Speyside Tasting

Speyside Tasting

The idea of this tasting was to compare proximity of distilleries and how distilleries really close together create different malts. This was to show how it's the distilling process that influences the malt created. You can't get much closer than Mannochmore and Glenlossie. Both Diageo. Both operational. And about 100 yards from each other. The second element was to show how casks can create different flavour profiles. So a from William Grant, a single cask from Balvennie and the 14 year old Rich Oak from Glenfiddich which uses both virgin Bourbon and virgin Sherry casks for a very short finish right at the end. Finally the classic Sherried Speysider and where else but Glenfarclas to show us the workings of the Sherry cask. Could have been Aberlour Abunadh - but we've done that one before.

Mannochmore 12 Flora and Fauna

Nose: Fresh, sweet, cereal, honey crunchy nut cornflakes. Slightly fizzy, estery and clean. Hints of those higher alcohols that faint nail varnish remover and pear drops. Tropical fruits. Starburst/Opal Fruit Lime. There's another strand - a slight brine, wet cardboard, wooden edge. A touch of balsa wood, hot burnt wood - like when you leave a wooden spoon on a hot pan - or that smell of hot wood you get in a sauna.
Taste: Dry, medium bodied. Sharp with a touch of bitterness. Citrus. Then more mouth-filling and light.
Finish: Medium.

Glenlossie 10 Flora and Fauna

Nose: Savoury with a more depth than the Manochmore. Fruit and nut with a mere, just traceable whiff of smoke way, way down in the back. There's a Jaffa cake vibe. Along with the clean element of Peppermint sweets, humbugs. Alongside that you've got some butterscotch, toffee and caramel kicking around. There's that savoury edge too, thick, gluey and viscous. With a weird hint of farmyard - almost silage.
Taste: Oily, big upfront spice. Touch of bitterness. Thick. Verges into cake mixture. Then a herbal touch, almost a Jagermeister herbiness (although not that pronounced obvo).
Finish: Medium in length as the oils take over and not as drying as the Mannochmore.

Balvennie 15 Single Cask

Great. Lost my notes for this one. Come back and have a read later, you never know might have managed to include some photographs of the bottles too. But don't hold your breath.


Glenfiddich14 Rich Oak

Nose: Initially sweet. Quite grassy and clean. Then there comes that rich oak! Hot wood. Both thick and point at the same time - like a big wedge. It goes off in two directions. Like different notes harmonising to make a chord - you can identify the separation of the elements and how they fit together - which is pretty cool. There's a bubble-gum spice - almost American rye like - which obviously comes from the Virgin Bourbon. Then there's that fruity element, with spice that nods to an Indian Restaurant.
Taste: Dry spice, then wood spice comes kicking in. It's light and almost like sadolin. Almost reminding of the way Japanese malts work out. It's got that temple thing about it. There's a lick of bittering spice which keeps it fresh and maybe a hint of corriander to follow that Inidan Restaurant riff.
Finish: Long and developed, slowly dissolving into a quaint tartness.

Glenfarclas 15

Nose: Sherry, dark chocolate, figgy cake. Thick. Dates. A touch of sulphur - slight but present as it dulls everything, hampering it from being as vibrant as I would expect.
Taste: Sweet, oily and mouth-filling. Warm with the Sherry oak influence. Then dry.
Finish: Bittering towards the end as it seems to gently fall apart. There seems to be a tang of sulphur that breaks it apart. I don't remember the 15 being as disjointed as this a few years back so I suspect it must be this particular batch. Put it down to a glitch. Only a couple of people picked up on it though, so most people were happy. The 10, although lighter, hangs together much better.