Glen Spey Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1878 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

This interesting specimen seemed to confuse the nose, covering a broad spectrum...... woody – possible new oak and a living beech. The air infiltrated with sea spray and smoke, possibly a bit more pungent like the smoke from a cigarette bin fire. Fresh in the form of fuchsias, strawberries, cluster cherries, borderline mushy green grapes but also punchy and spirity like solvent and new make. Yet despite all that there was an earthly groundiness to it like moss and soil.

Let’s be honest, apparently not too much of a hit - ‘a marmite’ reaction....... but possibly interesting.... or maybe not. FIERY: raw spirit, solvent, peppery, cinnamon, turpentine – not for the ‘smooth and distinguished’ lovers amongst us (to be fair that description didn’t ‘fit the crowd’ ;-) ). A definite bitter theme, repeatedly described as grapefruit, blood oranges and pimento peppers. A lone touch of almond...

Medium to Long. The aftertaste was of lemon and pencil shavings. A bit foosty sweet like old banana skins, rubber, white pepper and maple smoked bacon. Not too many seconds were requested!

~£42 (70cl)

Royal Mile Whiskies: Glen Spey 1995 Connoisseurs Choice   |   http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/product.asp?
WhiskyBase: Glen Spey 1995 GM   |   http://www.whiskybase.com/whisky/56068/glen-s

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

69 / 100