Glen Spey 11 Years Old 2009 Cask #11029533 (Duncan Taylor)

This Glen Spey comes from Duncan Taylor, the cask house from Huntly in Aberdeenshire, an 11 year old, distilled in 2009, from cask 11029533, at 55.4%, a festival cask. Glen Spey is a Speyside single malt made on Doonie Burn water at Rothes. It was founded in 1878 by the grain merchant James Stuart, who added stills to an old oatmeal mill. It is one of five distilleries in the whisky town of Rothes, in the heart of Speyside.

The spirit was run slowly off the four copper stills, giving the clean, nutty Speyside spirit Glen Spey is known for. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, oak lactones lending a soft vanilla and coconut. By the integrating teens the raw notes fade and esters build, the grassy spirit growing rounder and a touch waxy. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit. A light oiliness carries a waxy thread through the long, slow maturation.

At a natural 55.4% it is full and nutty. Fresh cut grass, green apple and a nutty malt, with a soft vanilla from the oak. Beneath it run fresh grass, light fruit and a nutty malt. The finish is light, grassy and clean. This is a grassy Speyside malt of real delicacy.