Old Elgin 8 yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, mini, 1980s)
I’ve heard various assertions about Old Elgin over the years, that it has sheltered any number of covert Speyside malts. But I couldn’t tell you anything with absolute certainty. This one looks as though it could easily be a blended malt. Colour: orangey gold (caramel?) Nose: indeed this has a kind of ‘flatness’ that many old G&M concoctions at 40% display after years in glass. Mashed veg, damp grains, cereals, some sunflower oil, shoe polish and hints of orange peel. Fine, nice, simple and a bit plain. Mouth: indeed, flat is very much the word here. Cardboard, milky tea, cafe latte, mashed potato, plain porridge. Pretty mundane really. Finish: vanishingly short and with a rather unpleasant bitterness in the aftertaste. Comments: I’m sure part of the problem is that it’s an old mini, a full size bottle would probably show better. But the overall impression I’m left with is that these sorts of drams are decent, older style single malts that just get totally gutted by the bottling process: colour, brute filtration and crash dilution to 40%. Very few whiskies survive such violent treatment.
SGP: 431 - 68 points. 

Burnside 27 yo 1989/2016 (46.5%, Cadenhead Small Batch, two bourbon barrels, 288 bottles)
Burnside is of course Balvenie ‘teaspooned’ with Glenfiddich to make it technically (legally) a blended malt. Although, how much ‘teaspooning’ actually goes on versus it being a brand protective move by William Grant is up for debate. Colour: gold. Nose: you really do just get a sense of pure Balvenie I’m afraid, lots of tinned fruits such as pineapples in their syrups and runny honey. Luscious, expressive and elegant with some malty, cereal backbone providing a sense of firmness and structure. Wee hints of waxed canvass too. Mouth: indeed, soft waxes, pollens, dried flowers, cereals, olive oil, mashed banana and fruit salad juices. A wonderfully ‘fleshy’ quality to the fruits that feels both fresh and textural. Finish: medium and all on this same mix of sweet fruits, lightly honeyed tones and dried notes of flowers and natural barley. Comments: It’s hard not to be swept off your feet by the easy charm and class of these Burnsides. It’s probably a good thing this whole ‘teaspooning’ nonsense exists because this is basically a wonderfully mature, 27yo Balvenie.
SGP: 641 - 89 points.

Burnside 28 yo 1989/2018 (46.2%, Archives ‘The Fishes of Samoa’, cask #4556, hogshead, 84 bottles)
I hope the Whiskybase team have a suitably shrewd accountant able to convincingly write off all these extensive ‘research’ trips to Samoa… Colour: white wine. Nose: pretty different, not nearly as much wood influence so you don’t have the same ‘syrupy’ density as the Cadenhead displayed. Rather this is lighter, softer and more ethereal in its aromas. All on soft cereals, fabrics, linens, pollens and dried flowers. There’s also a slightly dustier edge and hints of cupboard spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and turmeric. Some slightly greener notes such as vase water too. Mouth: unusual, it’s all rather drying and again quite a sense of dustiness. Cracked white pepper, canvass, baking parchment, ink, crunched newspaper. More these dried flower notes and chamomile tea. Some sunflower oil and soda bread notes too. Finish: not the longest, dries out rather swiftly and you’re left with these wee notes of dried honey, oatcakes, water crackers and green tea. Comments: A bit unlikely, maybe just a case of resting a bit too long in the cask and the cask itself not offering too much. It’s very fine, but I preferred the opulence of the Cadenhead.
SGP: 451 - 85 points.

Burnside 28 yo 1991/2020 (45%, C Dully Selection, cask #7367, bourbon barrel, 199 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: a perfect halfway house between the two styles. Pears poached in honey, baked green apples, sweet cider, custard made with dessert wines (Tokaji I suspect) and these wee hints of tobacco leaf and some rather elegant mossy and leafy qualities. Petrichor and rainwater. You also have these slightly firmer notes of plain cereals and simple breads again - once again just feels like very good, mature Balvenie. Mouth: an easy and immediate sweetness which is also rather creamy. Chantilly cream, vanilla soda and then some rather punchy herbal notes intruding on proceedings. Freshly muddled herbs, mint julep, wee touches of mead, putty and furniture polish. Very good. Finish: good length, some slightly prickly green fruits, sandalwood, leather, honey, white pepper, plush cereals. Comments: Classical, easy and very well balanced between the sweetness, fruits and drier complexities.
SGP: 651 - 88 points.

