Spey Tenné Review

There are many distilleries located in Speyside, but only one Speyside Distillery. That’s right, there is a distillery in one of Scotland’s most famous whisky-making regions that is actually named after the region itself—Speyside Distillery. It’s an oddly generic name. What I find particularly curious about the name is that the distillery is not one of the older ones in the region. Construction of the distillery was completed in 1987 and the first Speyside single malt was launched in 1993. So we’re not talking about some grand old company that was named before the Speyside region became famous. Nope, they simply chose a rather boring, uninspired name.

The distillery’s generic name could potentially lead to some sort of an Abbott and Castello whisky routine. Perhaps trying to avoid such confusion, Speyside Distillery now markets its single malts under the name Spey instead of Speyside. Although Spey expressions are not the most commonly found bottles in bars and liquor stores (at least not in the US), they have been popping up a bit more frequently of late. Spey has a fairly diverse and affordable range of single malts, including bourbon-barrel aged, peated, and tawny port finished expressions, none of which will break the bank.

When I first found Spey bottles on the shelf locally, I was intrigued. I tried a sample of the peated version, which was pretty good—I plan to pick up a bottle of it sometime soon. But I thought I’d start with their least expensive offering, the tawny port finished Tenné. I don’t come across a whole lot of bargain-priced port finishes, so when I saw Tenné on the shelf for only $50, I couldn’t pass it up.

One side note that I want to mention is how impressed I am by the packaging of these Spey expressions. The bottles are very elegantly designed, tall and sexy, with each bottle wrapped in tissue paper inside of its box—a feature often reserved for much more expensive bottles. There really is an incredible amount of attention to detail in the entire presentation—even the cork includes a print of the company’s signature.

Nice packaging of whisky doesn’t automatically make the whisky itself good, but with so much thought and effort going into the packaging, it gave me high hopes that such effort went into the whisky itself. The fact that the Spey line is bottled at 46% ABV, non chill-filtered, and natural color is certainly a good start. Let’s see how it tastes.

Spey Tenné Review

Type: Single Malt Scotch
Region: Speyside
ABV: 46%
Non chill-filtered
Natural color

Nose

Lots of dark fruits. Cherry. Raspberry. Plum. Prune. Freshly baked angel food cake, topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Sweet wine. Damp chocolate. Vanilla milkshake. Orange marmalade. Ginger. Sweet and sour sauce.

Palate

Bursting with berries, particularly blackberry and strawberry. The angel food cake from the nose is here, but less prominent. Demerara sugar. Vanilla syrup. Peach sorbet. Candied ginger. Dried tropical fruits. Chocolate. Rock candy. Young tasting malt, somewhat sharp, with its youth masked quite well by the port finish.

Finish

Medium to long. Dried tropical fruits, especially pineapple and papaya. Blackberry. Sparkling wine. Dry oak. Vanilla and chocolate. Sweet mint.

Overall

This is tasty. Sweet, simple, but good. As you might expect from an entry-level NAS single malt, it’s not all that complex, but that’s OK—it’s quite a nice dram to sip, so long as you enjoy sweet and fruity whisky. And although this is on the sweet side, it never gets cloying. The angel food cake note on the nose is particularly nice—it also is found on the palate, although not nearly as prominently.

The port influence here is obvious and fairly dominant. It’s hard to know what this malt might taste like without the port finish. As much as I like it, I kind of wish they had eased up on the port just a little. Still, I’m enjoying this whisky quite a bit.

Note that this version of Tenné is limited to 3000 bottles. Apparently Spey bottles its expressions in limited batches, labeling each bottle individually—I’ve seen other examples of Tenné that were one of 18,000 bottles. My bottle is labeled as 2534/3000.

SCORE: 83/100

Final Thoughts

The only other port-finished single malt available near me in this same price range is Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, which is also a nice and sweet, somewhat simple whisky. Comparing them side by side, Quinta Ruban and Tenné are similar, but still quite different. Tenné is sharper with much bigger fruit notes, while Quinta Ruban is more mature, but also a bit flat. It’s close, but I prefer Tenné between the two.

A fun and interesting experiment you can do with Tenné is to add a few drops of it to a dram of something savory or smoky. For instance, if you combine Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength with a little Tenné, you get somewhat of an approximation of a port-finished Laphroaig (and it’s quite tasty).

I’ve enjoyed this whisky enough to make me interested in other expressions from Spey’s range. I’m looking forward to buying a bottle of their peated expression, Fūmāre.

Buy Again? Yes. Although I’m not always in the mood for a port finished whisky, I do like having one around for the times I’m looking for something sweet. At just $50 a bottle, I’d happily buy this again.

Drink This Not That: If you enjoy your single malts on the sweet and fruity side, drink this. And if you’re a fan of Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, give this a try for something similar, but different.

Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.

For more reviews, check out the Whisky Review Archive.

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