Whisky Forum - Tea spooning

sorren · Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 6:27 pm Post subject: Tea spooning

There seems to be a few offerings about that come in the class of vatted / blended Whisky, casks of Whisky that have a " tea spoon " of another distillery to stop the indies selling as a single malt ( I believe this is the reason ) what are your thoughts about this practice ? Does it harm anything or is it good, have you tried any of these whiskies ? I have two bottles, a 13 yo Westport and a 20yo wardhead, both are nice drams..

Alastair · Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 7:17 pm Post subject:

Tea spooning has been in practice for many years, does the bottles of Westport and Wardhead reveal what is in the bottle. Tea spooning does no harm but i dont think it is usual for the indie bottler to reveal what the blend is as they may loose their source of the whisky. You may hear what is in the cask if it is just a one off cask the bottler has acquired.

bifter · Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 9:02 pm Post subject:

I've got a Whisky Broker Westport 15yo in the cabinet at the moment. You can definitely tell it's Glenmorangie and the quality is good if not stellar. At Â£35 I consider it a steal for a cask strength 'Morangie.

To be honest though I don't understand the issue that the producers have. If you're buying an IB you're likely to be knowledgeable enough to appreciate that it may not be characteristic of the distillery. In the case of Glenmorangie though they do try to tell you that all their whisky is sold as single malt - I've heard that from Gillian Mcdonald herself.
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albo · Master Of Malts Joined: 22 Mar 2011 Posts: 1888

I don't think it really makes a blind bit of difference. If they are adding 1 teaspoon to a full cask then out will have no discernable effect. If the big companies want to do this to protect their brand and our means that the IBs have to sell it for less then so be it ask the better for us consumers

sorren · Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:00 pm Post subject:

The wardhead which I'm told is Glenfiddich and balvenie is very good, the bottle holds a 20yo statement but is very fresh just like a younger fiddich.. The Westport is a 13yo and is very so smooth, and as said is supposed to be glenmorangie with a touch of glen moray.. I'm pretty happy to get my hands on this st this price,

albo · Master Of Malts Joined: 22 Mar 2011 Posts: 1888

I beleive it's debatable if teaspooning actually happens, or is it just said to happen for the sake of the paperwork?

sorren · Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:24 pm Post subject:

Has anyone tried the "burnside" supposed to be balvenie with a drop of Glenfiddich ?

eelbrook · Master Of Malts Joined: 19 Sep 2007 Posts: 648

Malts of Scotland's "Images of Ayrshire Dalrymple Bridge" is Ailsa Bay alkegedly spooned with Balvenie.

Not sure whether any Balvenie is actually in the mix. If it is, it would be impossible to tell - as the Ailsa Bay is first fill sherry at nearly 70% ABV!