Dalmore (Asta Morris)

True, I’m late with this one. It’s the downside of going on vacation, I guess, but I’ll be catching up with some recent releases in the next couple of days.

We’re having a Dalmore. No vintage, no age, just some Dalmore. Not a common practice for an independent bottler to leave out so many details but of course it fits this particular distillery. The cask was chosen by a group of whisky lovers for the sixth anniversary of The Bonding Dram. Previous results of this selection method have been great, I especially think of the excellent Macduff 2000 and Clynelish 1997.

Dalmore (49,1%, Asta Morris for The Bonding Dram & Huis Crombé 2013, ref. AM005)

Nose: really malty, more so than I tend to like. Soaked grains. Heather, buttery cocoa and a caramel-like sweetness that I tend to associate with blends from the 1950’s. Even the hints of a vegetal dirtiness that they can express. Hmmm. Some paraffin. Luckily it seems to fold open (or rather calm down) to some nice vanilla cake and hazelnut cookies. Ripe oranges and honey too. An above average complexity, but the aromas are not really seductive. I think it’s strange that a large group of tasters picked this.

Mouth: again the same kind of overweight roasted malt, caramel and cocoa. Baked apple and raisins. Honey sweetness. Butter and some leafy notes. Gingerbread. Dried flowers. Pretty complex again but lacking a bit of a fresh sparkle.

Finish: not too long, medium sweet, heathery and fairly dry and herbal.

A rather intriguing selection but also slightly bloated as Dalmore can be. Heathery with plenty of sweet malt. One of the lesser Asta Morris releases, in my humble opinion, but you can’t have all aces. Anyway the nice new label and the low price make up for part of it. Around € 45. Still available from both participating shops.

Score: 81/100