Secret Speyside
The latest Chivas Brothers release lifts the lid on seldom-seen distilleries
Asked to list Speyside distilleries and more often than not people will rattle off the usual suspects – the ones that everybody knows. These are often great at what they do and well managed, hence their renown. However, that isn’t to say that Speyside doesn’t have some overlooked hidden distilling gems.
Maybe it’s time to change that? Enter Chivas Brothers. Again, a name well known among whisky lovers, but on this particular distilling mission, their aim was to shed light on some of their lesser known distilleries and liquids.
The showcased distilleries are; Braes of Glenlivet, Caperdonich, Glen Keith and Longmorn. If we think of Braes of Glenlivet under the name of its most recent guise, Braeval (it has been known as such since 1994 to avoid confusion with The Glenlivet Distillery), few outside aficionados know the stories of these distilleries and their liquids.
What better way to tell these stories than release 15 whiskies from the four distilleries? All of the whiskies included are aged between 18 and 30 years and are exclusive to travellers in duty-free for one year (since July 2019), which adds extra lustre to the collection. So, here’s the story of these ‘secret’ Speyside distilleries.
Longmorn Distillery has a reputation for producing whisky that’s widely enjoyed by distillers in the industry. You suspect that if it is good enough for the ladies and gentlemen who know the product inside and out, that it must be something special.
Situated in Longmorn, Moray, it was founded in 1894 by John Duff, a name that will be familiar to those who know their distillery founders. Duff is known as a forward-thinking individual, useful for a man building a distillery at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Part of his innovation was constructing a railway station at the distillery door which afforded him a wider choice of ingredients and the ability to distribute the liquid further afield.
Another notable feature of Longmorn Distillery is that it draws its water from an underground lake, the Moray Aquifer, which it claims guarantees purity. Meanwhile, the distillery's stills have broad, but smooth shoulders, which allow a lower fill level and therefore greater contact with the copper during distillation. The brand claims that this produces a richer and more intense spirit.
For Chivas Brothers’ Secret Speyside, the Longmorn releases include an 18-years-old and 23-years-old, both 48% ABV and matured in American oak barrels and hogsheads. There is also a cask-strength (52.2% ABV) 25-yearsold which has been triple cask-matured in American oak barrels, hogsheads and butts.
Longmorn 18 Years Old
Nose: That moment the can-opener pierces the lid of the tinned fruit salad, seriously intense and lush tropical fruit, Robinson’s Barley water with oranges and fresh lime, maraschino cherries and mango kulfi with full fat cream.
Palate: Those tropical fruits continue to come through, really intense stuff. There’s more than fruit now with the oak giving vanilla, chocolate and coconut ice cream. Fresh chopped peppermint leaves and a little chilli spice.
Finish: Again with those fruits, fresh orange juice, griddled mango slices and pineapples with mint.
Comments: Fruit and just a little more fruit, could almost be one of your however many a day it is now. A fruity punch with a punch.
SCORE: 8.4
Longmorn 23 Years Old
Nose: Almost seems like a classic Speysider off the bat, plenty of fruits, apples and pears, a hint of citrus and then some ginger and cinnamon spice. Another on full of fruit salad notes, but something hedgerow-esque too, blackberries and sloes.
Palate: That hedgerow note continues with blackberries, blackcurrant and raspberry.
Salted caramel ice cream with dark chocolate chunks. A little dried chilli powder spice with coconut cream.
Finish: The spice that lurked backs off and all that fruit and vanilla ice cream sweetness takes the stage and keeps in going.
Comments: A rollercoaster of a fruit ride again, but great fun and very morish with it.
SCORE: 8.5
Longmorn 25 Years Old
Nose: Opening a long-closed dunnage warehouse, alcohol, wood and some earthy notes. Church pews and old polished oak. Blueberry muffins, cinnamon sugar and custard cream. Tack rooms and cider presses, leather, saddle soap, apple pie and poached pears.
Palate: Hot and prickly, orange sorbet and lemon ice cream, cherries and rum and raisin fudge. The wood is present in the background with malty tea tannins and vanilla spice.
Finish: Rich, Takes a long time to end, churros and chocolate dipping sauce, dark drinking chocolate and hints of cinnamon and orange.
Comments: Takes you back to sampling in a warehouse with eating orange segments. Rich and lovely.
SCORE: 8.9
...on this particular distilling mission, their aim was to shed light on some of their lesser known distilleries and liquids
Moving on to the next distillery featured in the collection – Glen Keith. The distillery is known for producing a lighter, more gentle style of whisky, the result of having slender stills with long, upwardly angled lyne arms. Versatility is the name of the game here as typically the Glen Keith Distillery has provided the testing-site for Chivas Brothers.
