Dailuaine 13 Year (SMWS 41.142 "Jam-Packed with Darkness")

 

I discovered Dailuaine through the lens of single cask independent bottlings; not the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") as you might think from reading this blog, but actually Signatory. That bottle was fresh, bright, full of lovely candied citrus, and had a very distinct tart/sour watermelon Jolly Rancher flavor that I later found in other bottlings. I was immediately a fan. 

I then had a couple bottles from the SMWS: "A Fragrant Paradise" and "A Complex Character." The former was a real spicy powerhouse, while the latter was a more delicate citrus-forward bottle. Both were worthwhile. So I'm quite excited about this bottle; I'll let the official notes explain the casking:

We were cooking sherry-braised pork cheeks, from black Iberian pigs known as Cerdo Ibérico, with roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Rich, nutty and intense on the palate – like venison steak in a full-bodied red wine and bitter chocolate sauce and for good measure, a few Reese’s Pieces peanut butter candy in a crunchy shell. Water added mince pies and brandy butter served with German bread dumplings and to taste, we enjoyed a glass of chilled Lambrusco Italian wine, jam-packed with dark fruit flavours and pleasing tannins. After 11 years in an ex-oloroso American oak butt, we transferred this whisky into a first fill Spanish oak PX sherry butt.

So, full sherry maturation! This features a similar casking to the recent Macallan SMWS bottle I had, "In a Tapas Bar," and it will be interesting to compare and contrast the two. I think Oloroso maturation is well-tempered by PX finishing. 

As far as the actual notes go, I am most curious about pork cheeks (!), garlic mashed potatoes (!!), and peanut butter candy (!!!). What a totally crazy series of flavors. It does sound like this favors the more savory side of sherry, which I happen to greatly enjoy, so I'm on board. Bottled at a nice 57.5% ABV, let's see how it comes across:

Nose: This is the personification of a sherry-matured cask-strength Scotch whisky: thick raisins in syrup, figs, dates. Well-toasted nuts. Deep dark chocolate. A certain meatiness (pig cheeks? I don't know...) that presumably is sulfurous in origin, but undercuts the sweetness just the right amount. Sadly, no garlic mash. 

With water... still no garlic mashed potatoes, hahaha. But I do get hints of that sour candy note that I have found before in Dailuaine - only here it's paired quite well with the grapes-and-raisins note. The reduced nose offers a bit more chocolate as well. 

Mouthfeel: Surprised me by being thin and velvety rather than oily and robust. 

Palate: Everything from the nose is amplified on the tongue. This doesn't quite compete with the Macallan single cask as far as complexity, but it absolutely does with pure power of sherry flavor. Big raisins, figs, dates. Earthy chocolate. That same meat quality, which now comes across more as "steak in red wine reduction." I actually understand where they are getting peanut butter candy, but for me it's more of a roasted almond type flavor. It all ties together neatly, very nicely done. This is a well executed whisky. 

With water, that watermelon candy sweetness does, in fact, emerge, but is quickly swamped by grape-raisin notes and then all of that is washed away by a drying nutty finish.

Finish: Drier than expected - I chalk this up to the PX finish. Nutty, meaty, oaky. Earthy dry red wine is the ending flavor - lots of tannins. 

Verdict: Another big win for Dailuaine that cements them as "the best distillery you've never heard of" for me, right up there with Ardmore and Linkwood. This is the epitome of a sherry bomb - but it retains some of the the original distillery flavors as well. A really good deal from SMWS, this is definitely recommended if you like sherried whisky.