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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 11: Boutique-y Speyburn 10-Year Batch 3

Posted on December 11, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Andrew's write-up for today is on another of our past GlenDronach KWM Casks - this time a 1993 20-Year-Old. Read about this sherry bomb here!

by Evan

After two days with peated whisk(e)y in a row, some of you might be clamouring for a change. Or, I suppose, some of you may want to keep riding the peat train straight through to Day 25. No matter what, somebody will end up disappointed. Hopefully, most of us are excited to dive into the bottle behind Door Number Eleven. Today's whisky is the Boutique-y Speyburn 10-Year Batch 3!

This is our third mini bottle from That Boutique-y Whisky Company so far for the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar. As with the other two, Andrew, and Dave Worthington of That Boutique-y Whisky Company, have collaborated on a video, where they talk about the label and taste the whisky. You can find that video on YouTube here.

This also marks the is the first time we have seen Speyburn Distillery in our Calendar since 2020, when the Speyburn 10-Year-Old was behind Door Number Five.

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. While neither of those two brands are massive by any means, they are well-known by many Single Malt Scotch enthusiasts.

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. Inverhouse also owns 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, leaving Speyburn overshadowed when it comes to name recognition.

The 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.

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 malting uses 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.

Boutique-y Speyburn 10 Year - 49.5%

Full-size bottles of this release can be found here

This bottling of Speyburn Distillery Whisky is brought to us by That Boutique-y Whisky Company. It is a 10-year-old bottled at a strength of 49.5%. 1540 of the 500ml bottles were made for the world.

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Candied and chocolate-driven up front – like those Cadbury Mini Eggs with the hard candy shell on the outside. I can almost smell those pastel colours on the shell…Also canned pears, pineapple slices, and peaches all in sweet syrup, fresh strawberries, and a touch of a chalky fruit note like grape-flavoured Children’s Tylenol in chewable tablet form.

Palate: Very fruity with some chalky and creamy texture on the tongue. More of what was on the nose is in evidence. Cotton candy, a bag of Skittles, fresh and juicy pineapple and mango slices, and surprisingly more purple-flavoured Children’s Tylenol chewable tablets.

Finish: Soft and fruity with a touch of acidity to keep it juicy plus a hint of chalkiness on the fade.

Comment: Proof that a 10-year-old whisky doesn’t have to be boring, this is a crowd pleasure of a fruit bomb that is both approachable and full of flavour.

So: If you found the Boutique-y Teaninich too light and subtle, my guess is this bottle might be more to your liking. Will tomorrow’s dram stand up to the fruit and juicy notes from this Speyburn? Stay tuned!

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

This entry was posted in Whisky, Whisky Calendars, Independent Bottler, KWM Whisky Calendar 2022

 

 

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