The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, held each spring around Dufftown and Aberlour, has become one of the fixed points in the malt whisky calendar. Glenfiddich, as the largest distillery in the region and a long-standing patron of the festival, releases a limited bottling each year for the occasion — a chance for William Grant & Sons' blenders to showcase a particular cask combination drawn from the warehouses below the Robbie Dhu spring.
Bottled at 47% and without chill filtration, the whisky pours a pale gold and presents itself with the orchard-fruit signature that has been Glenfiddich's hallmark since William Grant fired up his stills on Christmas Day 1887. The nose is bright and unmistakably Speyside: pear, vanilla, honeyed barley, with the soft oak underpinning that comes from a careful balance of bourbon and refill casks.
The palate carries poached apple and fresh malt forward, with a faint cinnamon warmth and a marmalade thread that hints at sherry influence somewhere in the vatting. The slightly higher strength gives the whisky a presence that the standard 12 lacks, and the absence of chill filtration leaves a pleasing weight on the tongue.
The finish is medium-length, clean, closing with pear skin and warm oak. As a souvenir of a week spent walking the distilleries of the Livet and the Spey, it is hard to fault — a bottling that wears its festival origins lightly but speaks clearly of the place that produced it.