Speyside Malt 26 yo 1992/2018 (51.6%, Liquid Treasures ‘Snakes’, bourbon barrel, 270 bottles)
I’ve heard whispers this one could be ‘pure’ Balvenie, but no idea if that’s the case. Colour: pale gold. Nose: these sorts of whiskies are really a collision of ‘good quality’ and ‘homogenisation’, in the sense that this could really hail from any number of Speyside distilleries. A lovely mix of gentle bread and honey tones, sunflower oil, breakfast cereals dusted with icing sugar, pollen heavy flowers, cider apples and various fruit liqueurs. Sweet, weighted, balanced and elegant. With water: forest freshness after the rain, leafy tobacco notes, light mulchy qualities and mineral oil. Mouth: a few notches drier on arrival than the nose suggested, but with quite a bit of pure and ripe fruitiness. Green banana, melon, guava - hints of some of these mature Irish whiskeys coming through with these further notes of grassiness, pink grapefruit and gooseberry acidity. A little malt extract and milky sweet tea. With water: crystallised fruit peels, soft waxes, citronella and a few muddled herbs such as bay, parsley and marjoram. Finish: good length, still this elegant see-saw between sweet fruits and drier earthy and cereal tones. A light dusting of white pepper ads an edge in the aftertaste. Comments: The very epitome of easy, fruity, quaffable Speyside malt. I feel it’s impossible for any whisky drinker not to enjoy this style. However, it’s also impossible to get too excited about it either. Tumbler juice!
SGP: 551 - 86 points.

Wardhead 21 yo 1997/2018 (55.5%, Liquid Treasures ‘Entomology’, bourbon hogshead)
Another ‘blended malt’, this time it’s tea-bagged Glenfiddich… sorry, ‘teaspooned’! Colour: pale gold. Nose: rather fresh, green and dominated by stuff like crisp green apple, cider apple and crisp cereals. Putty, canvass, a few pollens, darjeeling tea and soda bread. Very nice. With water: swims well! A lovely lift of greenery, freshness and things like wildflowers, damp ferns, more pollens, vase water and geraniums in a hot greenhouse. A little leathery note too. Mouth: rather punchy with these notes of rapeseed oil, grass, parsley, green pepper, white balsamic and mineral oil. There’s still sweetness too in the form of mead and barley sugars. With water: a tad straighter and perhaps a bit more ‘down the line Speyside’. More of these apple peelings, some gooseberry sharpness, steel wool, white pepper, English Breakfast tea and olive oil. Finish: good length, nicely drying, peppery, wee notes of lemon pith, thyme and freshly baked white bread. Comments: All very fine, but I think it’s the kind of whisky that struggles to hold your attention after a while. It does work well with water though.
SGP: 551 - 84 points.

Speyside #3 8 yo ‘Batch 1’ (50.7%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co)
Not much info on this one except to note that it’s a single malt rather than a blended. Colour: white wine. Nose: cut grass, cider apples, farmhouse ale, hops, vanilla cream, freshly churned butter and chopped parsley. Classic, easy and rather direct. A nice punchy quality to these various pronounced aromas. With water: rather a lot of scattered, dry cereals, crushed oatcakes, soda bread and things like sun cream. Mouth: very lemony and quite sweet on arrival. Lemon sherbet sweets, young dessert wines, custard creams, pineapple cake, icing sugar on cornflakes and cream soda. With water: very easy, sweet, cereal and with a natural vanilla quality. Still a little pineapple and these impressions of sun lotion. Finish: medium, a little peppery, nutmeg, rice pudding, more vanilla cream and icing sugar. Comments: The very epitome of easy, simple, young, modern, fresh malt whisky. It’s rather plain and a tad ‘basic’, but it’s also clean and technically pretty good too. The kind of thing you can chuck an ice cube in and sip absentmindedly on a warm afternoon. If that’s your thing.
SGP: 541 - 82 points.

Artis Secretum 2011/2018 (67.1%, Whisky Illuminati ‘Solaria Series’, cask #900284, sherry butt, 150 bottles)
Not sure about the distillery for this one but I would suspect something from the town of Rothes that starts with Glen. Colour: amber. Nose: sweet fudge, chocolate cake, stewed prunes, Irish coffee and rum n’ raisin ice cream. Dense, sweet, sticky and rather opulent. With water: orange oils, marmalade with coriander seed, limoncello, freshly baked brown breads and coffee cake. Nicely complex with dilution. Mouth: rather drier than the nose suggested, lots of hessian, bitter chocolate, herbal medicines, earthy bitter notes, cooking oils, tobaccos, lemon marmalade and green walnut liqueur. Like all the bottling in this series, it’s impressive for its age but simultaneously feels rather challenging and boisterous. With water: a tad more straightforward now - olive oil cake, almonds, marzipan, meaty broths, light sootiness and dark fruits. Finish: medium and rather lumpy with big notes of dark chocolate, coffee, walnut oils and herbal bitters. Comments: started well and rather distinctively but as things progressed there was a definite sense of youthful imbalance coming through. However, there’s still plenty to enjoy if you like big, direct, gutsy sherry.
SGP: 471 - 82 points.

