Paul & Liz Visit Speside Distillery (PART 1)

The private whisky tasting was hosted by Exel Wines of Perth, a really good whisky shop with many hard to find whiskies lying about on the shelves!

It was given by Paul Dempsey, Commercial Manager, Speyside Distillers Company Ltd.

We were taken through three drams, the TENNE, Latin for Tawny, as it is a Port finish, and – beautiful! I better start from the start … When we say Speyside Distillery there are many that simply think of the region. This is THE Speyside Distillery, a wee thing down by Kingussie. This is a distillery that together with it’s owner company Harveys of Edinburgh had bags of stories to tell whilst we enjoyed a dram of their 12 year Old, 18 Year Old and the Tenne (Tawny style). Along with a selected few (including our guest Drew, from Phoenix Arizona) we sampled all three. My favourites of the evening were the Tenne and the 18 year old, how do I try and tell you what they were like? I won’t, I shall let you just try and find them for yourself, but be quick, limited supply at limited outlets – more on that later. For example, the 18yo; comes dressed in a nice looking tube, with certificate, a limited batch of only 1500 worldwide! I came away with number 883. When you see the photos you will see what I mean by dressed, the bottles are also real “lookers”. To say we had 3 tastings would be a lie, aye there were 3 bottles, but we tasted each more than once! I also came away with sample bottles courtesy of Paul.

A good evening? Aye, too right! This story will continue as I get to the distillery next week, then interview the CEO shortly afterwards. So watch this space…