]
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October 29, 2015
Aberlour 12yo non chill-filtered feature image

Aberlour 12 year old Non Chill-Filtered review

Like the title says, this is a single malt whisky without chill-filtering by the Aberlour distillery. 12 years old and matured in Ex-Sherry butts and Ex-Bourbon casks. There’s also been a 12 year old Aberlour, which has been chill-filtered. Comparing those two would actually be a great blog post subject. […]
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October 15, 2015

Aberlour A’Bunadh Batch 47 review

Finally got my hands on a release of this well respected Aberlour A’Bunadh. The name is derived from Gaelic, meaning “return to origin”. That’s because the whisky has been produced according to the methods that were common around 1870’s. I ordered a sample of Batch 47 of the popular A’Bunadh […]
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October 3, 2015
Dailuaine 16yo feature image

Dailuaine 16 year old Flora and Fauna review

This Dailuaine 16 year old single malt is part of the Flora and Fauna collection by Diageo. Dailuaine malt whisky distillery was founded in 1852 and is located in Charlestown-of-Aberlour, Strathspey in the Speyside region. Weird, but only 2% of its malt whisky is actually sold as single malt by […]
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October 1, 2015

Balvenie 14 year old Caribbean Cask review

Balvenie 14 year old Caribbean Cask is an interesting dram from the Dufftown based distillery in Speyside. This single malt whisky has been matured for 14 years in traditional oak casks and after that, transferred to Caribbean rum casks to give some extra character. Always intrigued to try a rum […]
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September 26, 2015
GlenDronach logo

GlenDronach 21 year old Parliament review

GlenDronach 21 year old Parliament is a single malt matured in a mix of Oloroso and sweet Pedro Ximenez dessert sherry casks. 21 year old whisky from the great Speyside distillery surely sounds promising, even though I’m usually not a fan of sweet sherried whiskies. And yes, GlenDronach is officially […]
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September 15, 2015
The Ultimate logo

The Ultimate Glenrothes 1995 17YO review

The Ultimate Whisky Company is an independent bottler founded in 1994 by Han and Maurice van Wees. Since then they have released over 500 malt whiskies, the list of products can be found here along with distillation and bottling dates, ages, cask types and numbers. All of The Ultimate whiskies […]
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June 30, 2015
Murray McDavid independent whisky bottler logo

Longmorn 12YO 1994 by Murray McDavid review

This is a whisky from the independent bottler Murray McDavid and it is part of their “turquoise series”. I had a chance to try it on our way to Teerenpeli distillery tour in Lahti, Finland. It is Longmorn 12 year old single malt from 1994 and it has been matured in a bourbon but. Finished on […]
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June 3, 2015
Glenlivet 18 label featured image

The Glenlivet 18 year old review

I’ll continue with Glenlivet theme, so here’s a review of The Glenlivet 18 year old single malt. Which, after a great experience with the 12YO, was bit of a disappointment. The 18YO is surprisingly rough for its age, though it’s not the only reason for my reasonably humble scoring. Probably […]
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May 26, 2015

BenRiach 13 year old Maderensis Fumosus, Madeira Finish review

This BenRiach, the 13 year old Madeira Finish, also known as “Maderensis Fumosus” (smoky Madeira in Latin), was my favorite in Speyside blind tasting within our local whisky community here in Finland. In overall scoring it came second just behind GlenDronach 21YO Parliament. I did manage to guess the distillery and […]
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May 17, 2015
BenRiach logo

BenRiach 1994 18 year old Tawny Port Finish review – bottled for Finland

My BenRiach filled May continues with 18 year old Tawny Port Finish 1994 specially selected and bottled for Finland by the great Speyside distillery. The one I’m reviewing was bottled October 2012, cask number 3585 and bottle number 102 of 301. BenRiach 1994 18YO Tawny Port Finish for Finland is […]
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May 11, 2015
BenRiach logo

BenRiach 17 year old Solstice (2nd edition) review

17 year old Solstice from BenRiach is the second edition of the series in question, replacing the 15 year old single malt whisky, which was well appreciated by Whisky Bible’s Jim Murray. Solstice is distilled from heavily peated malted barley and matured in ex-bourbon casks. Finished in tawny port pipes. […]
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May 6, 2015
BenRiach logo

BenRiach 15 year old Dark Rum Finish review

This dram is BenRiach 15 year old single malt whisky matured in ex-bourbon American oak casks and after that, finished in Jamaican dark rum casks. Released in 2006, it is part of BenRiach’s “Wood Finish Series”, there’s been 350 six-packs made available world-wide. The series also includes Pedro Ximenez Sherry, […]
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May 4, 2015
BenRiach logo

BenRiach 15 year old Single Cask Release 1998 review

Like The Whisky Exchange puts it, “a slightly crazy entry” this BenRiach’s 10th single cask release – malt whisky triple distilled, unlike their regular double distilled spirit. It’s been matured for 15 years and finished in a Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon. 630 bottles has been released. Mine was only a […]
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March 13, 2015
Naked Grouse feature image

The Naked Grouse blended malt whisky review

This BIRD is hard to comprehend, yet it’s rich The Naked Grouse is a blended malt whisky from The Famous Grouse brand by The Edrington Group. The malts are from Highland Park and Macallan, matured in first-fill Sherry casks. It has a higher proportion of above-mentioned malts, than in the […]
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March 13, 2015
Famous Grouse logo

The Black Grouse Alpha Edition review

The Black Grouse Alpha Edition is a peated version of the Famous Grouse. This is a little bit peatier than the ordinary Black Grouse whisky released in 2007, developed for Swedish market. In the label, there’s that grouse again, this time it’s a black one (tetrao tetrix). Miss Whisky has a […]
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March 13, 2015
Famous Grouse logo

The Famous Grouse Blended Scotch Whisky review

Matthew Gloag & Son Ltd. started the Famous Grouse production in 1897 and nowadays it’s been made by The Edrington Group. Named after the famous British moorland bird called red grouse (lagopus lagopus scoticus), which is Scotland’s national game bird. “It has been the highest selling whisky in Scotland since […]
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March 7, 2015
Glenlivet logo

The Glenlivet Nadurra 16 year old review

Glenlivet Nàdurra 16 year old is a small batch cask strength single malt whisky, “nadurra” meaning natural in Gaelic. Based on the alcohol per volume level and the time I bought it, I think that this sample is from the batch bottled in January 2014. Resembling a lot of Glenlivet 12YO, which i […]
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February 24, 2015
Shackleton's Mackinlay whisky

Mackinlay’s Shackleton Rare Old Highland Malt review

In 2006, The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust found three cases of Chas Mackinlay & Co’s whisky in the ice under Ernest Shackleton’s hut. Shackleton made an expedition to Antarctic in 1907-1909. The expedition didn’t go well, forcing Shackleton to abandon their hut and leave stuff behind – including the whisky […]
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February 14, 2015

Johnnie Walker Red Label review

I decided to get back to my roots by reviewing Johnnie Walker Red Label, one of the biggest selling whiskies in the world – usually the “cheapest whisky in the house”, when you ask the bartender. Nothing great but along with Jack Daniel’s one of the first whiskies, I’ve ever […]
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