Glen Spey 14 Years Old 2008 Benchmark (Murray McDavid)

Murray McDavid bottled this Glen Spey, a 14 year old, distilled in 2008, at 46%, one of 1231 bottles. Glen Spey is a Speyside single malt, one of five distilleries in the town of Rothes. It passed to the London gin house W and A Gilbey in 1887, the first English firm to own a Scottish distillery. James Stuart held the licence to Macallan at the time, and bought that distillery outright in 1886. Its stills carry purifiers, which raise the reflux and return the heavier vapours for a lighter, cleaner spirit.

The spirit was run slowly off the four copper stills, shaping a light body with a soft, waxy edge. Finished in an Oloroso cask, the wood building on the light spirit. Through integration the spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend a riper orchard fruit over the nutty malt. Years in oak round the spirit, the fresh notes deepening towards a nutty honey and orchard fruit.

At 46% it is smooth and grassy. A clean, grassy sweetness with a nutty thread, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A light orchard fruit and a soft oak give it shape. A long, grassy finish carries a light fruit and a nutty malt. This is the delicate, grassy malt of Rothes.