Dailuaine 13 Year (Berry Brothers & Rudd)

 

The second of three Berry Brothers and Rudd bottles I obtained just after their DC opening. They actually have quite a few bottles I'm interested in, but until my next employment opportunity comes through I'll be savoring this interesting 13 (?)-year Dailuaine with a Moscatel finish. 

Here are the official tasting notes from BBR: 

"The aromas from this robust Speysider swagger from the glass showing heavy floral aromas of honey and heather, wrapped in the sweet and spiced flavours one would hope for from Moscatel wood. The thickly textured palate brings a wave of flavours from prunes and walnuts to under-ripe peach and honeyed toast and a little water shows a whiff of charcoal and perhaps more spices. Heavy textured whiskies often offer the best finish, and this is no exception with sweet Moscatel and vibrant fruits lingering long."

That checks out with my experience of Dailuaine, more or less: an earthy/floral quality, honey sweetness, and an ability to merge well with so many different kinds of casks. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has aged Dailuaine in a ton of different casks and it almost always go well. So I expect great things from a Moscatel cask. 

(Moscatel (also spelled Muscatel), for people who aren't wine lovers, is a sweet and rich dessert wine made with muscat grapes. In the United States, moscatel has a somewhat pejorative connotation because it was overly sweet bottom shelf wine for many years following the end of Prohibition. In the rest of the world, though, it's a full range of options including some really exceptional bottlings.)

Bottled at 55.1%, with BBR's typical reticence about the distilling date and exact age of the spirit. All I know is "distilled 2010" and "bottled 2023" ... so, 13 years? With an unknown amount of time in the Moscatel cask, but I'm assuming a typical 1-2 year finish. Let's explore:

Nose: The neck pour is rather muted but contains definite notes of honey, heather/field flowers, cut grass, green grapes, vanilla custard, and a distinct butter note. 

After some time and a splash of water, subtle sweet oranges emerge.

Mouthfeel: Super viscous and chewy, oily. 

Palate: Sweet - big thick honeycomb, an initial one-time rush of alcohol numbness, autumnal things (moss, wet leaves, wet soil, wet bark), barley sugar, poached pear, baked apple, that fresh grass note, and at the tail end are baking spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves. The cloves in particular are very distinct. 

After some time in the glass some light citrus is added, and that butter scent from the nose emerges. 

Finish: A lingering finish that is surprisingly waxy and a touch warming, consisting of baking spices, wood tannins, barley sugar, and honey-brushed fruit. It leaves something like a glow on the tongue. 

Verdict: I was worried the Moscatel would do all the lifting here, but in fact it really just rounds off the main experience with a grape sweetness and an oily citrus note and maybe is responsible for that buttery note as well.

This is a surprisingly complex dram - there are a lot of things going on, and if you sit with the glass for a while, you'll get almost a rotation of flavors to enjoy. All of them are pleasant. So I give this bottle quite a good rating. They had a second Dailuaine with a Moscatel finish, but it had a flat "55%" ABV, which made me suspect it was proofed down - a small batch, perhaps - so I went with this single cask and I don't regret it.