Whisky Intelligence has reproduced (with permission) The Gauntleys Whisky Newsletter for August 2010, the author, Chris Goodrum, has some excellent insights of whisky, which makes for excellent reading on a Sunday.  However W.I. has carefully excised any mention of r*m or V*dk*.  The full newsletter can be viewed on the Gauntleys website.

Gauntleys Whisky Newsletter

Well it’s that time of the year again. The Independent Bottlers Challenge, and I have a box full of Islay samples sitting on my kitchen work top waiting for me to pass judgement upon. So a report on that should be in the next newsletter. This month’s news is that I’ve been writing an article, which I have submitted to the whisky Magazine for Publication. As Rob Allanson the editor is currently touring Scotland picking up samples for their next bottling it may be some time before I find out if they are going to publish it. So in the mean time I will kick off the newsletter with said article, which I think is pretty ground breaking, even if I do say so myself.

Tasting wise I have reviewed some of Dewar Rattray’s and Raymond Armstrong’s latest bottlings. It was interesting to see that Raymond has bottled a few casks from the more obscure distilleries, such as Balmenach, whose current owners Inver House Distillers don’t appear to have released an official bottling. This is probably down to the fact that when they purchased the distillery from United Distillers, no maturing whisky was included in the deal. He has also bottled an Inchgower and a Teaninich, which are only offered as part of the Diageo ‘Flora and Fauna’ series, although a ‘Managers Choice’ bottling of Teaninich was released recently.

I have also tasted both the 2010 and 2009 World Whiskies of the year, those being the Ardbeg Corryvreckan (Second Release) and the 20 year old Yoichi, with mixed results it has to be said. Also reviewed as promised in the last newsletter is the Glengyle ‘Kilkerran WIP 2’.

Also there is a review of an interesting Tobermory and Highland Park tasting. The aim of which was to see if Tobermory could do a ‘Tulli’. That is being promoted from the axis of evil – scroll down to see the answer! With regard to the Highland Park tasting the aim was to see if my theory that it really needs some sherry cask in order to impart some character as I have said many times in the past was true. So was Bourbon oaked Highland Park lacking? The results were rather interesting!

So without further ado I give you……………… fanfare please!!!!!!!!!

THE HUNT FOR SPEYSIDE

So where is the Speyside region? On the face of it, this may seem like a really silly question. We all know where it is right? Well no actually! It has come to my attention that there is no consensus of opinion as far as whisky books go as to which distilleries lay within this region. It all began when I received a consignment from a well known Independent bottling company. Amongst the bottles was a bottle of Tomatin. Nothing unusual about that, however on the label it stated that it was a Speyside malt. Hang on I thought surely the distillery is in the Highlands? Upon contacting said bottling company I was told that they had used a well known book as a reference guide. So upon checking that along with a number of other books and websites it appeared to me that each one had their own take on which distilleries were either from the Speyside or Highland region.

I wondered if they were roughly categorising them purely upon flavour. Broadly speaking Speyside malts fall into one of three styles, those of a light and floral style, for example Aultmore. Those of a medium bodied fruited up highland disposition, like Miltonduff and those of a more full bodied style, which usually means sherry ageing, for example Macallan. However as is the case with many distilleries, long gone are the days of one signature malt being produced. Nowadays it is all about diversity – different wood finishes, different peating levels, different strains of barley, etc, the list is almost endless.

But, let’s stick with the flavour category for awhile. I have taken as a reference book the excellent ‘Whisky Classified – Choosing Single Malts by Flavour’ by Dr David Wishart. So, if we take the most basic expression from these distilleries and group them together by flavour, then in the case of the light and fruity style, not only would you include Aultmore, but An Cnoc (Knockdhu), Isle of Arran, Auchentoshan, Cardhu, Glengoyne, Glen Grant, Glentauchers, Mannochmore, Speyside, Tamdhu and Tobermorey.

You could also quite rightly include Allt a Bhainne, Bladnoch, Braeval, Bunnahabhain, Caperdonich, Glenburgie, Glenkinchie, Glenlossie, Glen Moray, Inchgower, Loch Lomand and Tomintoul. I don’t think it would take a genius to point out that this list of distilleries is from all over Scotland, not just Speyside, and if you look at including say older expressions from the distilleries core range, you will find that a number of them employ sherry casks, which would then put say Glengoyne and Glen Grant firmly in the full bodied, robust Macallan camp. Thus it would appear to be impossible to categorise an entire region purely on the basis of flavour alone.

This means that membership of the Speyside community must be down to geography, but that seems to raise yet more issues. For example some books and websites just consider those distilleries that are found on the A96 grouped around Elgin and Forres, those on the A95 between Craigellachie and Ballindalloch, and those found on the A941, between Elgin and Dufftown. Other publications believe that the distilleries clustered around Huntly – Glendronach and Knockdhu being two examples are included in the Speyside designation. I have also seen a map in a publication which claims that the region stretched all the way from Inverness to Fraserburgh on the east coast.

