The new Dalmore range is very exciting and shows the many personalities of the whisky. In my reviews, you’ll find flavor descriptors common to all the expressions (marmalade, spice), but I tried to point out each whisky’s distinctive individual characteristics. Overall, I like the new line very much. However, I would like to see these whiskies bottled at 43% (or better yet 46% and not chill-filtered). It would have made an improvement across the board.
The Dalmore, 12 year old, 40%, $45
Half the whisky was aged in bourbon barrels, the other half in sherry casks. This whisky has always been on my short list as one of the finest, most affordable 12 year old single malts available. While the price may have gone up a bit (I remember when it was $20!), the quality remains the same. It’s fresh and lively. A well-balanced dram too, with its tell-tale orange marmalade accompanied by tangerine, pineapple upside down cake, vanilla soaked barley, subtle brine, and caramel, all leading to spicy, cinnamon and dried vanilla finish. A nice “every day” dram.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 84
The Dalmore Gran Reserva, 40%, $65
Aged exclusively in first-fill casks (60% of it sherry cask), and its oak intensity shows. Sweet, but with a steady dose of dried spice oak resin, and teasing tobacco to back it up. Silky texture and lush, with fallen orchard fruit, tangerine, chocolate covered orange, and lemon meringue. A firm dried spice finish rounds it all out. Sort of like The Dalmore 12 yr. old pumped up on steroids.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 84
The Dalmore, 15 year old, 40%, $80
Those who are fond of ripe, sherried whiskies will enjoy this new 15 year old. It’s aged entirely in sherry casks. The sherry is nicely layered (but not sappy or cloying) and the Dalmore spirit is big enough to handle it. Lush fruit, richly textured, and fleshy, with a warming spice impact on the finish. Orange marmalade, glazed citrus and Key lime pie are enveloped by sweet toffee/molasses notes and spiced with cinnamon, clove, ginger and subtle chocolate. Soothing and restorative in nature. Good for after dinner—or with a cigar.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 88
The Dalmore 1263 King Alexander III, 40%, $200
Master Blender Richard Paterson’s excellent adventure. This whisky consists of Dalmore aged in a wide variety of casks, including cabernet sauvignon, Madeira, Matusalem Sherry, Marsala, Port, and bourbon. This diversity shows in this whisky’s complexity and unique flavor profile. There’s a lot going on in here. Very rich, but balanced with oak spice and gripping resin (especially on the finish). Sweet layers of toffee, molasses and vanilla fudge provide a foundation of red plum, ripe red raspberry, black cherry, blueberry, orange marmalade, kiwi, grape skin and toasted almond. A very busy whisky which requires a good dose of mental participation to really appreciate it and sort all the flavors out. Very much like Glenmorangie Signet in personality in this regard.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 88
The Dalmore, 1974 Vintage, 42%, $1,250
Beautiful complex fruit on the nose. Tannic grip on the palate—especially on the finish. The tell-tale orange marmalade combines notes of orchard fruit, caramel apple, fried pineapple, banana nut bread, unsweetened chocolate, grape skin and plain toast, peppered with cinnamon and ground espresso bean. Distinctive and evolving on the palate—and humming along quite nicely—until the oak turns a bit austere and aggressive on the finish. For this reason, it’s my least favorite of the range.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 82
The Dalmore, 40 year old, 40%, $3,000
By far the softest and gentlest of the range, and oh so drinkable. Hard to believe that this whisky is 40 years old, actually, as it shows no sign of excessive oak. Instead, there’s soothing layers of caramel and toffee as the whisky’s foundation. Add orange marmalade and other juicy citrus fruits, cinnamon spice, graham cracker and gently toasted almond. A gentle, subtly sophisticated Dalmore, and an interesting comparison to the much different, more visceral 50 year old. If I were a rich man, I could drink this whisky every day—it’s so easy-going.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 93
The Dalmore, 50 year old, 52.8%, $1,500/100ml
The Dalmore is one of a handful of whiskies that seem to be able to age in the cask for many decades and still improve. This one is incredibly viscous on the nose and palate (and very heavy on the tongue), with chewy toffee and old pot still rum. The classic Dalmore marmalade note shines throughout, along with vanilla cream, an array of dried spices (especially cinnamon and evergreen), juicy oak, forest bedding, rancio, old armagnac, polished leather, tobacco, maple syrup, dark chocolate, almond macaroon and subtle espresso. Long, mouth-coating finish. The flavors evolve like waves lapping on the palate—especially the interplay with the oak. I can’t drink this whisky slow enough. A rare experience for the lucky few who can afford it.
Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 96
When John offered me the chance to be a guest blogger, I thought great here is a real chance to say what we are doing to an appreciative audience which is mainly USA based but then I started to think well what does he want me to say – there was a very good article by David Wishart which appeared in Malt Advocate last year and to which I couldn’t add much. I decided to approach John and ask him for his thoughts but he just said “take us behind the scenes and tell us what is happening” but he also stressed he did not want a sales pitch.
We hadn’t planned to sell our new make spirit but were requested to consider doing so by customers in Europe. The fact that we were producing a spirit that both Graham and I felt was better than any other which we had come across made the decision to release the spirit in a bottle relatively easy. However we wanted to make it a bit different and so we decided to capture all the spirit from a single mash making this a limited edition individually numbered product, different from other new makes which are available. We were also careful to ensure that they labelling complied with all Scotch Whisky legislation and so have been very careful to stress that it is not whisky on the label and to further underline the fact we have called it “The Spirit Drink that dare not speak its name” and finally we have disguised the distilleries name Glen____gh to ensure that the consumer could not be confused into thinking that it was whisky.
We decided to try and sell some of these smaller casks to people who followed my blog and we were very surprised by the high level of interest, mainly from the northern European countries. The casks, octaves, hold only 50 litres and we expect that the whisky will be ready for bottling within 3 to 7 years and as we bottle all of our products on site then the cask owner can have the whole process carried out here. With the high level of initial interest we decided to open this up to other interested people and have had a continuing very good response.