Dalmore 15

Dalmore has fast become the flashiest and gaudiest whisky brand in the world with its attempts to lure the 1% into purchasing whisky for ridiculous amounts of money. When it comes to selling “collectable” whisky Dalmore takes the cake with its bottling of Trinitas, the Constellation Collection and the Paterson Collection. Back here on planet earth the vast majority of us will probably be drinking from their core range of releases. The 15 year old is aged for 12 years in ex-bourbon casks then transferred into three different types sherry cask(amoroso, Apostoles and Matusalem oloroso) for a 3 year finish

Type: Single Malt     Region: Highland

ABV: 40%     Color: Amber +3     Body: Med

Nose: Intense blood oranges and the signature Dalmore house-style orange peel. Ripe plums, figs, sun-dried raisins and bananas. After a few minutes the chocolate and wood notes appear. Spanish cedar cigar box. Some vanilla and licorice notes are in there as well. With water the raisin and figs are amplified along with the emergence of coffee beans and maple syrup.

Palate: Very sweet initially: vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate and crème brûlée. Then the intense orange notes that were in the bouquet appear along with some caramel. Some demerara sugar and a citrus (orange) juice. There is some touches of wood spice and oak to offset the intense dessert type flavors so it’s not all sweet, which is nice. With water the flavors dull a bit but nothing drastic.

Finish: Sweet clementines, vanilla, black coffee and raisins and is medium in length

Overall: A very enjoyable after-dinner type malt. The sherry casks impart some very nice notes to an already solid malt. The negative is the low ABV which keeps this whisky from really shining. I’ve always liked Dalmore malts. I think a shift to up-ing the core ranges quality just a bit more would be better ‘brand’ wise than focusing on gaudy super uber premium bottlings