Speyburn 10-Year-Old Whisky Review

Speyburn’s 10-Year-Old single-malt Scotch whisky from Speyside has won numerous awards and shows that whiskies matured for longer aren’t automatically better.

I was lucky enough to visit the Speyburn whisky distillery on Speyside in Scotland a few months ago, so when the chance came to review their 10-Year-Old, which has won numerous awards, I jumped at it.

Rothes is not a bad place to be, if you like your whisky, as it’s also home to Glen Grant, Glen Spey, and Glenrothes, as well as Speyburn. As the population isn’t much more than a thousand or so, a lot of them clearly must work in the whisky business! It’s also not a bad place to be if you love beautiful countryside, as to get to Speyburn we drove through green rolling hills where a mix of black and white sheep were grazing the thick grass with their lambs.

We crossed a single-span and single-lane iron bridge over the River Spey, and arrived at Speyburn, which is a mile out of town and surrounded by thick woodland. You could be walking a hundred yards from the distillery and not know that it’s there, though from some places you’ll see the top of its original pagoda peeping over the trees. It has in fact been there since 1897, the spot chosen because it gave access to the pure waters of the Granly Burn, a tributary of the River Spey.

Touring the distillery we were shown the original malting floor, which is no longer used, and the original malting ovens, also no longer used but they can’t do anything with them as Historic Environment Scotland says they can’t touch them or remove them so they can’t use the building for anything else. As with many distilleries in Scotland, history seeps out of the buildings as much as it seeps out of the whiskies produced there.

Speyburn Whisky-Tasting

We were treated to a tasting of several Speyburn whiskies, including the 18-Year-Old, a 15-Year-Old which, at 46% ABV, went brilliantly with a sticky toffee pudding, and their Bradan Orach (‘Golden Salmon’), which has no age expression.

We also sampled their multi-award-winning 10-Year-Old, which is aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, and shows that the amount of time a whisky has been aged is not necessarily an indication of quality. A 25-Year-Old will obviously taste different than a 10-Year-Old, and will probably taste more complex, but depending on your palate you might prefer the younger whisky. My tasting notes told me that the most notable feature of the 10-Year-Old was that it was fruity, and tasted like apple and smelled like an apple orchard.

Speyburn 10-Year-Old Whisky Review

Visiting a distillery like Speyburn obviously helps you appreciate their whiskies more, especially when you’ve seen the pure water source, watched those stocky sheep grazing on the lush grasses, and met the people who are so passionate and knowledgeable about what they do. But would the whisky still taste as good 5,000 miles away in Arizona?

The answer is, when it’s a good whisky like Speyburn, emphatically yes. In fact it may taste even better, when you’re sampling it away from the heady aromas of a distillery. Tasting it at the office desk, with no hint of sticky toffee pudding, means you focus totally on what’s in your glass.

The 10-Year-Old Speyburn is a lovely pale nutty color, a pale gold, you might say. On the nose I still definitely got that whiff of apple orchard, though I also picked out honey, toffee, spice, pear drops, and an enjoyable mix of sweet vanilla and peaty smoke. But very light smoke, as this is not a peaty whisky.

On the palate it’s wonderfully robust, and tastes stronger than its conventional 40% ABV. There was burnt toffee and spices, still those apples and other fruit coming through, though the vanilla sweetness was less evident. It came back on the finish, combined again with that contrasting hint of smoke. This is a deliciously mellow whisky to sip and savor, and at the price (currently RRP of only $30 in the USA) it’s an absolute bargain.