Glen Moray 25 year old 1994 SMWS 35.275

How about some Glenz? I'm going to review nine Glens over the next three weeks, with only one of them being a Sexy Glen (no, not Glenn Frey; note his two Ns). Each week will have the usual three reviews, the oldest of the trio first, the youngest last.

Though I've reviewed only three Glen Moray single malts on the blog so far, I tend to like the whisky, especially the now retired official 10yo Chardonnay Cask. This 25 year old indie may be the oldest Glen Moray I've had, which is fun, but it appears to have spent its entire life in a first-fill toasted hogshead, which is......interesting.

Distillery: Glen Moray
Owner: La Martiniquaise
Region: Speyside (Elgin)

Independent Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Age: 25 years (24 Nov 1994 - 2020)

Maturation: first-fill toasted hogshead

Cask#: 35.275

Outturn: 180 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 59.6%

(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Dessert whisky. Cinnamon toffee pudding, crème brûlée, candy corn and tobacco leaf arrive first in the nose. Touches of mint leaf, ginger powder, soil and dunnage provide depth. The palate is a bit warm and spicy, definitely a winter pour, but not brutal, highlighted by gently sweet citrus, toasted cashews, a bit of MGP rye whisky and cinnamon raisin bread. That cinnamon raisin bread leads the finish, with subtler notes of lemons, cloves and toasted cashews.

DILUTED to ~50%abv, or ~1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The neat nose's characteristics have intensified. The spices are quite lovely, and it's rich like an even older malt at times. Mango and peach sneak in. Bright citrus moves to the front of the palate, spices (cinnamon, clove, ginger powder) to the middle. A little more mint. The fruit's tartness keeps the sweetness in check. It finishes with limes, ground cloves, dried mint and a hint of ginger.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Um, this is pretty darned good. If this is how whisky ages in a toasted hoggie, then I wish the industry would lean into The Toast, rather than virgin char bombs. Even though this cask was toasted, I do think this would appeal to American whisky fans, specifically rye geeks. Those spices! Does the Glen Moray spirit have any influence here? I don't know. But it took well to its vessel.

Keep in mind, this isn't Neu Whisky (though maybe Neu! Whisky?) because many wine / fortified wine casks are toasted rather than charred. Just picture those casks with the wine removed. To me, it worked very well this time.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - was around $300 upon release
Rating - 89

Dailuaine 34 year old 1980, Special Release 2015

I'm getting quite fond of Dailuaine, and will once again implore Diageo to add it to The Classic Malts (or the secondary group, The Classic Malt Rejects; I'm looking at you, Cardhu). The Flora & Fauna (the tertiary tier) edition is one of the best of the F&Fs. Meanwhile the distillery cranks out 5 million liters of alcohol annually, and nearly all of it goes into The Big D's blends, especially Johnnie Walker. Every once in a while they pull a whoopsie by releasing an official Dailuaine, like today's 34 year old, which was hatched before the distillery's own maltings were retired, and spent its entire maturation time in refill bourbon casks. It's time to see how it held up against yesterday's excellent 30yo.

Distillery: Dailuaine
Ownership: Diageo
Region: Speyside (Central)
Series: Special Releases 2015
Age: 34 years (1980 - 2015)
Maturation: refill American oak casks
Outturn: 2952 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 50.9%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Nose - Picture a cheese plate without the cheese. Walnuts, dried apricots, fig jam, maybe a few smoked almonds. Then there's honeycomb, broken stones, pear skins, old boots and dunnage.

Palate - Thick and heavy texture. Citrons, oranges and Assam. Raspberry jam, sage and a hint of bacon. Lemons and dunnage.

Finish - Minerally smoke, lemons and honey, with hints of savoriness and bitterness.

Careful with that water, Kravitz...

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or > ½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Nose - Roses, mango juice and broken stones. Romantic!

Palate - Assam now steeped a little longer, served with a berry tart and toasted almonds.

Finish - Honey, lemons, smoked almonds and earth.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Another beautiful Dailuaine. The lovely match between this and SMWS's 30yo from 1988 turned into one of the best Taste Offs of the year. I'd rather not pick a favorite, but this one sings with or without dilution. Some masterful cask management from Diageo here, as I've seen from many of their elder Special Releases. And as with any gem, please open your bottle and share!

