Dailuaine 12yo
Thompson Bros 2010 | 50% ABV
Speyside via Dornoch
Since I entered whisky land back during lockdown, I’ve moved from trying everything I could get my grubby paws on to now being much more focused on how I spend my hard-earned dough.
During this almost four year long expedition, I’ve hacked through jungle thickets of ABV, blazed my own trail through the malty landscape, found some remarkable sensory summits that offered some sublime experiences, as well as some butyric and feinty swamps never to be revisited.
I stand on the bow of the SS Drummond with hand to forehead shielding my eyes from the onslaught of corporate marketing drivel, trying to peer through the blinding rubbish to see what treasures might lie beyond. Sometimes the ship springs a leak when a punt on an untasted bottle goes south. When my ever-patient partner (no, captain) opens the door to the cargo hold and flips on the light, rather than food, fuel, and fresh water she instead sees rows of whisky bottles, along with a few small sample bottles rolling around on the floor of the swaying ship. Occasionally a disciplinary meeting of the crew thus commences.
Like most of us, I find that my palate is super exploratory, but tends to gravitate towards sherry-cask whiskies more often than not. I tend to enjoy getting vapourized by sherry nukes but also mere third-degree burns with second-fill sherry casks or a half-sherry half-bourbon vattings. When I creak open the door to the only reasonable space in the house for the collection, my whisky closet (clearly I’m in need of a new house) and look at the glowing rows of bottles, I reckon probably two thirds have some sort of sherried profile or significant proportion of sherry casks.
I love the rich depths that a sherry cask can impart, I like comparing the different types of sherry casks used in whisky (oloroso and PX, but also manzanilla, fino, palo cortado, and so on), and, done well, I like how it can augment and amplify some of my other favourite qualities such as peat. Sherry-plus-peat is a favourite category, and it can be sublime. Sublimity can disappear, though, when a sherry maturation is poor or haphazard: when a bold cask overwhelms a delicate spirit by a too-lengthy maturation, or when a “flash finish” doesn’t impart a truly notable dimension or contribution to the spirit. I’ve in fact grown somewhat suspicious sometimes when I read about a short finish period. This is, rightly, why many are often suspicious of sherry maturations and especially finishes: they can cover over lots of flaws. Or at least they try to.
And yet none of this is to say that I avoid ex-bourbon cask matured malts. Not at all. In fact I’m much more open now to their particular qualities of allowing more spirit-forward experiences than I was nearer the beginning of my journey. Our palates change, of course. If ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus were to put down his ouzo and have a wee dram instead he might opine that not only can one never step foot in the same river twice (since the river itself is always changing), but you can never drink the same dram twice: not only because whiskies change over time, but because we change over time too.
Deanston, Glendcadam, Torabhaig, Ardnamurchan, Caol Ila and many other staples in my cabinet offer some of my favourite bourbon-cask experiences, often on par with the sherry-cask experiences I get from them.
My interest in Dailuaine originally came about because of the sherried profile of the only official bottling; the 16 year old Flora and Fauna. Yet I quickly discovered that Dailuaine spirit is a staple of the indy bottling landscape for good reason: it usually does very well in many types of casks, ages, and ABVs. Today my attention turns towards this bourbon-cask matured Dailuaine from the Thompson Bros., based in Dornoch.
Review
Dailuaine 12yo, Thompson Brothers, 2010 vintage, 50% ABV
£55 sold out
Nose
Bright, clean, sharp fresh apples and citrus fruits. Background maltiness and barley/grain quality. Not overly complex, but nice.
Palate
Much of the nose carries through to the palate: barley/grain quality maltiness and sweet fresh green apples. The citrus fruits from the nose transform into more stewed fruits on the palate, somewhat reminiscent of Craigellachie 13. Some fairly standard but nice vanilla and honey notes, along side some lights spices and a hint of creaminess.
The Dregs
For research purposes I purchased a sample of the official Flora and Fauna 16 year old bottling to try alongside this. And, what you might expect holds up here: the 16 is a fine dram on its own: rich, spicy, malty, sherried, and good weight despite 43%.
Yet, trying this Thompson Bros. right after sipping the Flora and Fauna shows just how much life Diego’s low ABV and aggressive chill-filtration are sucking out of this fine distillate. The Thompson Bros. is brighter, more alive, more complex, and overall more interesting. Yet at the same time, this Thompson Bros. is not necessarily the most complex or interesting Dailuaine I’ve ever tried. This is a relatively high bar, truth be told, since there are many fine indy Dailuaines out there.
Yet, this is a good dram, to be sure. It feels exactly like a 6/10 for us, which is “priced fairly” and a “solid purchase in these heady times.” For the £55 I paid, this was a good buy for a higher-strength, independent bottling of a great distillery.
I’m glad I have it, as it’s a nice example of this type of profile. Speyside, but definitely one of the best and most interesting Speyside distilleries, with the ex-bourbon cask allowing more of the distillate to shine through than on the Flora and Fauna bottling. I would love to try this alongside another Dailuaine Thompson Bros. released last year which was matured in ex-bourbon before being finished in PX casks. For me, that’s probably a bit more up my alley, but I will appreciate this one and enjoy it all the same while I continue to explore what this fine distillery has to offer.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DD