SECRET SPEYSIDE DISTILLERY 12yo 1993

Speyside, home to over 50 whisky distilleries, the greatest number of any Scotch whisky region. It’s located in the Moray area surrounding the River Spey in the north-east of the country and has been understood as a sub-region of the Highlands, with distilleries like Glenfarclas, Dalwhinnie, and Macallan, having the word Highland on its packaging. The 2009 regulations defined the region as its own entity to help clear this up and Speyside now has its own dedicated festival, the Spirit of Speyside, taking place in late April annually. 

Following the Excise Act of 1823, George Smith and his son John Gordon Smith attained the first licence to legally distil whisky in the Highlands and opened the Glenlivet distillery in Speyside. There was a time when in whisky’s early days when dozens of distilleries used a ‘Glenlivet’ suffix appended to their names, like Aberlour-Glenlivet and Macallan-Glenlivet. The word Speyside is really a substitute for Glenlivet, such was the prevalence of distilleries using the name as a generic term for whiskies from the region. The brand was never able to gain a sole trademark so the suffix was a compromise and it lasted for a surprisingly long time. By the 1980s, there were 28 distilleries registered with the -Glenlivet suffix or using the term in labelling or as a trademark, but it began to die out then and is now something you only really see from the odd independent bottling.

The area of Speyside always had access to water and grain, but really took things up a notch was the expansion of the Great North railway in the late 19th century, which connected the region with easy fuel access to coal (meaning less reliance on peat) and market access to the likes of London. 

Generally, Speyside whiskies fit into two styles: the light, sweet, and honeyed single malts of distilleries such as the giants of The Glenlivet and Glenfiddich; and the more robust, sherried malts from the likes of Aberlour and Tamdhu. But that’s not to say there aren’t outliers. Distilleries like Craigellachie with worm tub condensers make big, meaty spirit, while there’s also a history of peated whisky in the Speyside region that faded with the introduction of more accessible coal from the rails, but the likes of BenRiach and Benromach have been reviving in recent times.