Speyside Spey Fumare

The Speyside Distillery is something of an unknown. Most of the production goes into blends in Asia. Apart from that they also produced Beinn Dhu, Black Burn, Cu Dubh, Drumguish and Glentromie whisky as well as the Speyside single malt. That was recently rechristened to simply Spey and appears to be very popular in Taiwan. Today I will the Spey Fumare, which means smoky. As far as I am aware, this is the first and only official release of the peated version of this light Speysider.

The nose is a pleasant surprise. White fruit (apples, pears), some grapefruit, hazelnuts and marzipan, wrapped in a mildly smoky blanket. There is also a mild sour note that I am not that fond off, but all in all this is a good nose.

It is somewhat creamy upon arrival, immediately nicely sweet on honey and vanilla with again the white fruit – grapefruit takes the lead – and then allows for a big development of smoke that reminds me somewhat of Ledaig or even Caol Ila! Soft ginger and a bit of white pepper show themselves with the second sip.

Some nutmeg appears in the finish and the peat does what it can to linger pretty long. A medicinal and very salty note lead this to its final resting place.

Darn, whodathunk? This peated Spey is simply good!

Find where to buy Speyside whisky