A lot of undisclosed Speyside bottlings these days… and the Limburg Whisky Fair is traditionally the preferred moment for The Whisky Agency to present some of its best bottlings of the year. We’ll start with this Speyside Region 1975 from a Fino sherry cask.

The new TWA series is nicknamed Good Vibes and features some funky, colourful illustrations on the labels. We’ll have a look at other releases in the coming days and weeks (there’s more undisclosed goodness, as well as Caol Ila 2007 and Ben Nevis 1996, plus two Arrans, Irish malt 1991 and Cragganmore 2004 in other series).

I’ve been wondering about the distillery, and I’ve only seen frequent Fino casks from The Macallan or Glenfarclas. But I have no confirmation, if we forget about the cask type, several other distilleries had this kind of profile during the early 970s: Glenrothes, Glenglassaugh, Glen Grant, Tamdhu…

Speyside Region 40 yo 1975 (55%, The Whisky Agency ‘Good Vibes’ 2016, Fino sherry butt, 389 btl.)

Nose: starts on tobacco notes – the blond Virginia variety this time – with a beautiful waxy side. Sweet oils, moving towards apricot jam and honeycomb. Compared to the 1973, more on yellow berries than red berries. Hints of banana and guava. Some cedar wood. Also a little eucalyptus and mint, which is quite natural at this age / strength. A tad warmer than the other 1975s I’ve tried. Water highlights wax candles.

Mouth: oaky, true, but in a peppery way rather than a tannic way. Sweet orange juice and yellow plums underneath. Spearmint notes, some cinnamon. Waxy / resinous notes. Not the widest palate but a rare and beautiful profile. Takes a few drops of water well.

Finish: long, still with a surprising candy sweetness, and lemony notes, with fruit tea and a subtle salty touch.

A delicious Speyside dram, reminding us of some of the glorious 1968 Glenfarclas bottled at a similar age some time ago. If you don’t require certainty about the distillery, even the price is more or less the same. Around € 355.

Score: 92/100

3Comments

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1

Tony on 11 May 2016 at 01:13

God I cant afford to keep on buying these… I just got the Sansibar and the Whisky Fassle 1975 Finos; do I need to get this one too? (Not to mention the Nectar one!) How different are they from one another? Maybe I’ll wait for the review of the 1973. Except that will almost certainly be a good review too, so then I’ll be in an even bigger indecisive mess…

Some days I wish I preferred beer.
2

WhiskyNotes on 11 May 2016 at 09:23

They are in fact close together and I couldn’t try them all head-to-head, which makes it difficult to notice all differences.

In my opinion this TWA 1975 is one of the warmer, waxier examples, with more punch than the others too. Sansibar has more bright fruity notes. The 1973 is more clasically sherried and a bit more complex. I will also review a 1975 from a new bottler, Beacon Spirits… Don’t worry if you can’t have them all.
3

pb on 27 May 2016 at 18:52

@Tony: funny…I think that’s the point for the distilleries…make you buy all the ‘cool’ new stuff out. I’ve sort of made a discipline to buy only 1 really good bottle every year (range $100-300), and 1 every quarter that’s less than $40 (which, coincidentally has introduced me to some really good American and Canadian rye, bourbon, and blends)

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