The Old Speysider 27 yo 1992/2019 (46.3%, Svenska Eldvatten, bourbon hogshead, 257 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: lovely! A deeply syrupy and bright fruitiness. Green and garden fruits all over the place: pear cordial, green apples, gooseberry jam, pineapple juice, lemon barley water, waxed canvass, green tea with lemon slices, bergamot - extremely fresh, bright, attractive and enticing. Wee threads of honey, dry cider and heather flowers dotted throughout. Hyper-easy and indulgent. Mouth: what’s great here is that these green fruit notes are so luscious they really begin to morph into tropical fruit syrups. Pineapple cordial, guava jam, nectarine, mashed banana - could be a 1988 Bushmills almost. Some lighter tertiary notes of breads, sunflower seeds and exotic fruit teas. An almost superlative fruitiness. In time you get this wee crushed nettle note and touches of lime, like a Kiwi sauvignon blanc almost. Finish: good length, warming, glowing with fruits, a little tobacco, mead, camphor, olive oil and lemon curd. Comments: Dizzyingly juicy and satisfying. The fruitiness is immediate, ripe, dense and brimming from the glass in a hugely satisfying way. Just a little extra oomph would have propelled it to 90 I think. I would say this level of juicy fruit already sets it apart from some of these more ‘simplistic’ Speysiders though. Would love to know the distillery or origin here though.
SGP: 741 - 89 points.

Speyside #5 23 yo ‘Batch 4’ (49.1%, That Boutique-y Whisky Co for Hanshe, 451 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: fruit salad juices, tinned peaches, some light waxiness, cereals, shortbread, a little buttery and some background greenery like parsley, grass and then sunflower oil. Easy, elegant, simple and pretty direct. Mouth: rather prickly and spicier than expected, which I quite enjoy. Pollens, wood spices, cinnamon, aniseed and pot pourri. Some hops, heather honey and cloves. Almost feels rather bourbon-esque at times with these notes of orange cocktail bitters and touches of liquorice. You could make a pretty tasty old fashioned with this I suspect Finish: good length with quite a bit of warming green pepper, cloves, anise, herbal extracts, juniper and juicy fruit chewing gum. Comments: Rather punchy, straightforward and a tad simple, but undeniably very good. You can feel the wood had quite a bit to say here, but it says it very well. 
SGP: 561 - 86 points.

Speyside Blended Malt 45 yo 1973/2019 (45.1%, The Whisky Exchange ‘Magic of the cask’ for The Whisky Show, cask #6, sherry butt, 549 bottles)
I know, I’m late. Colour: amber. Nose: a wonderful vortex of sumptuous and rich dark fruits like figs, dates, prunes and sultanas. Fruit loaf, Dundee cake, walnut liqueur, coffee and walnut cake, pipe tobacco and many layers of rancio and chocolate sauce. The kind of aroma that kindled many love affairs with whisky I suspect. Given time it evolves some drier edges with more notes of pastries, fresh breads, aged mead, pollen and a slight gamey edge. Extremely good I think. Mouth: what’s good is that there’s no obvious or immediate tiredness, it stands up very well to the promise of the nose. Lots of sticky dark fruits, Irish coffee liqueur, sultana and fig stewed in Armagnac, treacle cake, walnut oil, chocolate sauce and slated caramel fudge. Treads that perfect line between sweet, fruity, earthy and dry. I wouldn’t say it’s the most complex old dram but it is certainly precise, eloquent and very beautiful. Finish: medium and full of tobacco leaf, bitter chocolate, rancio, balsamic, green walnut wine, orange liqueur and wee touches of miso and umami paste. A little polished hardwood and its resin too. Comments: What’s quite cool is that you feel this is very much the epitome of this style of whisky. Simple but direct, beautiful and everything in its place. Maybe one or two years past its peak but still hugely pleasurable.
SGP: 561 - 89 points.