If you’ve never heard of Braes of Glenlivet, that’s because it’s been known as Braeval since 1994, to avoid confusion with its more illustrious stablemate. All three of the whiskies here were produced – just – before the change of name. The Secret Speyside Collection is the largest range of single malts yet released by Chivas Brothers, covering 15 whiskies from four of the region’s distilleries: Braes of Glenlivet, Caperdonich, Glen Keith and Longmorn.

The fruit-fest is only interrupted by two peated Caperdonich bottlings, with the ‘wonderfully aromatic and exotic’ 21-year-old a real highlight. Caperdonich’s two oldest Secret Speyside expressions – 25-year-old peated and 30-year-old unpeated variants – are still in cask and will be released later in the year. A highly refined summer pudding in a glass. A serious whisky, but one that knows how to have fun. Right place, right time There’s lots to like here, but it’s a little fierce and ragged around the edges. A promising nose, but the palate is slightly underwhelming. Right place, right time Savoury smoke, more luscious fruit – a sweet, baked apple pie with a slightly caught crust. A little hot, with a blast of cayenne pepper. Some orange zest and ginger playing catch-up, but the enjoyably aromatic smoke is quite dominant. Finish

Taste Profile

The American market for blended Scotch whisky has always been very lucrative. It was with this in mind that Sam Bronfman of Seagram, a part of Chivas Brothers, planned the build of the Glen Keith distillery. Glen Keith was founded in 1957 and distillation began a year later. The most popular blends being sold in America at that time were of a light, easy drinking style and, accordingly, Glen Keith started producing triple distilled whiskies, not unheard of in Scotland, but perhaps so in Speyside. The resultant spirit was light and perfect for blends, hence it is a major constituent in the 100 Pipers blend, which is currently among the top ten bestselling blends in the world. Meanwhile, there’s little to choose between a consistently excellent trio of malts from Glen Keith, and Longmorn’s exotic, hedonistic fruit character is very much to the fore, especially in a standout 23-year-old. The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Members and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein. Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Members, such as chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”). We may, but are not under any obligation, to release new functionalities and tools or other features for the Service every now and then. Any new functionalities, tools and features shall be part of and governed by the Terms from the moment they are launched and/or available. Further, we reserve the right to modify, change, discontinue the Service, add or remove features, update the Service, change its appearance, temporarily and permanently, at any time, in whole or any part thereof.

Each and every Member must be of legal drinking age in its country of residence to be allowed to use the Service. If no such law exists in a Member’s country of residence, the Member has to be over 21 years old to use the Service. We have the right to ask you to provide proof of your age and/or to provide further identification to prevent underage usage and/or for any other legal or legitimate purpose. By using the Service, and by creating an account you represent, warrant and confirm that you are of legal age. Nothing in the Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or for death or personal injury resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct by us.It’s perhaps open to question just how ‘secret’ Longmorn is – the single malt has been launched and relaunched in recent years, amid some controversy over pricing – but it’s certainly rare to see releases from the other three distilleries. If we decide not to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms, such decision shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. In was not until recently however, in 2006, that the first bottling of this extremely rare whisky became available courtesy of Signatory.

Our Service is an online platform which provides Members with information (e.g. bottle facts, market-indices, market values and prices) on (mostly) whisky and allows Members to add information to the platform. We do not sell, nor does the Service provide any option to buy, any alcoholic products.Glen Keith 23 yo 1994/2018 (51%, Claxton’s, bourbon barrel, cask #1837-157671, 145 bottles) - 070818