Bit of an intro
The Dalwhinnie distillery is in the village of Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands, making this a highland malt. The name is taken from the Gaelic word "Dail-coinneeamh", which I'm led to believe means "meeting place" and refers to the place the routes of the old cattle drovers took through the mountain crossed. Decent place for a village with a cozy inn if you ask me. The distillery uses peat from bogs nearby and clear water from a spring called Lochan-Doire-Uaine. Doire Uaine means green oak, and I assume Lochan is something like lake, because it's a bit like loch. I guess Green Oak Spring might be a reasonable translation. Comment if you've got a better one.
It was founded in 1897 with the name Strathspey and started production in 1898. Unfortunately the guys who founded it went bankrupt pretty much immediately. It was sold and renamed Dalwhinnie. In 1905 it was taken over by the Cook & Bernheimer company, who as far as I know was (maybe still is, I'm not sure) an American company who were looking for a scotch distillery. Their plan was to bring out some blended whisky for the American market. Apparently it was the first time Americans had invested int he scotch market in the whole of history. Then they had the prohibition and sold it to Lord James Calder, who was a shareholder in a whisky blenders called MacDonald Greenlees. Macdonald Greenlees was eventually became part of Distillers Company which became United Distillers when it was bought by Guinness, who merged with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo, who combined UD with International Distillers and Vintners to form United Distillers and Vintners. I'm sure we've been through all that before.
Apparently Distillers Company made thalidomide. Weird what you read on the internet.
Dalwhinnie appears to have been viewed as a blending whisky from the start, and only 10% of what's produced is sold as single malt. All the rest is is used in blending, and I can kind of understand it. You'll see when you get to the tasting notes, but there's such a lot of honey flavour in this that it makes sense to use it to sweeten up something else. Not that I know much about blending. I assume it's done in a blender. I don't really, that would be stupid.
The bottle I have is another of the 200ml bottles. I do appreciate the smaller bottles for relatively inexpensive whisky exploration, and the classic malts range is probably a pretty good introduction to whisky tasting, but I think it would be better to use the regions that the rest of the industry uses and not the ones Diageo made up for their own marketing purposes. Bit confusing, but there again Diageo don't have a campeltown distillery. I won't go into nice friendly Springbank vs corporate giant Diageo now. I've done that enough in this post and this one.
I paid 159.9 NOK for it. Had I paid cash it would have been 160, which I find ever so slightly irritating. The smallest Norwegian coin is one whole kroner, but there's prices everywhere with fractions of kroners. Why? Get it together Norwegians, before I start cutting up coins like a pirate. Anyway, 159.9 kr isn't a bad price considering this is Norway. (At current rates it's £13.85, $21.07 US, $26.47 Canadian or $27.08 Australian. Personally I think people should be a bit more creative about what they call their currency. You can't all have dollars. I remember when they first started talking about a single European currency and were suggesting euro dollars for it's name. I'm glad they didn't choose that, but euros isn't much better. Guineas would have been good. Or shillings.) It's the second cheapest of the six classic malts in Norway.
It's bottled at 43%, which 4 of the classic malts are. Talisker 10yo is 45.8% and Cragganmore is 40%. I don't know how they choose how strong to bottle their whisky. 46% is considered the right strength for a craft product as it's strong enough to be flavourful but you still get to add some water to increase volume. If you're going stronger than that you may as well go cask strengthh. 40% is the legal minimum for scotch and gives the greatest volume of product to sell. What's 43? Some kind of halfway house. Maybe it's a marketing thing, like they're aiming to be a bit posh, but without being too exclusive. You'll have to ask the distillery people if you really need to find out.
Sadly, it's chill filtered and contains caramel colouring. I think that's everything I have to say about it for now.
Packaging
Personally I prefer darker packaging for the visual aesthetics (Lagavulin 16 packaging is about prefect), but this isn't bad. It's a lighter whisky with lighter packaging. No problem, although I have to say the fancy writing on the light background is a bit girly. Well, not girly, let's call it "ladylike". My old friend Mr. Tiffen's wife, Mrs Tiffen is quite partial to a drop of Dalwhinnie 15, so I suppose it's ok that it looks a little feminine. My old friend Mr Tiffen is also partial to a drop now and again, and he's so manly he's building a brewery with his bare hands, so this is not a comment on the masculinity of Dalwhinnie drinkers at all, merely on my personal opinion of the appearance of the packaging. There is a distillers edition available which is pretty much the same but with white writing on a blue label and I think it looks better.
