Six Speyside Sixteeners

The Speyside region of the Scottish Highlands is home to more distilleries than any other region on earth, yet it produces a style of whisky that defies easy definition — from the delicate, floral, and fruit-forward expressions that made the region famous, to the rich, meaty, and brooding drams that remind you this is a place of real depth and character. At our next event we’ll taste both ends of the spectrum: six drams of similar age and region, but separated by everything else — the distillery, the cask, and the bottler. All are 16 years old — a particular sweet spot in Speyside whisky — old enough to have shed any youthful roughness, developed enough to carry real complexity, but not so old that the oak has begun to dominate at the expense of the distillery character beneath. The cask each whisky rested in has shaped it profoundly — adding layers of fruit, spice, sweetness, and richness — while the distillery character remains very much alive. Same age, same region, six different stories to tell. The bottles come to us from some of the most respected independent bottlers in the business, each with their own discerning eye for a great cask.

The Scotch

2007 Benrinnes 16 Year Old Hunter Laing The First Editions #21174 Refill Hogshead, 48%
1997 Glen Grant 16 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Bourbon Hogshead, 54.1%
1997 Mortlach 16 Year Old Duncan Taylor “The Octave” No. 797681, 55.3%
2008 Glentauchers 16 Year Old Single Cask (Royal Mile Whiskies) #900255 Sherry Butt, 46%
2007 Glenburgie 16 Year Old Hunter Laing The First Editions #21006 Refill Sherry Butt, 53.1%
2005 Glenrothes 16 Year Old Douglas Laing Old Particular (K&L) #14897 Sherry Butt, 57.2%