The distillery was built in the 1950s on the ruins of an old mill. Sitting on the banks of the river Isla, the distillery stands beside a deep pool of water which in Gaelic was known as Linne A Bhradan, meaning ‘the leap of the salmon.’ The salmon therefore proves a fitting
Glen Keith 21 Years Old
Nose: A lovely mix of aromatic wood and tropical fruit, think fresh pineapples in a wooden packing box. Then more sweetness comes in with tinned fruit salad in sugar syrup, hints of mint and freesias. There’s roses and lavender edges to this as well.
Palate: More of that tinned tropical fruit and sugar syrup sweetness continues on. There’s a hint of peppery spiciness and honey coated peanuts rolled in salt crystals. A little oak grip comes just at the end.
Finish: That oak spice rolls through the finish and dries everything out slowly, leaving honey roast peanuts.
Comments: Seriously great stuff. Keeps all parts of your tasting senses happy and that finish just makes you want more.
SCORE: 9.3 motif for the distillery crest. The distillery was actually mothballed for 14 years between 1999 and 2013.
Rarely producing single malt whisky, in the Secret Speyside Collection Chivas Brothers have released three Glen Keith expressions that actually form the first official age-statement expressions from the distillery. The first is
Glen Keith 21 Years Old, which has been held in ‘specially selected oak barrels and butts’, according to Chivas Brothers while coming in at an ABV of 43%. A 25-years-old and a 28-yearsold expression have both been matured in American oak barrels, also at 43% ABV.
Glen Keith 25 Years Old
Nose: Quite slow to open but when it does it is well worth it. Plenty of stewed oranges, lemon posset and plums in cognac. There’s pastry notes here, fresh with all the toppings, icing sugar, vanilla set custard and apricot jam. A little lime and peanut sauce too.
Palate: We are back in the kitchen again here with fresh sourdough, hot from the oven, with lashings of salted butter. Hot churros and cinnamon sugar dipped in chocolate. Some coffee grinds and wood tannins.
Finish: Tingly like those Haribo Super-tang sweets, then the oak takes over with a black tea tannin depth.
Comments: Good balance here and love the way various elements follow through from nose to palate. The finish is quite something.
SCORE: 8.6
Glen Keith 28 Years Old
Nose: Like being hit with a sack full of chillies and star anise, huge spices, big, bold and wonderful. There’s some citrus here to temper that, flamed orange peel and a splash of lemon and lime cordial.
Palate: Lush and lovely with those spices cooling down a little and letting rich and velvety chocolate notes take over. Ginger pieces in dark chocolate, cherries in brandy and
Oxford marmalade spread thickly across a slice of rye bread.
Finish: The wood influence shows its hand with vanilla custard and stewed tea tannins. Takes a long time to dissipate leaving blackberry jam.
Comments: Everything you want from an older dram, lush and engaging. There’s life in this dram for sure with those spices.
SCORE: 8.7
Braes of Glenlivet is known for its remoteness. If it’s hard to reach it does stand true that the reward is the more satisfying because of that. Its remoteness has meant that historically farmers would be relied upon to clear the roads to the distillery in the depths of winter. The distillery was established in 1973 making it one of the more modern distilleries in the region. Should you make it up there – at an altitude of 350m the distillery is widely thought of as being one of the highest distilleries in Scotland – you’ll be rewarded with the sight of a classically design distillery with modern efficiencies inside.
Built into the side of a mountain ridge, its
Braes of Glenlivet 25 Years Old
Nose: Huge sweetness at first, a full on tropical delight with pineapple, plums and a little spiced apricot, fresh not from a can fruit salad. Plenty of honey and vanilla notes roll through, caramel and coconut ice cream with milk chocolate sauce. Spices build after a little time, cumin and a white pepper note.
Palate: That big wave of sweetness hits first then the fruit comes crashing in behind it. Pears in cognac. Then it darkens with tea tannins and whisky soaked wood. Hints of cooked citrus and the spices are lurking.
Finish: Apple pie and Chantilly cream sweetness until those tannins start to dry.
Comments: Plenty going on here, and a decent amount of balance. Water helps to mellow things even more and ramps the fruit side up.
SCORE: 8.1 water source is the Pitilie Burn, which it shares with Aberfeldy Distillery. Between 2002 and 2008 the distillery was closed.
The trio of releases in the Secret Speyside Collection make up the first official bottlings from the distillery, that has otherwise been tasted as independent bottlings or in the Deerstalker range. Matured in American oak barrels, there is an 25 Years Old and a 27 Years Old, with both having an ABV of 48%. For those looking for something with a little greater heft to it, the cask strength 50.3 ABV Braes of Glenlivet 30 Years Old offers a fruity number that has been matured in American oak barrels and hogsheads.
Braes of Glenlivet 27 Years Old
Nose: Trail mix to start with full of dried fruits and nuts: apricots, apple, guava and coconut. Toasted walnuts and pumpkin seeds. Then moves more towards hints of cooked apple, apple pie and custard with hints of cinnamon.
Palate: It heads off straight away in a much darker fruit direction; bags of stewed figs, blackberries and a hint of black and red liquorice laces. Some spice with crystallised ginger in dark chocolate and sweetness with toffee pennies.