Bit of a girly box
Somehow the bottle doesn't look as feminine as the box. I'm not sure if it's the shape or the fact that it's full of whisky. I suspect it's the shape. It's sort of stout. Not what you'd call elegant. I quite like it.
I had a bit of a job getting through the foil again, but I learned my lesson with the Glenkinchie and used a knife right away. A little strip to tear off would have really helped. I assume the smaller bottles can't have a tear of strip on the foil because the mountain troll who stitches it all together has big fat fingers and can't manage the fiddly bits. Something like that anyway. I wondered if the sgian dubh (little knife traditionally worn in the sock of a true Scott) was originally designed to get through whisky foil. I'll google it one day.
The writing on the label is about the lovely scenery around the distillery which usually makes me think the flavour is not the main selling point. However, there's flavours mentioned as well so now I don't know what to think. I might have to reassess my opinion forming routines.
Oh yeh, the little label on the shoulder of the bottle wasn't very well stuck on, which made the whole thing feel a bit cheap. Marks off for that, although it did stick back properly when I pressed it into place with my fingers. You can have the marks back , but I'm watching you, Dalwhinnie.
Smell in the bottle
Opening
Honey-ish
A bit herbal
Vanilla
I want to say barley sugar sweets but I'm not sure. You can't get them in Norway so I ordered some off Amazon, but they haven't arrived yet.
Tropical fruit of some kind
Possibly a hint of coconut, which I think could possibly actually be gorse. I vaguely remember hearing that gorse has a kind of coconut like smell.
Halfway though the bottle
Honey is more pronounced
Kind of floral note has appeared
Everything else has diminished
Appearance
Yellowish. Not much more to say. It's safe to assume it's got caramel in because it doesn't say that it doesn't, but I don't think there's much. Maybe amber -1 if you do things that way.
We all know what it looks like and it's not funny.
Depending on the lighting it can get a kind of polished copper tone to it, but since the colour is almost meaningless I'm not going to go into any more detail.
At first opening
I found it changed considerably over the first 24 hours after I opened it so I thought it'd be interesting to include the tasting notes from my first dram and then the notes from subsequent tastings for comparison. If it's not interesting to you, feel free to skip down to the second set of notes. Most of the bottle will be like the second set.
Nose
Alcohol and not much else at first
Honey comes in after a minute or two in the glass
Apple juice - both sweet fresh apple juice and that fermented apple smell, giving a very cidery impression
Vanilla
Some kind of aromatic fruit, possibly lychee or something similar
White grape juice or a sweet white wine. Grape juice with alcohol really.
A faint hint of wood smoke
Maybe a bit of sea smell
After five minutes or more a hint of coconut joins the smoke. Weirdly the two smells seemed to be combined. As in " I can smell coconuts and smoke", not "I can smell coconuts and I can smell smoke". You get it, right?
Arrival
Sweet honey - I'm sure I'm supposed to say heather honey, and I probably would have anyway but I wouldn't have been sure. It's like that kind of honey that's really golden and kind of runny but not as runny as acacia honey so it'd still be in a jar, not a squeezy bottle.
Slightly bitter, fresh herbs
Development
Herbal, like fresh herbs with a mouth drying affect
Slightly smokey
A hint of pepper, not as fragrant as black pepper, but leaning in that direction
Finish
The kind of fresh herb mouth drying thing comes back, kind of like carroway or fennel but quite drying
Something a little salty but savory too. It suggests bacon without actually being bacon.
After 24 hours
Nose
Rich honey
Some kind of spice (vanilla, maybe a bit of cinnamon)
Violets (Yes, the flower. Tasted parma violets? Like that but more flowery.)
