Spey Fumare Single Malt Scotch Whisky

1. What they say

Multi Award Winner – The first ever peated distillery bottling from Speyside Distillers. Produced from peated barley, which the distillery only used for a small amount of time each year. 100% matured in bourbon barrels, & bottled a 46%, non chill-filtered and with no added colouring. A limited release of 18,000 individually numbered bottles.

2. Official tasting notes

• “A golden hue, like vintage champagne.  A distinctly medicinal aroma – carbolic, coal tar soap – on a light & fresh maritime base of salt air, iodine & seaweed.
• Light texture, sweet & lightly salty, with a smoky, medicinal finish. A finish of bonfire smoke and sweet basil.
• This would be taken for an Islay malt, although it is lighter in body and better mannered than any of them, More-ish, light, elegant & smoky.”

3. Details

• ABV 46%
• Age NAS
• Bottler OB
• Bottling Fumare
• Cask Bourbon
• Category Single malt scotch whisky
• Cost £55
• Origin The Speyside Distillery
• Region Speyside
• Released 2016

4. What I say

Another expression I haven’t previously tried from Speyside Distillery. I’ve had the cask strength version which I remember enjoying very much. I was interested to see if this still had as much impact at 46%. Sampled during the #SpeysideDistillery tweet tasting hosted by Steve @TheWhiskyWire

5. The Whiskyphiles tasting notes

• Colour White wine gold (5/20), medium-fine tears and strong legs.
• Nose Smokey and sweet (like a good caol ila) vanilla, coal-tar soap, vanilla-bean custard, shortbread, charcoal briquettes, phenol and ash, later some medicated cherry and strawberry, waxy sugars.
• Taste Light-bodied, Grassy and cereal, dry hay with some soft wisps of smoke, malty sweetness, honey, eucalyptus and wintergreen and a sprinkling of birch-smoked sea salt.
• Finish Long, coastal sea spray, mentholic herbs and smoke backed by malty sugars and vanillic oak wood.

6. Overall

Fumare is delicious and shows some of the more delicate aspects of peat-influence. This will change over time in the glass so worth taking some time over this one.

7. Score 85/100