This entry was posted in Blog, New Whisky Releases and Bottlings, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged Adelphi, Amrut, Berry Brothers & Rudd, Cadenhead's, Cameronbridge, Carn Mor, Douglas Laing, Duncan Taylor, Glenrothes, Gordon & MacPhail, Scottish Liqueur Centre, Spirit of Speyside, Wemyss on 12 May 2012 by Mike.

This is the first in a series of blogs on the festival.

During this year’s festival we again held a challenge for Independent Bottlers to find the best independent bottling of Speyside whisky and the best from the rest of whisky. The competition was hotly contended with entries from Adelphi, Berry Brothers & Rudd, Cadenheads’s, Douglas Laing, Duncan Taylor, Gordon & MacPhail, The Scottish Liqueur Centre (Carn Mor) and Wemyss. Both Berry Brothers and the SLC were new to the competition this year.

In both categories we had whiskies from the same distillery but were very different highlighting the craft of the Independent Bottler in selecting unusual casks from that distillery. And again this year almost all of the whiskies had people voting for them as their favourite showing that there is a whisky for everyone and every whisky has someone – the flavours in whisky are as broad as people’s palettes are different.

This year, luckily for once, we had very clear winners in each category!

Speyside Category

We had 7 entries in the Speyside category:

Adelphi Glenrothes 1969 42 Years Old

Benromach 2001 Cask Strength entered by Gordon & MacPhail

Berry’s Glenlivet 1973 38 Years Old

Douglas Laing Old & Rare Glen Grant 1985 25 Years Old

Duncan Taylor Octave Linkwood 1991 20 Years Old

Gordon & MacPhail Glen Grant 25 Years Old

Wemyss Cragganmore 1989 Lemon Grove

The results are:

Third – Berry’s Glenlivet 1973 38 Years Old

Second – Douglas Laing Old & Rare Glen Grant 1985 25 Years Old

First – Adelphi Glenrothes 1969 42 Years Old

Rest of Whisky

We had a whopping 10 entries in the Rest of Whisky Category:

Adelphi Caol Ila 1983 28 Years Old

Amrut Fusion entered by Gordon & MacPhail

Berry's Bunnahabhain 1990 21 Years Old

Cadenhead's Royal Brackla 1992 19 Years Old

Carn Mor Bowmore 1996 16 Years Old entered by The SLC

Carn Mor Highland Park 1994 17 Years Old entered by The SLC

Douglas Laing Old & Rare Caol Ila 1980 30 Years Old

Duncan Taylor Rare Auld Cameronbridge 1979 32 Years Old

Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice Royal Brackla 1995

Wemyss Bunnahabhain 1991 "Honey Spice"

The results are:

Third – Douglas Laing Rare Old Caol Ila 1980 30 Years Old

Second – Wemyss Bunnahabhain 1991 “Honey Spice”

First – Duncan Taylor Rare Auld Cameronbridge 1979 32 Years Old

Congratulations to Adelphi and Duncan Taylor!!!

Best Under 18's

In previous years we have also given an award to the best whisky under 18 years old. We only had one entry in the Speyside category that met this criteria and unfortunately this was not an independent bottling so did not qualify but was very well received in the under 18’s as was the Carn Mor Highland Park and Carn Mor Bowmore who share the prize for the under 18’s in the Rest of Scotland category.

The Owner's Award

After analysing the voting and comparing that to price to obtain a measure of popularity for price The Owner’s Award (that’s me) goes to the Octave Linkwood as the best buy in the competition with a Crichton coefficient of 0.57. And a very special mention for the Berry’s Glenlivet as I am torn between this and the Adelphi Glenrothes for my personal favourites.

Best Tasting Note

As usual an independent panel reviewed the tasting notes to find the best ones. I stress they were independent and I had nothing to do with it. The winning tasting notes were from Teun van Wel and we will be featuring his tasting note in a later post. Well done to Teun who won his favourite whisky which was the Berry’s Glenlivet. The runner up yet again was Ed Velthuizen. Ed has been either winner or runner up so many times we have decided to appoint him judge for the best tasting note going forward.

Thank You

A big thank you to all the companies that entered and the hundreds of festival goers who took part. This remains one of the few competitions where all of the judging is done by members of the public!!

The Autumn Speyside Festival

For anyone coming to the Autumn Speyside Festival and wishing to attend our events at The WSD Autumn Festival 2012 then it is more than likely than tickets for our events will only be available from our website.  There will be no change for the Spirit of Speyside Festival 2013.