Drumguish 5 Years Single Malt Review

Country: Scotland

Region: Highland/Speyside

Brand: Drumguish

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: 5 Years

ABV: 40 %

Date: 07/02/2013

Colour: Light Amber

Nose: Musty Grain, Malt, Cooked Vegetables, Metallic, Margarine and Menthol. No significant Wood influence and only a very light hint of Earthy Peat. This is a very young whisky. Too young in fact. 

Palate: Light, Watery and Medium Dry. Again, only a very light Wood influence. A bit of Menthol, Grain and Earth with a pinch of Salt.

Finish: Short and Bitter Sweet. Dry and Salty towards the end. A bit of Menthol.

I added a couple of drops of water and you get a bit more Malt on the Nose and even a distant hint of Fruit. Palate and Finish are just watered down.

Rating: 69.5 (out of 100)

Nose: 17.5 - Taste:  17.5 - Finish:  17 - Overall: 17.5

General Remarks: The Drumguish is distilled at The Speyside Distillery at the banks of the river Tromie in Drumguish, near Kingussie. It started production in 1990 and is a private enterprise of Mr. George Christie. It  takes its name from the original Speyside Distillery that was also located in Kingussie and was only operational between 1895 and 1905. It was demolished in 1911. The whisky from the distillery gets its peaty flavour from the water that flows down from the Cairngorm Mountains. The distillery also produces its flagship, the Speyside Single Malt. The Drumguish 5 years maybe hard to find, even on line. It's very cheap at around 20 US Dollars. 

*You might wonder why not all whisky of this distillery is sold under the distillery name. The reason is that owner George Christie did not want to link the name The Speyside to very young whiskies. On the other hand, the distillery needed cash in the early years so the B-Mark Drumguish was created to be able to present these young whiskies to the market without prejudicing the valuable brand name The Speyside.

Drinking Experience Neat: Below Average.

Conclusion: I can understand some of the problems of a young distillery. You invest a lot of money and you want to make a good whisky. Making good whisky takes time and requires ample working capital. So while your whisky is maturing you need to pay interest and other expenses. In order to be able to do that you have to produce some cash flow and as a result you are forced to bring an unfinished product like the Drumguish 5 Years to the Market. So what can I say, the dram does not possess extremely distasteful off notes so you can mix it with something I suppose. But it's obvious that this whisky is much too young and not at all interesting enough to be enjoyed as a Single Malt. On the other hand, Mr. Christie's strategy seems to have worked. The distillery stayed in business during the difficult early years and in the end was able to proudly launch The Speyside 12 Years Single Malt. Would be nice to taste that one in comparison!

Jan van den Ende                                                                  February 2013

The Cairngorm Mountains