Speyside Tasting Part I scotchwhisky.com's Speyside Tasting | Part I  T o book for the Inneshouse Dinner and Tasting 4th May 2001 click here  After a summer of fabulous guests, weather and whiskies - while making a start with the Islay Whisky Society's tastings and distillery visits - the end of September saw us heading north to the grandeur of Speyside and our first scotchwhisky.com tasting at Innes House. With kind support from Fiona at the Dufftown Whisky Shop and the worry of no petrol in the highlands (due to the fuel crisis), we finally set up an array of local whiskies and settled down to some serious evaluation. Innes House was a wonderfully grand setting - every bit as picturesque as the location of Speyburn Distillery (see the picture to the right) which produced one of our after dinner malts, of which more later. click any pictures for more detail click for more info We had promised some aperitif whiskies and so it was appropriate that we could turn to the nearby Glen Moray Distillery who now produce a range of 'wine-mellowed' malts that compliment the lighter style of their whisky.  It was quite evident as we started to nose the 12 Year Old Glen Moray that this was a novel departure from the standard wood finishes that have become more and more in evidence.  Guests noted fruity, citrus notes alongside some vanilla and a dry, tangy finish. Guests where provided with historical notes on each distillery by whisky writer Gavin Smith, who was on hand so he could sign his latest book Whisky Wit & Wisdom at the end of the evening.  Our second aperitif whisky came from independant bottlers Hart Brothers.  They had supplied us with a 10 Years Old Glendronach which was lightly sherried and more traditional in style than the Glen Moray.  Retired distillery manager John McDougal led the 'congregation' as we searched out appropriate tasting descriptors for our second malt.   Glendronach distillery is to be found on the easternmost edge of the Speyside distilling region and is one of the older Speyside distilleries. It was first licenced to James Allardes in 1826. In 1920, Glendronach was bought by Captain Charles Grant, the fifth son of William Grant, founder of the now famous Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown. We were fortunate to have John McDougal (right) with us as he had started his whisky production career in the area in the early 60's and had managed both the Tormore distillery and Williams Grant's distillery at Balvenie.  Having studied our before dinner rations in some detail, we left the Innes House Ballroom to find our seats for a traditional dinner - with four more whiskies yet to come!  Dinner started with Cullen Skink - a famous Scots soup made from smoked fish which originated in the nearby coastal town of Cullen. We took a break from food after a further course to study two challenging bottlings from Murray McDavid Murray McDavid, run by an old colleague of John's from his days as manager of Springbank distillery - Gordon Wright - whose family still own and operate that highly regarded distillery, provided another local malt from the Dufftown distillery followed by a very rare bottling from the now closed distillery of Lochside. (click the logo on the left for more on that bottling) Continued on next page T o book for the Inneshouse Dinner and Tasting 4th May 2001 click here