So, who is correct? Anecdotal evidence suggests that the term Speyside has been in use since the 1880s, however Alfred Barnard in his seminal book ‘The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom’, written in 1885 doesn’t use the term Speyside and refers to the whisky of many of the Speyside distilleries as ‘pure Highland malt’. Surely I thought by now there must be an official demarcation of this area, which would provide those distilleries within it some kind of legal protection, similar to the 1993 European Union ‘Protected Food Names’ legislation, whose framework was modelled on the appellation controlee system in France, which is rigorously policed by it’s governing body the ‘Institut National des Appellations d’Origine’ (INAO). This piece of legislation makes it illegal under European law to manufacture and sell a product under one of the controlled geographical indications if it does not comply with the criteria of it. For example the legislation not only provides protection for food names on a geographical basis but also on a ‘traditional recipe’ basis too. This means that Orkney beef for example can only be labeled as such if the produce is derived from cattle born, reared and slaughtered in Orkney and Kentish Ale can only be made in Kent using the local water and locally grown hops as it has been since 1698 at the Shepherd Neame Brewery.

So is there legislation in this country to govern product labeling of Scotch whisky?

The answer is of course yes, and for this we must turn to the Scotch Whisky Association, arbiter and upholders of all things whisky related. Back in 2004 they set in motion a series of consultations with their members and the whisky industry as a whole to create just that – A draft to present to the UK government setting out the exact boundaries of the whisky making areas of Scotland. This led to the ‘The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009’, which replaced the earlier Scotch Whisky Act 1988 and the Scotch Whisky Order 1990. Whereas the previous legislation had only governed the way in which Scotch Whisky must be produced, the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 now sets out rules on how Scotch Whiskies must be labelled, packaged and advertised, as well as requiring Single Malt Scotch Whisky to be bottled in Scotland from 2012.

But I digress. If you turn to Regulation 10 – Locality and region geographical indications, it states the following:

(5) The protected localities are –
(c) “Speyside”, comprising—
(i) the wards of Buckie, Elgin City North, Elgin City South, Fochabers Lhanbryde, Forres, Heldon and Laich, Keith and Cullen and Speyside Glenlivet of the Moray Council as those wards are constituted in the Moray (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(b); and
(ii) the Badenoch and Strathspey [including Grantown on Spey] ward of the Highland Council as that ward is constituted in the Highland (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(c).

So I believe that I can now create the definitive list of working and mothballed Speyside distilleries, which I have broken down by ward. I have also listed their postcodes so if you like you can look them up on multimap!

BUCKIE
Inchgower. – Banffshire AB56 5AB
ELGIN
Benriach – Morayshire IV30 8SJ
Glenlossie – Morayshire IV30 8SS
Glen Moray – Morayshire IV30 1YE
Linkwood – Morayshire IV30 3RD
Mannochmore. – Morayshire IV30 8SS
FOCHABERS LHANBRYDE
Glen Elgin – Morayshire IV30 3SL
Longmorn – Morayshire IV30 8SJ
FORRES
Benromach – Morayshire IV36 3EB
Dallas Dhu – Morayshire IV36 2RR
Glenburgie. – Morayshire IV36 2QY
HELDON & LAICH
Miltonduff – Morayshire IV30 8TQ
KEITH & CULLEN
Aultmore – Banffshire AB55 6QY
Glentauchers. – Banffshire AB55 6YL
Glen Kieth – Banffshire AB55 3BU
Strathisla – Banffshire AB55 5BS
Strathmill. – Banffshire AB55 5DQ
SPEYSIDE GLENLIVET
Aberlour – Banffshire AB38 9PJ
Allt a Bhainne – Banffshire AB55 4DB
Auchroisk – Banffshire AB55 6XS
Balvenie – Banffshire AB55 4DH
Benrinnes – Banffshire AB38 9NN
Braeval – Banffshire AB37 9JS
Caperdonich – Banffshire AB38 7BN
Cardhu – Morayshire AB38 7RY
Craigellachie – Banffshire AB38 9ST
Dailuaine – Banffshire AB38 7RE
Dufftown – Banffshire AB55 4BR
Glenallachie – Banffshire AB38 9LR
Glendullan – Banffshire AB55 4DJ
Glenfarclas – Banffshire AB37 9BD
Glenfiddich – Banffshire AB55 4DH
Glen Grant – Banffshire AB38 7BS
Glenlivet – Banffshire AB37 9DB
Glenrothes – Morayshire AB38 7AA
Glen Spey – Morayshire AB38 7AU
Imperial – Morayshire AB38 7QP
Kininvie, – Banffshire AB55 4DH
Knockando – Morayshire AB38 7RT
Macallan – Morayshire AB38 9RX
Mortlach – Banffshire AB55 4AQ
Speyburn – Morayshire AB38 7AG
Tamdhu – Morayshire AB38 7RP
Tamnavulin– Banffshire AB37 9JA
Tomintoul – Banffshire AB37 9AQ
BADENOCH
Dalwhinnie – Inverness-shire PH19 1AB
Speyside. – Inverness-shire PH21 1NS
STRATHSPEY
No distilleries.
GRANTOWN ON SPEY
Balmenach – Morayshire PH26 3PF
Cragganmore – Morayshire AB37 9AB
Tormore. – Morayshire PH26 3LR

This list throws up a couple of interesting conundrums. If you study the labels on bottles of both the Macallan and Dalwhinnie you will see that they clearly state ‘Single Highland Malt’, which of course they are perfectly entitled to, yet as we have seen both are entitled to call themselves ‘Speyside Single Malts’. So why do