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

Balmenach-Glenlivet 14 year old Extra Special, Sesante, bottled 1980s

What the hell is a Balmenach anyway? Other than the occasional Signatory cask, Balmenach single malt rarely finds its way to retailer shelves or blog posts. Its current owner, Inver House, refuses to produce official bottlings because the malt is so desired by blenders, which is bummer because the rest of owner's distillery portfolio is frequently interesting (like Balblair, Old Pulteney, Speyburn and AnCnoc). But Hanky ain't gonna Bannister itself.

Balmenach was one of the rare distilleries that United Distillers chose to sell instead of destroy. Inver House scooped up the facility in 1997 after it had been mothballed for four years. According to both the Malt Whisky Yearbook and scotchwhisky.com, Balmenach currently produces an old school, hefty, meaty whisky.....and also gin.

But I'm not going to review anything distilled by Inver House this week. Instead, each of this week's three Balmenachs came from the United Distillers period post-floor malting (>1964), but pre-closure (<1993), all bottled by independent companies.

Image from
whiskybase

Sesante's 14 year old Extra Special Balmenach came in three formats: 43%abv, 57.5%abv, and a crystal decanter with 40%abv fluid within. It was a short lived set that may have been distilled in the early 1970s. I'm grateful to have had an opportunity to take part in a bottle split of the 43%abv edition.

Distillery: Balmenach

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

Region: Speyside (Moray)
Bottler: Sesante
Age: at least 14 years old

Maturation: ???

Alcohol by Volume: 43%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

A hardy combination of barley, apple cider and sooty garage appears first in the nose, followed by quieter notes of lemon, lox, metal and apple cake. It gets yeastier with time.

The palate starts off very malty, with a little bit of brown sugar and Campari-esque bitterness in the midground. It gains lemon, raw bitter nuts and slightly more brown sugar after a while.

In early sips, it finishes with a warm bitterness and something beer-like. Later on, it concludes slightly sweeter with tart oranges and raw walnuts in the background.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

It's a fairly naked whisky but not in the same way that contemporary baby malts are produced. The barley rides way up front, framed by an unromantic bitterness. The palate's citrus gives it a nice twist, as does the nose's industrial side. I wouldn't call it a super whisky, but it would be nice to have something like this available today. Maybe a vatting of Benromach, Tobermory and Loch Lomond? Anyone?

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - no, don't look
Rating - 85

Birthday Booze: Blended Scotch Whisky 44 year old 1976 The Maltman, cask #8140

Normally I try to provide a little bit of background regarding fancier whiskies, but I don't know the full story on this one. Whiskybase says this blend is a mix of Ben Nevis, Clynelish, Teaninich, Macduff, Dailuaine and Invergordon, and that it was sherry cask matured with an outturn of 327 bottles. So, were this whiskies hanging out in the same cask for 44 years? Or were they pulled from other casks, blended, then finished in a sherry hoggie (considering bottle count)? I dunno. Feel free to inform me in the comment section below. Huzzah to 44!

Blender: Meadowside Blending
Range: The Maltman

Type: Scotch Blended Whisky

Age: at least 44 years (1976 - 2021)
Malt Ingredients: Ben Nevis, Clynelish, Teaninich, Macduff, Dailuaine

Grain Ingredient: Invergordon
Maturation: "sherry cask"
Outturn: 327 bottles

Alcohol by Volume: 46.4%

(from a bottle split)

NOTES

The nose begins with a big note of old funky paxarette-style sherry cask. Lots of dunnage too. Those notes gradually lift, revealing mocha ice cream and Kinder Bueno minis. Cassis and dulce de leche. Hints of root beer barrel candy and new leather float in the background.

Though there's plenty of oak in the palate, it reads less tannic than bourbon one-third of this whisky's age. It's gingery and chocolatey, with figs and grapefruits as well. There's also a mix of Underberg and Cynar pepping up the affair. It gets sweeter, tangier and dustier with time, while gaining some wood spice.

It finishes with figs, dark chocolate, molasses, Cynar, tangy oranges and lots of tannins.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

The nose says that this really was a very long single maturation, but the palate and finish are a little less clear. An overactive cask could have been engaged for a secondary maturation. This is mostly oak juice, as the age and the whisky's moderately-steeped black tea color warned me, but it's very nice oak juice. It smells wonderful and I don't have splinters in my mouth. Also figs.

Next week I'll try another trio of oldies, but "oldies" of a different sort.

Availability - ???
Pricing - ???
Rating - 88 (powered by the nose)

Birthday Booze: Caol Ila 25 year old 1978, Special Release 2004

Much to my surprise, samples of vintage 1978 whisky still exist in the stash! Happy birthday to me! This year, I'm pouring an official Caol Ila '78, aged in refill casks and bottled at full strength.

