Speyburn Bradan Orach 40%
100% Bourbon matured.
Tasted: Feb 2012
A fresh, slightly high toned nose. Quite gristy with a touch of grass along with some pleasant honey flecks.
The palate is soft, a touch subdued with some pleasant malty moments, however it feels a tad hollow. The light honey comes back on the finish as does a slight herbaceous/ grassy note.
Speyburn Bradan Orach 40%
Code: L13 284 R13/5269 IB/ Btl: 2013
Tasted: Dec 2014
The nose is quite bready and full with dusty barley, wheat flakes citrus, honey, herbal rye-like notes and with time an almost sweet peated note.
Soft, honeyed and herbal on the palate with hints of baked bread and baked fruit. Good depth with the oak adding a touch of toffee. Good length with lingering lightly oiled toffee and herbal spices.
Speyburn 10 year old 40%
American & Spanish oak
Tasted: May 2002
A warm dry sweet scented malt.
On the palate it is clean, flavourful and lightly malty with hints of honey, herbs and heathery notes. A fresh, sweet, lightly syrupy and herbal finish.
Speyburn 10 year old 40%
Code: L11-304-1B R11/5160
Btl: 2011/ Tasted: Nov 2012
An inviting nose of crisp honeyed barley. Quite full with a gentle herbaceous character and no shortage of citrus. Lightly fruited but showing a good depth.
The palate is lighter than the nose would suggest with a pleasant degree of grassy, honeyed notes along with a touch of fleshy fruit but maybe more accented towards the citrus than I remember it. The oils build pleasantly with a good barley intensity on the middle. Good length with a light bittering from the oak and the citrus lingering.
Speyburn 10 year old 40%
Code: L12-178-IB-12/5107
Btl: 2012/ Tasted: Dec 2014
The nose displays plenty of boiled sweets, barley and honey on the nose along with some fragrant white fruit and grassy notes.
The palate opens with a touch of toffee, followed by citrus and barley. Quite full but the oak subdues the fresher elements. Reasonable length with citrus, soft spice, coffee and milk chocolate.
Speyburn 10 year old 40%
Re-tasted: Dec 2017
The nose is displaying a little more sherry character than I remember with soft, caramelised orange and sweet fruit. Hints of creamy American oak and barley come through.
The palate opens with ripe apricot and subtly sweet white peach and pear. The sherry is subtler and adds some gentle spice and tannin notes on the middle. Well balanced and juicy finish with lingering creamy American oak and sweet spices.
Speyburn 15 year old 46%
American & Spanish oak
Tasted: Nov 2017
A stunning, rich and luscious nose that oozes honey and dusty, mature American oak. In fact it feels a lot older than 15. Lovely depth with hints of white fruit, apricot, heather, acacia and fragrant barley.
The palate is super soft and smooth with honey, brown sugar, apricot, barley and subtle spicy, dried fruit. A touch of cinnamon, heather and honey comes through on the middle. Lovely intensity and minerality and a long, luscious, mature oak, spice and herbal finish.
Speyburn 25 Years Old 46%
American oak, ex-Bourbon and ex-Fino Sherry casks
Tasted: Feb 2012
Stunning aromas of molten, mature honey by the bucketful with herbal nuances. The oak has a slight sawdusty character and adds some beautiful mature, creamy vanillins. The spices are seriously riotous and with time a musky perfume note arises.
The liquid, mature honey glides over the tongue. Very full with some majestically developing oils and barley. The alcohol and granity notes keep the oils and full fat vanilla sweetness in check. Sheer poetry! A stunning length with hints of violets and lavender emerging and those beautifully sweet vanillins lingering. In conclusion: A seriously symphonic malt!
Speyburn 25 year old 46%
Re-Tasted: Mar 2012
An oily and mature nose, quite granity with straw and green fruits. Seriously complex, layered and inviting with some lovely sawdusty oak .
The palate is gentle and full with sugar crusted apricot, straw and juicy honey. The flavours envelope the palate, with the delicate sugars balancing the oak which underpins and supports. Wonderfully deep, yet a touch linear (am I being a bit picky?), but it does what it does amazingly well, it just goes on and on and on. Lovely length, gently lingering, finishing with some grippy wood spices but that beautiful green fruit notes stays to the very end. Very Impressive.
Speyburn 25 year old 46%
Re-Tasted: Nov 2012
A lovely dense nose of herbal honey, fennel, white liquorice and lithe vanilla oak. Some lovely sugar’d notes put in an appearance as the oak takes on that lovely aged sawdusty character. I have to say that interplay between the honey and oak is breath taking!
The palate is soft and gently vanilla’d with minerally squashed apricots drizzled with a light honey and topped with just the lightest dusting of crumbly spice (nutmeg?). Then the lightly sawdusty oak pushes through but the herbal honey returns, finally finishing with a granity flourish. I don’t think it quite reaches the heights of the previous bottling but it’s lovely nevertheless!
Speyburn 25 year old 46%
Re-Tasted: Dec 2013
The nose is deliciously sawdusty with burnished marzipan and oodles of oak. Dusty and elegant with hints of lightly roasted nuts, demarara sugar and hints of toffee and citrus.
Soft and fleshy on the palate, opening with apricot and white fruit. The lovely citrus notes keep the sweet, sawdusty oak in check, but it dries slightly on the middle. Lightly herbal with some sweetening brown sugar. A gentle and spicy finish with the marzipan notes lingering and a lovely sugared after-taste. In conclusion: Stunningly mature, maybe a little heavy on the oak but the complexity of the sugars is breath taking,
Speyburn ‘Clan Cask’ 1975 (37 year old) 55.9%
Pedro Ximinez Sherry Cask 3413
Dist: 1975 Btl: May 2012/ Tasted: Nov 2012
A huge, leafy Oloroso nose with buckets of herbal dried fruit – sultanas, prune, orange peel, all liberally sugar coated. Immaculately clean with a light earth, peppery spices and a light floral note. With time the earthy/ dunnage notes become more prominent and the complexity of the orange fruits is magnificent. Finally a touch of light barley seeps through.
The palate is wonderfully luscious, opening with chocolatey spices and moist fruitcake. The alcohol builds along with the spices, which in turn become a shade more peppery. The middle is quite piquant but the sugars and light honey counteract that well. All the while this is going on; the sherry plays out a sublime orchestration of dried fruit in the background! Very long with some earthy tannins and bitter chocolate notes in the finish.
A drop of water softens the nose and maybe lessens the complexity a tad but it does bring out a touch of distillery character! Seriously mellow now and that luscious sugar coated orange fruit is divine. The palate is very much like the nose – a mellow mouthful of lightly sherried orange fruit lightly flecked with slightly bitter tannins and dark chocolate! Yum!
Whisky According to Chris Whiskyman 