Finish: There’s a zip of citrus then all that caramel and toffee sweetness rolls in to give a gorgeous long finish.
Comments: Love the way the nose sets up fresh fruits then the palate basically cooks and stews them. Brilliant stuff going on here.
SCORE: 8.7
Braes of Glenlivet 30 Years Old
Nose: This takes its time, very gentle and soft, a little almond croissant warming in the oven, then into rich, thick cut marmalade. Fruits arrive with maraschino cherries, over ripe banana and a little tobacco pouch. There is caster sugar dusted blood orange segments.
Palate: Gentle at first again but then full on rich and creamy, soft hints of sherry-soaked raisins and a little cinnamon spice. Leaning towards pancakes, strawberries, vanilla cream and lots of caramel sauce. The wood makes its presence felt with coconut macaroons and some tannins.
Finish: Soft and gentle with that sweetness tempered with those wood tannins.
Comments: A venerable drop for certain, great balance between the sweetness and wood elements. One for savouring for sure.
SCORE: 8.8
The final distillery in the collection is Caperdonich - the vanished distillery. Simply put, when the whisky distilled from this distillery is gone, there will be no more. Once sitting on the banks of the river Spey, Caperdonich opened in 1898 but sadly was taken down brick by brick in 2011.
Originally founded in 1898 by James Grant, the founder of Glen Grant, Caperdonich was always a small distillery, but it made both peated and unpeated whiskies.
Paying homage to the distillery producing peated and unpeated whisky, the expressions released in the Secret Speyside collection include three peated and three unpeated whiskies. Among the release is an unpeated 21-years-old (48% ABV), a 25-years-old (48% ABV) and 30-years-old Caperdonich (which will be cask strength when released in October 2019), each matured in first fill American oak. The peated expressions include an 18-yearsold and 21-years-old matured in American oak (48%) and a cask strength 25-years-old matured in oak hogsheads (again, released in October 2019).
Why are these expressions exciting? It's a last chance to enjoy a distillery that is no longer part of the Speyside landscape.
Scotch whisky distilling manager for Chivas, Alan Winchester, says, “With centuries of rich whisky heritage against a jaw-dropping Scottish landscape, Speyside is the treasure chest of Scotch and brimming with untold stories.
Caperdonich 21 Years Old Peated
Nose: There is smoke here. Oily, smoked salmon on rye. Drying tobacco leaves and a hint of seasoned oak. Then fruit, oranges in sugar syrup, the cherry from tinned fruit salat and a little milk chocolate too.
Palate: This is fun, starts off shy then builds. A little fruit and citrus notes before that smoke rises and wraps everything in its talons. A little ashy, bags of Earl Grey tea, an open log burner and hickory BBQ chips soaked in whisky.
Finish: Long, and with the smoke taking the lead, dries ever so slowly, but there is sweetness here too.
Comments: Despite its initial shyness this turns into a belter of a dram, a good balance.
SCORE: 8.5
Caperdonich 18 Years Old Peated
Nose: Bonfires, toffee apples and black treacle sweets. A peat-fest, black smoked tea with a little floral edge. Melon, cinnamon and air-dried ham.
Palate: The smoke continues with BBQ brisket, just fried bacon with maple syrup, sweet apple wood smoked ham, then Seville marmalade on rye bread. Chilli heat. A little saline edge with smoked sea salt on buttered malt loaf.
Finish: The smoke just wafts through, it leaves behind a gentle lingering sweetness.
Comments: Big and bold with that smoke, but give it time and there’s plenty going on.
SCORE: 8.6
Caperdonich 21 Years Old Unpeated
Nose: Very gentle, apple compote and pear jam. There’s a little quince jelly as well with soft creamy cheese. Fresh mown grass and mixed herbs with unsmoked bacon frying.
Palate: Spices immediately explode and fill the mouth, deep fried jalapenos with cream cheese. The oak adds some vanilla and honey notes, then sugar coated almonds and honey roast cashew nuts. A faint menthol note lurks.
Finish: All that sweetness gathers and then releases in waves, orange jelly, Refresher sweets with lemon sherbet and runny honey.
Comments: You might think you need a serious sweet tooth needed but those spices come to balance everything out.
SCORE: 8.6
Caperdonich 25 Years Old Unpeated
Nose: Big and bold, dark plums, blackberry jam and blueberry muffins. Cedar chests and hints of drying tobacco leaves. A little dried mixed herbs come through, sage, camomile and coriander. Sweetness too from runny honey and a little lemon zip.
Palate: That honey and lemon pushes on through, together with apple pie and pear tart with vanilla custard. Blackberries and blueberries take over again.
Finish: High cocoa contain chocolate bitter sweetness poured over blood orange segments, A little saline dryness too.
Comments: A lovely drop to be savoured as the sun goes down on a hot summer’s day.
SCORE: 9.2