"Sea air but mountains" was what I wrote in my tasting notes. It was a definite coastal air smell, but kind of cleaner and reminded me of holidays in North Wales as a kid. )
Herbal quality, something close to fennel, but not quite, and still with lots of honey. Maybe aniseed, but a bit softer
Citrus peel
Even more honey
Arrival
Very mead like. It reminded me very much of Stag's Breath liqueur which is made with whisky and fermented comb honey. I'm not sure hwy they feel the need to specify comb homey since all honey comes from a comb and there is no other kind of honey. Unless there's some kind of battery farm for bees now, where they spit it straight onto a conveyor belt. I doubt there is. Pretty much the same flavour as before but a much richer honey flavour and richer mouth feel.
Just a touch of the herbs now, they're still there, but the honey is so much stronger it almost hides the herbal notes.
A hint of something biscuity
Development
Tea, not as fresh herby as the first glass, but similar tannin type drying effect.
Hint of wood smoke
Sea salt (more than the first glass)
Finish
Hint of bitterness, like strong tea
Hints of woody tannins, but it reminded me of fresh wood rather than fully dried out wood. Like a stick freshly pulled off a tree with green bark on it.
Saltiness and honey flavour continue, but kind of fade out giving way to the woody notes, which linger for quite a while.
Citrus peel again, plus candied peel, which is similar but different.
Kind of a dry white wine thing if you wait a while
Water - No more than 1 tsp
Be really careful not to add too much. Work out how much you think is right and then put a bit less in. I'll comment on this properly later, but for now just be careful.
At first opening
I already explained why I'm doing a first opening and day later comparison. If you don't remember or just scrolled down and started reading here for some reason, it's because it was pretty different after a day.
Nose
A bit flowery. I want to say heather, but I'm not too sure.
Kind of honey-ish, but closer to mead which is made by fermenting honey. An interesting drink if you ever get to try it.
Fermented apple smell, but not the fresh apple with it anymore
Home made fudge - a bit vanilla, but with a dusty quality and sweet, a bit like the smell of icing sugar but different.
A hint of aniseed (I'm quite confident that it was aniseed this time, like aniseed balls)
Arrival
Sweet
Honey (I want to say it's heather honey. Same as I mentioned earlier, it's the sort of runny kind, but not acacia honey)
A kind of salty sweetness. Think honey cured ham without the ham. Probably just honey and seasalt flavours combining, but it makes something a bit different to either. I'm beginning to think there's something faintly meaty going on.
Caramel
Development
Herbal
Sea salt
Very faint smoke
Old chocolate, like when you forget about your Easter egg and then find it at Christmas and it's gone a bit white. A bit of a vanilla and cocoa flavour, but weirdly stale.
Finish
Honey-ish aftertaste
Faintly floral
After a good while in the glass with the water there's something like rich tea biscuits
After 24 hours
Nose
Much more herbal than before
Liquorice or aniseed, I couldn't quite decide
Kind of musty
Lots of honey, but a slightly less rich and more floral honey
Hint of fennel
Vanilla sugar (looks like icing sugar and is vanilla flavoured. Vanilla scent with a powdery quality a bit like before but less fudgy)
Sweet and salty, this time more like prawns in brine, or some kind of sea food and less like cured meat. A bit more coastal, possibly owing to the altitude of the distillery.
Jelly sweets, like those red laces, but the nice tangy British ones, not tasteless ones.
Arrival
Sweet
Briney
Mead
Honey
Herbal
Vanilla, a bit like old chocolate
A touch woody after a while of interacting with the water, but the sweetness returns if you wait a bit longer
Development
Getting saltier
Tangy fennel seed flavour, like eating candied fennel seeds after a posh Indian meal
I want to say barley sugar and I'm fairly sure. I mentioned earlier that I have some on order. I'm still waiting for them.
Citrus rind bitterness (not quite lemon rind, not quite marmalade, but something in that area)
Honey keeps making an appearance between other things
Very faint wood smoke
Milk chocolate if you give it time to interact with the water (Proper milk chocolate, not off chocolate)
Orange rind (more definitely orange now)
A hint of something floral
Finish
Vanilla-ish Oaky wood
Cereal
Tea
Celery? Not certain.
Fennel comes in after a bit
Strawberry cream chocolates which are always the last to be eating in a box of Quality Street.
Hint of citrus peel in a fairly marmalady way.
