Berry Brothers and Rudd is one of the oldest wine merchants in the UK and probably in the world. They also have an important whisky department, acting as the exclusive distributor for The Glenrothes and selecting fine casks in their own range of bottlings. Today we’re trying an old release, tomorrow we’ll have a recent one from the same bottler.
Dufftown is a small village in Speyside with a high number of distilleries and one of them is called Dufftown. It’s part of the Diageo group, mainly producing blender’s whisky for Bell’s, and it’s bottled as a single malt in the Singleton series. With its impressive production capacity and very low profile / recognition, it tends to be forgotten easily. Oldies like this Dufftown 1972 are very rare.
Dufftown-Glenlivet 1972
(43%, Berry Bros 1993)
Dufftown-Glenlivet 1972Nose: starts mashy and porridgy, with some wet dogs. Over time it develops a soft sweetness of heather honey and buttercups. A few vegetal notes (celery) and apples. Not very interesting, with its malty character it’s easy to see what the majority of casks was used for.
Mouth: rather dry, with some oak, wax and earthy notes. Plenty of grainy notes with hints of (sourish) tobacco. Apples again, as well as oranges. Hints of tea.
Finish: medium long, with some ginger and oak juice.
Sometimes people say that even the most mediocre blender’s whisky gets interesting as long as it’s aged properly. This one is certainly not bad but not a high-flyer either. Around € 130 in auctions. Thanks Joeri.
Score: 81/100