Apart from some nice Blair Athol and Aberfeldy bottlings, few of the Midlands malts I've sampled so
far managed to impress me. Most Midlanders are just what you would expect; a strange mixture of
Highland and Lowland characteristics. The younger official expressions from Deanston, Glenturret and
Tullibardine are usually not really my cup of tea. Edradour is a different story; the standard official
bottlings from the 1990's were never that special (and sometimes downright awful), but since Andrew
Symington took over the distillery they released a string of finished expressions, some of them great.

Michael Jackson puts Dalwhinnie in the (central) Speyside area but according to the label on the
OB's it's a Highland malt from 'Inverness-shire'. That puts it in the Western Highlands, doesn't it?
As far as I'm concerned, the Western Highlands produces two decent malts: Oban and Ben Nevis.
The bottlings I've tried from Glengoyne, Glenlochy and Loch Lomond didn't really tickle my fancy.
Well, wait a minute. During the 1990's the Glengoynes I tried seemed like average, run-of-the-mill,
malts. During the 2004 MM Awards I was proven wrong by a series of knockout Glengoyne bottlings.

Fate hasn't been kind to the distilleries in this corner of Scotland.
Over half of the distilleries in the area were closed in the last few decades; only (Old) Fettercairn,
Glencadam, Glen Garioch and (Royal) Lochnagar are currently operational. Glencadam was mothballed
for some time as well, but it has been reopened in 2003.
 
As it turns out, I have difficulty finding specific characteristics for a 'typical' eastern Highland malt.
Glen Garioch and Royal Lochnagar bottlings tend to be quite fruity these days (although Glen Garioch
produced a much smokier spirit before 1985), while Old Fettercairn and Lochside have a more malty
and oily character. Bottlings of Glencadam and Hillside / Glenesk I tried usually performed below par.

Our group of 'Northern Highlanders' includes a few distilleries that Michael Jackson classifies as
Speyside distilleries; Royal Brackla (Findhorn Valley), Glen Albyn (Inverness), Glen Mhor (Inverness),
Millburn (Inverness) and Tomatin (Findhorn Valley). The malt maniacs felt these distilleries belonged
in the Northern Highlands 'stylisticly'. The odd one out in this group is the silent Brora distillery; for
a long time they were the only Highland distillery that produced a heavily peated malt whisky.

Ooooh - How I love those Northern Highland bouquets.
Big, sweet and malty; that's the nose of a 'typical' Northern Highlander for you.
Official bottlings like the Dalmore 12yo, Glen Ord 12yo and Old Pulteney 12yo are fragrant with a
lot of complexity. There's nothing wrong with the taste of most of the Northerners I've tried either.
Sweet, a tad dry, often with a long finish. Still, there's lots of variety among Northern Highlanders.
Glenmorangie, Balblair and Teaninich are a little bit 'lighter' in character than the rest, for example.

My favorite island is Islay, but that is a seperate whisky region in its own right.
The island Skye comes right after that, even though it only has one distillery: Talisker.
Orkney is next with two distilleries; Highland Park and Scapa. The malts from Mull, Jura
and Arran generally lack the power and intensity of these former islands, but the stocks
at Arran seem to be maturing nicely and I'm starting to look more closely at Isle of Jura
since they released some very interesting (and very young), heavily peated bottlings.