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KWM 2020 Whisky Calendar Day 5: Speyburn 10 Year Old

Posted on November 26, 2023

by Evan

Onwards to door number five. Open that door, pull out that new shiny bottle and reveal the Speyburn 10 Year Old!



"Speyburn?" you say, with one eyebrow raised.

Indeed. Not exactly the distillery that is on the tip of every single malt lover's tongue. Perhaps that is slowly changing, though. I know the owners of Speyburn would like it to have more of an impact and are making a bigger push than they have in the past to showcase what this brand is capable of.

While it may be a bit of an unknown to many of us, Speyburn apparently sells as much single malt globally as Glengoyne and GlenDronach. Neither of those two brands are massive by any means, but they are well-known by many lovers of Single Malt Scotch.

The distillery is in a bit of a tough spot when it comes to being noticed, you see. Speyburn is owned by Inverhouse Distillers/Thai Beverages. Owned by this same company are the more famed Old Pulteney and well-respected Knockdhu (bottled as AnCnoc) and Balblair. Though Speyburn is capable of producing more spirit annually than any two of these distilleries combined, each of the other brands in the Inverhouse single malt portfolio has more cache with whisky geeks.

The recently revamped Speyburn core range of Single Malt is worth giving a try when you can. The range begins with the no-age-statement Braden Orach. We will be tasting the 10 Year today, but there are also 15 and 18-year-old expressions - both of which lean more into sherry cask influence in comparison. Beyond those, there is a 25-year-old as well.

Also worth noting (if it is still available when you read this!) is that we have our own KWM cask of Speyburn, the first official single cask from this distillery available in Canada. It was distilled in 2000 and filled into an ex-Bourbon barrel and bottled at 52.5% ABV.

Enough about the bottles for the moment. Let's talk about the distillery itself. Speyburn Distillery dates back to 1897 when it was founded by a family that also happened to own Tobermory Distillery at the time. Speyburn was a modern distillery at the time of its inception and was designed by famous architect Charles Doig.

Another thing that made it modern was a new version of malting the barley. Instead of using the tried and true floor maltings, Speyburn Distillery was the first to employ a newfangled technology for this process called drum malting. Drum maltings use a large cylinder (or drum) to rotate the barley during the malting process, which allowed the temperature and tilling/separation of the germinating barley to be machine-controlled. The result was the need for far less space to be taken up by the malt floor, fewer employees needed to monitor and turn the barley, and greater speed and consistency of the entire process. These drums were used at Speyburn for 70 years before their retirement.

Okay, there is our bit of history and background on this Speyside distillery. Now, how is the whisky? Time to pour the Speyburn 10 Year and find out!



Speyburn 10-Year-Old - 40%

Matured in a combination of ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks. Also available in mini bottles.

Evan's Tasting Note

Nose: Fruit cup syrup and honey along with ruby red grapefruit, lemon custard, applesauce, buttered cinnamon on toasted brioche, and a dusting of icing sugar.

Palate: Malt and nutty notes plus a surprising salinity. A trail mix of almonds, pistachios, golden raisins, dried apricots and candied ginger and the occasional salted toffee bit.

Finish: Salty dried fruits and a touch of drying oak.

Comment: Refreshing and surprising. You can easily forget that this Speysider tends to have a bit of saltiness, but it is there. An approachable crowd-pleaser and a worthy competitor to your more typical Glens, especially given the price.

A pleasant surprise for Day Five, at least for me! This makes me want to revisit the 15 and 18-year-old once more as well. Speyburn surely has an underrated lineup currently. With bottles like this, it deserves to be explored. What will be explored on Day Six? Only time will tell because I won't!

Cheers,
Evan
evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com
Twitter and Instagram: @sagelikefool

This entry was posted in Store, Whisky, Tastings, KWM Whisky Calendar 2020, Whisky Calendars

 

 

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