Normally I try to stagger my reviews, when I have more than one ready at a time, to every other day... but I've decided with these Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") outturn tastings to just dump them all at once, to better help people who are still trying to decide while the outturn is fresh. So the other five samples will be posted as soon as I can write them up tonight or tomorrow.
This was the first sample at the May 2023 outturn at the Jack Rose Saloon in Washington DC. A very young Dalmore, here are the official tasting notes:
The nose was a wee, sweet-toothed, Scottish picnic in a garden – black coffee with butterscotch, macaroons, tablet and a tin of assorted biscuits. The palate seemed diverse – one of us was licking dry wood, another had more fun licking ice-creams (rum and raisin, mint-choc chip); we all got lively spice warmth. The reduced nose combined apple strudel, fudge sundae and sugar-coated fennel seeds with tobacco tins and carpet shops. The palate was a stushie between sweetness (shortbread, Blackpool rock) and ginger and menthol heat – sweetness prevailed producing ginger snap biscuits and menthol sweets – and a finish of lip-smacking contentment.
Not bad - I love coffee notes in whisky - but I get worried when they use words like "diverse," which can often mean "insanely random." I also question the allure of licking dry wood, or smelling carpet shops.
Bottled at 60.9%, here are my own notes:
Nose: Watermelon, melon rind, waxy or gummy candy, caramel, ginger, moss (!), citric acid (lemon). All over the place, and nothing like the official notes (except for ginger).
Mouthfeel: Thinnish.
Palate: Chalk, lemon, sugar, salt, mild char/pepper, alcohol, just tastes ... young, brash.
Finish: Lemon, earth/roots, oak, pepper, curry powder.
Verdict: This is way too young. I rarely openly criticize an independent bottler, and I'm sure SMWS had their reasons for putting this on the street at 8 years old, but wow, too soon. This has no real "center" to it - it's a revolving constellation of weird and woolly flavors that don't cohere at all. This needed either a significant amount of additional maturation, or a finishing cask of some kind. I can't recommend it.
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