Availability - Still at some European shops
Pricing - still in the three-digit range thanks to exchange rates
Rating - 91

Dailuaine 30 year old 1988 SMWS 41.118

Staying with Dailuaine, staying with the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, but jumping back to 1988 with this 30 year old whisky. This will be the oldest Dailuaine I've reviewed up to this point, and it has a very drinkable ABV, but its maturation could be problematic depending on that second cask...

Distillery: Dailuaine
Ownership: Diageo

Region: Speyside (Central)

Independent Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Series: The Vaults Collection

Age: 30 years (28 Sept 1988 - 2019)

Maturation: 27 years in a bourbon hoggie, then three years in a first-fill PX hoggie

Cask#: 41.118

Outturn: 244 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 49.2%

(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The perky nose is loaded with fruit candies of the apple, strawberry and watermelon sort. Dried pineapple too. Some ginger powder, baked pears, saline. Shortbread with toffee chips. The palate starts with dates, incense and a whiff of pipe tobacco. Toasted marshmallow, graham crackers, sweet oranges and pineapple juice fill the middle. Chalk and lemongrass dot the background. It catches a second wind after 45 minutes as it gains stewed berries, tart lemons and more tobacco. A basket of fruits in the finish! Pineapples, kiwis and lemons, with a pinch of horseradish bitterness.

With reluctance, I add a little water:

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or < ½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Baked apple and honey arrive first in the nose, followed by dates, shortbread, pineapple and toasted oak. The palate is still fruity and floral after all this time, especially on the citrus side. Tobacco and tea tannin provide some angles. Fewer zesty fruits in the finish, more baking spice and dates.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

I adore this whisky. The secondary maturation added some character, but didn't drive the whisky away from its ultra fruity spirit. Any more time in either cask would probably have been too much, so kudos to whomever at SMWS was in charge of the cask management here. Adding water didn't break the whisky, but I preferred it at its reasonable full strength, where the palate offers multiple levels of development, and the damned thing smells gorgeous. If only it had a proper Dailuaine sparring partner......

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - was £305 upon release in 2019
Rating - 91

Dailuaine 12 year old 2007 Old Particular for K&L Wine Merchants

This week's first Dailuaine came from a refill bourbon barrel. The second comes from a refill sherry butt. They're of a similar age and vintage, so I tasted them side-by-side. SMWS versus D. Laing. Barrel versus butt.

Distillery: Dailuaine
Ownership: Diageo

Region: Speyside (Central)

Independent Bottler: Douglas Laing

Range: Old Particular

Age: 12 years (March 2007 - 19 August 2019)

Maturation: refill sherry butt

Cask#: DL 13293

Outturn: 573 bottles

Exclusive to: K&L Wine Merchants
Alcohol by Volume: 57.6%

(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose starts off with a mix of toffee, raw nuts, ocean and a hint of smoke. Citron, baked apple with cinnamon and the anticipated flower blossom touch fill the mid- and background. Notes of golden raisins and toasted oak build with time. Fudge, golden raisins and dried blueberries rule the palate, with black raisins and dried currants lingering beneath. It finishes with a blend of dried currants and golden raisins. Hints of salt and prunes appear later on.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 1½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Baked apples and fresh apple peels meet with hay and golden raisins in the rustic nose. The palate picks up more bitterness and more honey. Maybe some tart citrus too. Good mouthfeel. It gets a bit sour and peppery on the finish, with some bright lemons in the background.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Though the 10yo SMWS and this 12yo OP are close in quality, and I can see how one could rate the 12 higher, I enjoyed the crisp, fruity and floral 10 more. That one held closer to the bright spirit, while this one has more oomph and age to it. For a rosier take on this 12, please see the review by K&L's most boisterous enthusiast, Mr. Opinions himself.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - $65 upon release
Rating - 83

Dailuaine 10 year old 2008 SMWS 41.116

I'm not sure why there aren't more Dailuaine reviews on this site. The spirit has a very pleasant floral note, even into its teenage years. No, not perfume, but actual flower blossoms. Of course, I haven't actually had a Dailuaine in six years, so I have no idea how this week's quartet of reviews will play out. It begins with youngest of the four...