Long and complex finish and worth taking some time to dwell on
A few extra comments
I'd suggest opening this bottle and tasting it, then tasting it again the next day and compare the two. On my first approach I had to fight the temptation to use the word "bland", but after just 24 hours a lot more flavour and aroma had developed. The richness of the honey smells was very noticeable the second day, and the general complexity and intensity of the flavour profile had increased considerably. I even started drafting a conclusion saying it was ok but a bit bland, and I've had to scrap that completely and start again because only the first glass was like that. That'll teach me to jump to conclusions. What a numpty. Apparently it's partly to do with the way the whisky gets sloshed about against the cork and things like that in transit; the first smell and taste of the bottle will not be quite like the rest with any whisky, and with this one it's particularly pronounced. There's also the affect of oxygen getting into the bottle and reacting with flavour compounds. You get the same thing happening in red wine which is why it's left open to breathe before serving, to get to it's best tasting state. This whisky benefits from a day's rest after opening. (Don't leave it open for 24 hours, just pour a glass and put the cork back in. I really hope you didn't need me to say that.)
I found you really have to be careful with the water here. Just a little drop opens things up nicely but just a little too much makes it turn quite bland. In general the flavours in this whisky seem quite sensitive. They don't appear properly til a day after the bottle's been opened and are easily chased out with a drop too much water. Timid little things, but if you treat them right they'll reward you. By which I mean if it's wrong (too much water, too freshly opened or been open too long) it'll taste quite bland, but if you get it right (24 hours or more after opening is best, and not too much water) then you'll have a nice, rich honey flavour with layers of complexity. It's perfectly nice and drinkable neat too, but I found just a drop of water to be the ideal.
I've heard that a high altitude distillery will tend to take on coastal flavours, which this definitely does. I might have already mentioned that. I'm writing this in several sittings and can't actually remember what I've already said. Anyway, it has sea salt flavours and is the highest distillery in Scotland. Make of that what you will.
I'd also recommend taking some time over each sip. The finish is long and complex and if you have a sip or two and wait for a five minutes, breathing gently while paying attention to all the little flavours and smells you experience, I think you'll be a better person for it.
Edit: My old friend Mr. Tiffen just told me that if a whisky doesn't taste great at first but then tastes better once the air's got to it, it can be a sign of substandard casks. He recommended ralfy's latest video because he talks about this issue. Have a peep here.
Conclusion
I can't say this whisky was a favourite, but it is pretty good. The complexity and length of the finish point to quality, and this is a good quality whisky. I could only mark it down on my personal taste (and the fact that it's chill filtered, has caramel colouring added and is bottled at 43% instead of 46%.) I'm generally a fan of powerful flavours, lot's of smoke and sherry and all the weird chemical smells of things you shouldn't consume, which this doesn't have.
It doesn't give a great first impression when you open the bottle, and after the first glass I'd decided not to buy it again. Just a day later I changed my mind completely. I usually like lots of peat, but I would consider this for a bit of something different. It's certainly lighter than my favourites from Islay, but as long as you don't add too much water there's a wonderful richness from the honey flavours that makes up for it. This one, like Glenkinchie, has a chance at getting back on my shelf. Possibly even a bit sooner than Glenkinchie. On the standard one to ten scale I'd say it's well worth giving it a chance. I suspect a miniature might give the wrong impression, but buy yourself a 20 cl bottle, or have a drop in a pub where the bottle's already open. A pub might be a wee bit risky though, you don't know how long it's been open and old whisky tends to taste a bit watery and washed out. The best is probably to find a generous friend who likes it and persuade them to let you have a sample. Maybe you could trade them something for it, like a hand woven scarf.
The future
Next up is Oban 14, and for once I already have it. The sixth of my Diageo classic malt series. Then I can finally open the bottle of Longrow I've had in the cupboard since June. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did and thanks so much for reading. I've had over 1000 views now from all over the world and I appreciate you taking the time. Unless everyone's just finding my blog, realizing it's rubbish and then clicking away immediately without reading anything. That would be a shame, but until I see evidence of it I'm going to assume everyone thinks I'm great.
Remember to tell your friends, family members, colleagues and neighbours about my awesome reviews, and feel free to leave comments.
Good review! And I'm no lady, just ask Mr Tiffen!!
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