Scotland, Speyside: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Speyside:

Coleburn

Description of the whisky

The distillery

Coleburn Distillery
Longmorn by Elgin
Morayshire IV38 8GN

Owner: United Distillers & Vintners (Diageo)

Creation date1899

Settled below the road from Rothes to Elgin, Coleburn distillery, whose buildings are still in good condition should never produce any whisky again. Owned by Clynelish up to 1916, it belongs to the D.C.L. (Distillers Company Ltd.) since 1930. The distillery has been refurbished in the 1950's and 1960's.
Coleburn closed in 1985. Its whisky is still available in the collection "Rare Malts" and from independent bottlers.

The whisky

List of the bottles

Description of the distillery

	Coleburn
	whisky
O.B.	Rare Malts 21 years	17 1/2
Signatory	Un-chillfiltered collection 1981	18 1/3

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Coleburn 21 years old Rare Malts (1979)
Age	21 years
Alcohol	59,4°
Bottler	Official
Price/litre

Nose: A floral perfume of bluebells and damp moss.
Palate: An early sprinkling of clean malt quickly disintegrates into something too oaky, hot and rugged for it's own good.
Finish: Tired, one-dimensional malt and offers a degree of sweetness against the drying and bitter oak.
Comment: Despite the low mark, pretty good by Coleburn standards. The nose and finale are impressive.
(Jim Murray) The Whisky Magazine

The nose is both clear and complex, consisting in flower hints and wax notes, as well as some woody touches.
The first impression in the palate is that alcohol is dominating, and than the dry character of this malt appears. The nice complexity of the nose has partially disappeared, but the taste remains interesting, despite the clear woody bitterness.
The finish is warm and not too long, and the woody impression remains.

The nose offers an amazing mix of barley and citrus fruit with some hints of yeast. Nice freshness. Fruity notes appear after a while. Nice complex nose.
In the mouth, the first impression is that of citrus acidity, nicely perfumed, quickly completed by a kind of bitter woody dryness. The latter fades rather soon and makes room to a beautiful malted smoothness. Very beautiful mouth, with lots of divers tastes.
The finish is fresh and lingering, where the citrus remains dominating, and mix nicely with those of the woody hints which already enhanced the palate.

Coleburn 1981 Signatory Un-Chill filtered Collection
Age	19 years
Alcohol	46°
Particularities	Non chill filtered Single Cask
Bottler	Signatory
Price/litre

The colour is gold, and the nose has an elegant style, marked by vegetal, fruity notes and a touch of peat.
The mouth is full and smooth and develops nicely to malted barley.
The finish is marked by the malt sweetness.

(la Maison du Whisky)

A delicious and very complex smell, with peat hints announces a very great bottle. The palate entirely confirms the impression of the nose and an extreme complexity of tastes explodes literally in the mouth. A wonderful whisky. A finish of average length prolongs the pleasure. A perfect illustration of the talent of a good independent bottler, and of the superior quality of non chill filtered whiskies.

All the magic of the first tasting is confirmed. A wonderful whisky, nicely smoked, with all the richness of the taste and the smell due to the non chill filtration. This is really one of the best whiskies I ever drank. The finish seemed longer to me this time, and this has influenced the final result.

A very nice presence of smoke and peat, mixed with floral notes with sea hints on a malted background characterizes this exceptional bottle. In the palate, a very nice first impression, due to the non chill filtration confirms the great complexity of this whisky. A discrete impression of honey on a peated background is rather surprising. The lingering finish is very pleasant, developing on malt with a touch of peat. A very great bottle.

Speyside

The Speyside area is situated at the North of the Cairngorm mountain and goes to the Moray firth. It is delimited by two rivers: the Findhorn at the West side and the Deveron on the East side.
The area is named after the river Spey. Most of the distilleries take their water in one of its affluents; the Fiddich, the Livet or the Avon.
About sixty distilleries from Speyside are described on this site.

Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
about the Speyside area, and if you want to make an "alphabetical journey" through the area, please
click on one of the pagode roofs, according to the direction you want to follow

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Last update: Sunday, 17-Feb-2008 20:58:36 CET
Mon 12 05 2008, 06:47 - 31 visiteurs au cours de la dernière heure et 3 visiteurs sur le site en ce moment.
Copyright:Jean-Marie Putz (2003-2007)

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