Distillery: Dailuaine
Ownership: Diageo

Region: Speyside (Central)

Independent Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Age: 10 years (9 April 2008 - 2018)

Maturation: refill bourbon barrel

Cask#: 41.116

Outturn: 218 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 61.3%

(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Huzzah, the florals are there in the nose, alongside oranges, limoncello, confectioner's sugar and raspberries. Very pretty. The palate begins worty and yeasty, almost smoky. Salt and brown sugar. Lemons and roses. It finishes hot and sweet, with plenty of citrus and salt as well.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 2 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose reads fresh and clean, with lemon zest, fresh cherries and mint candy up front, wort in the back. Orange blossoms and roses mix with a hint of herbal bitterness in the gently sweet palate. It finishes with simple sweet citrus and that whiff of bitter herbs.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Though this whisky reads younger than its age statement it works well as a spring or summer pour, especially when diluted. It's a simple cuddly youth, not a violent one. I like this approach, and probably would have enjoyed a bottle of this Dailuaine, quite a bit.

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - around $70 when released
Rating - 84

Balmenach 33 year old 1988 WhiskySponge

Sorry, this post arrives two days late. Life keeps blasting aside things I'd rather be doing. My alcohol consumption has dropped a bit too, as I navigate through compounding stressors. But I'm here now to close out my Balmenach week with a WhiskySponge release that has some real age on it.

Distillery: Balmenach

Ownership at time of distillation: United Distillers (proto-Diageo)

Region: Speyside (Moray)

Bottler: WhiskySponge
Series: No. 51

Age: 33 years old (1988-2022)
Maturation: refill hoggie

Outturn: 211 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 50%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

Quite a bit of oak on the nose, though it works well alongside the lemons and guavas. Some saline and wax. Honeyed pastry and Twizzlers. There's also a slight medicinal tilt to it. The palate reads hotter than the ABV. Oak and grains. Pepper and bitterness. Hints of sea salt and lemon candy. But no development after 45 minutes. It finishes bitterly and peppery, with a little bit of earth and mouth-drying tannin.

I didn't anticipate diluting this one, but...

DILUTED to ~43%abv, or 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Less oak on the nose, more oranges and dried herbs. Some citronella and talcum powder. Beeswax. The palate is also less oaky, or at least the wood offers more spice than bitterness now. It's still plenty peppery and salty, with some tart oranges in the background. Less bitterness in the finish, more citrus.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

My opinion of this whisky does not groove with that of the Whiskybase community. The oak on the palate read out of control when the whisky was neat. Thankfully, dilution helped matters. Still, it was flatter and less balanced in the mouth than I'd expected. The excellent nose was on a very different plane, too bad the rest didn't match it.

Availability - ???
Pricing - ???
Rating - 83 (diluted only)

Balmenach 12 year old 1975 SMWS 48.1

Balmenach is distillery #48 in the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's library. And ".1" means, yes, this was SMWS's first Balmenach, bottled back when SMWS was using their charming generic labels, before the "charming" cask names were introduced. Monday's 1970s Balmenach was a malty, sturdy thing at 43%abv. I'm curious to sniff a full-powered version from this era. Here it goes:

pic from whiskybase

Distillery: Balmenach

Ownership at time of distillation: United Distillers (proto-Diageo)

Region: Speyside (Moray)

Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 12 years (March 1975 - October 1987)
Maturation: ???

Cask: 48.1
Outturn: ???
Alcohol by Volume: 55.2%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose is all raw seeds, raw nuts and apple cider at first. Then Delirium Tremens (the Belgian ale, not the syndrome) rises from the middle, followed by pumpkin pie and a touch of hay. The palate leads with a perky bitterness, like bitter citrus, followed by sea salt and barley, with hints of hay and halvah in the background. It finishes bitter and tangy, with moments of barley, hay and ash.

DILUTED to ~46%abv, or 1¼ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose is yeasty and malty, with notes of cashews, mushrooms, saline and apple cider. The citrus becomes sweeter in the palate, and the bitterness reads herbal. Raw almonds and sativa flower float in the  midground. The finish stays similar, perhaps slightly sweeter and nuttier.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Another Balmenach in the buff, and another good one. Like the 14yo Sesante, this 12yo has apple cider and raw nut notes, as well as something nearly peated, but this one is slightly more to my liking. The notes of DT, cashews and sativa certainly don't hurt, but the gentle farminess puts it over the top. This would be a fun bottle to possess because time and different dilution levels may bring out even better results.

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - ???
Rating - 87