Sometimes my palate registers Caol Ila as Ardmore's slightly brawnier cousin, which is a good thing, in fact I'd like to meet their entire family. Anyway, CI is the lone peated Islay malt I enjoy drinking in the late summer. The rest of those heaters don't taste as good until November. So there are my zillion reasons for drinking cask strength peated whisky on a humid evening. Sláinte!

Distillery: Caol Ila
Ownership: Diageo

Region: Port Askaig, Islay
Age: at least 25 years old (1978-2004)
Maturation: refill casks 💚

Outturn: 6000 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 59.4%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The nose brings fruit first, peat second. Pineapples and citrons. Kelp and beach bonfire. Ah, there's the mango juice! Candied yuzu peels and a pretty floral note arise after 30 minutes. The palate starts off full of salty seaweed, with lemon bars and a hint of mango in the background. It stays quite lemony while gaining more smoke and baking spice with time. It finishes with salty savory smoke up front and touches of tart and bitter citrus in the back.

Pretty good, but what if I hydrate it to my favorite ABV?

DILUTED to 48%abv, or 1½ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

Smoke stacks and toasted seaweed mingle with peach pie and pineapple cake in the nose, with some citrons and roses in the background. The palate gets a little more savory while picking up all sorts of new notes like wasabi, grapefruit, pineapple and toasted sunflower seeds. The finish keeps its good length, while gaining sweet fruit and reducing the smoke.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Yep, that little bit of water did what it needed to, pushing this into 90-point territory. And if my opinion ain't enough for you, there's a certain other person's opinion you may want to review. Part of me wishes Diageo dropped a cask strength 25yo Caol Ila each year, mirroring Talisker's old approach, but the other part of me knows how peckish the ravenous secondary market would have become for each bottle. So I'm just going to enjoy what I have here and finish off the rest of this fruity creature after I click "Publish". On to 44!

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - It was £150 in 2004, it is not £150 now
Rating - 90 (with water)

Birthday Booze: Longmorn 43 year old 1968 Gordon & MacPhail, cask 909 for Van Wees

Allow me to recap age 43: I got divorced, caught Covid-19, was booted from one company to another, injured one rotator cuff just as the other was completing 18 months of healing, was told my left ankle has nearly no tendon left, got back to my pre-parenting weight for like 1 month, and obtained a cat whom I swear is trying to kill me in my sleep. To celebrate the close of this uneventful year, I am relieving my 1968 Longmorn sample bottle of its contents.

For those not in the know, G&M dropped a clench of outrageous Longmorn casks for Van Wees seemingly all at once, about a decade ago. Today's whisky is one of that clench. I didn't buy any of those bottles because the €500-€700 price range was out of my reach. Casks like this would go for 5x that amount nowadays and still sell out. I am not the target demographic for this delicious whisky.

pic gently lifted
from whiskybase 

Distillery: Longmorn

Ownership at time of distillation: Longmorn-Glenlivet Distillery Co

Region: Speyside (Lossie)
Bottler: Gordon & MacPhail
Range: Reserve
Age: ~43 years old (15 February 1968 - June 2011)
Maturation: first fill sherry butt

Cask #: 909
Outturn: 523 bottles

Exclusively for: van Wees
Alcohol by Volume: 55.4%
(from a bottle split)

NOTES

Nose - It reads like neither 55+%abv, nor a 1st fill sherry butt, or perhaps contemporary bottlings have conditioned my senses the wrong direction. First, fresh black plums and floral white peaches. Damp earth and toasted almonds. Lychee syrup. And then the guava, oh the guava! Madeira? Hints of dry gravel and Walker's shortbread in the background.

Palate - Oh. Oh dear. All the citrus. All the stone fruits. All the tropical fruits. I dunno, I'll try to list the things. Lots of oranges (cara caras, mandarins, bloods), figs, yellow peaches, guava, mango, dunnage, a soft earthy peat. It's tart and righteous. Massive, but never hot.

Finish - Glowingly tart. It's a citrus freakout, with Rainier cherries, mead, incense, pound cake, and a lovely bitterness also arriving in endless waves.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

As complex as the nose was, the palate was my favorite part. What a lovely thing. This fruity-fruit-fruit Longmorn era produced some of the most delicious single malts I've ever tried. If you get an opportunity to try Longmorn distilled in the 1960s, or early 1970s, seize it! There are some Longmorns even better than this specific one, but I'm perfectly happy to settle. Good bye, 43!

Availability - Secondary market
Pricing - ????
Rating - 92