HIGHLANDS

The Highlands whisky region includes the area north of an imaginary line between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It includes the Speyside sub-region, the area around the world’s most famous salmon river, the River Spey, which is home to around 30 distilleries in a relatively small area. Highland single malt whiskeys are generally mild and fruity. However, there are now numerous exceptions, with some distilleries deviating from their traditional methods for a few weeks a year and producing a heavily peated whisky (e.g. the Benriach distillery). The increasing experimentation with different types of casks also makes it difficult to determine the taste of an entire region.