Hello whisky fans! How are we all doing today? I, for one, am doing very well indeed! Why so happy, you ask? Well, a little while back I received a few mini tasters from Master of Malt and I’ve just had one of them now – the 1991, 20 year old, Cragganmore – and it is Delicious! So delicious, in fact, that I’m going to order a bottle later on today. In all honesty, I couldn’t think of anything I would rather spend £49.95 on just now.
If you’re looking for a Christmassy whisky but don’t quite fancy Glenfarclas 15 – which is arguably the most Christmassy dram you will find – I’d recommend you keep reading, because Dailuaine 27 from Master of Malt is a good contender for the honourable title of Christmas Dram of the Year 2011 – which I just made up now, and for which, if I’m honest, there are currently no other runners. Don’t let the admittedly thin starting field fool you, though – Dailuaine 27 would put up one heck of a fight if it had to.
Dallas Dhu – it’s one of those names that you hear and go “hm, yeah.. I think I have had that, actually… a while back” but as soon as the words leave your confused tongue you know them to be untrue – too late to turn back now, though: “pretty decent, I seem to remember, nothing special”. Oh, you fool. You utter fool. Of course you’ve never had it! This is (roughly) what I caught myself saying, and thinking, a couple of years back. As luck should have it, however, I was recently offered a dram of Dallas Dhu 1976 28 year old. Before I get started on the review, I feel obligated to give you a brief bit of information about the distillery. Dallas Dhu can be found in Speyside, but rather unfortunately had to close down in the 1980’s. Today it is owned by the National Trust, and acts as one of their tourist attractions – for more information or to arrange a visit, head on over to their website.
Having recently “rediscovered” Glenfiddich, I decided to make their standard 18 year old expression my dram of the day. Since I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m developing a cold, I also decided to make it my second dram of the day – just to be on the safe side.
Rather than blabbering on in my usual fashion, I’m going to get straight to business with this review. My very first thought when putting dram #1 to my nose was “I bet this would go well with a cup of coffee”, a theory I proved right some 5 minutes of impatient waiting later. Do note that I said with and not in, by the way. The nose has a lovely and well rounded scent to it, packed with sweet dried fruits (apricot, apple, raisins) along with a vanilla fudge note, as well as a lovely bit of citrus which brings a perfect measure of balance to the sweetness. I can’t quite decide whether it is better than the 15 year old, though… I suspect they may be on a par.
What makes whisky so interesting, and at the same time daunting, is the sheer range of variations, flavours, brands and expressions gathered under its banner. Even if you have your daily dram as prescribed by any doctor worth his salt, you can go a whole year without drinking the same dram twice. Not literally the same dram, of course – one would assume (hope, even) that you could go a lifetime without doing that, regardless of the frequency of your consumption. It follows, then, that you might go for months on end without revisiting the same distillery twice.
I recently came across Square Barrel whisky, a concept that was first developed in the 1850’s. The idea behind this most unusual barrel shape was to make the transport of whisky onboard ships safer, which I would imagine it did, but the unfortunate consequence is of course that it will have been rather more difficult to move the barrels around (as any physicist or engineer will confirm for those of you in doubt, square barrels will be far less suitable for rolling on their side than their rounded counterparts). Anyway, the shape didn’t catch on too well and the innovative square barrel – which was also more difficult to make than a standard shape – failed to outmanoeuvre (see what I did there?) its round-cheeked predecessor.
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