Uile-bheist Colpach Earth & Spice

Nose: Fruitcake, vanilla, caramel, sherry. Palate: Sweet and spicy arrival with ginger preserved in syrup, apple crumble, treacle tart and soft oak spices. The development is slight but you do get more spicy complexity with clove and cinnamon showing through. The texture is good. Finish: Medium/Short. Sherry and malt. This whisky is a blend of malts from five undisclosed highland and Speyside distilleries. It is being produced by Uile-bheist distillery in Inverness together with a stablemate blended malt called Smoke & Sea (so no prizes for guessing what that one is like in character). It’s an OK blend but nothing spectacular. There are no off-notes, nothing angular or difficult but neither was there anything about it that particularly caught my attention. I enjoyed the dram but did not feel the urge to buy a bottle. Uile-bheist is a new distillery and their first spirit ran in 2023 so it is still maturing. In the meantime they are making their presence known by marketing two sourced blended malts along with their new-make spirit (see separate review here on Distiller). They are also bucking the typical trend by not making gin as a revenue source while the whisky ages. Instead they have established a craft brewery which works in tandem with the distillery, and they have a range of very good beer and ale on tap. There are tours available which are worth doing. The name Uile-bheist is Gaelic and means “monster” (it’s a reference to Nessie, of course) and the name of the blend “Colpach” is the Gaelic word for the kelpie, a mythical water-horse monster. They are big on mythology at this distillery as part of their identity. Tasted at Uile-bheist distillery, 5th April 2025. “Above Average” : 82/100 (3.25 stars)