Speyside SPEY Chairman’s Choice

A distillery bottling from the Speyside Distillery and bottled at 40%. Set at Drumguish by the River Tromie, the Speyside Distillery was painstakingly built by hand before its first spirit in 1990. It stood in for the fictional Lagganmore in the BBC series Monarch of the Glen.

Distilled in two of the smallest pot stills in Scotland under a single roof, giving the delicate, floral spirit at its heart. A sherry cask wrapped the fruity spirit in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Carrying no age, it leans on apple, pear and a soft vanilla. Years in oak round the spirit, the honey and orchard fruit deepening with age. George Christie bought the land in 1956, dreaming of his own small malt distillery. A stonemason, Alex Fairlie, laid every stone of the distillery by hand over some twenty years. Its two pot stills are among the smallest in Scotland, the whole works under one roof.

At an approachable 40% it is light and balanced. The Pedro Ximenez lends raisin, date and treacle, and vanilla and a creamy note from the barrel runs under a clean, honeyed fruitiness. A dried fruit and a gentle oak spice give it depth. A warming, fruity finish lingers. This is a delicate Speysider from the upper Spey.