Whisky review no. 20 - The Singleton of Dufftown Spey Cascade Scotch

Well it's about bloody time! I started this ages ago and finally decided to finish it. This is what the little intro bit was going to say: "Greetings. I've started another whisky review at last. Hopefully I'll finish it fairly soon and not let it get to a full year between posts again. That would be a disaster. Apologies if it did get to a year. You should read this one anyway, it'll help detox your aura or something." Ha! David, you lazy swine. Get it sorted.

Bit of an intro
I bought this bottle knowing pretty much nothing about it. I just decided to buy a bottle of whisky and went to see what was in the local Vinmonopolet, the surprisingly not soviet government controlled off license. They had a twelve year old version next to it but it was about 50 Norwegian kroners more so I went for the cheaper one.

This is my first bottle of The Singleton of Dufftown. They had this one and a twelve year old which I didn't buy because it was very slightly more expensive and I'm a tight fisted miser. I've been trying to work out exactly who makes it and it hasn't been completely clear, but here's my best attempt at explaining: Dufftown distillery. It's not quite that simple though. It turns out The Singleton is a collection of whiskies from three different distilleries: Dufftown distillery, Glendullan distillery and Glen Ord distillery. Dufftown distillery is in Dufftown which isn't too much of a surprise, but Glendullan is too and when the bottle you have in front of you says Dufftown and the next one you look up also says Dufftown you start thinking the whole operation is a Dufftown thing and possibly a Dufftown distillery thing except that it's not. Apparently Hogwarts is only a few miles from Dufftown and we all know Hogwarts is hidden by crazy spells. Hogsmead must be pretty close by as well, and I think that's hidden by crazy spells too so I did start to suspect that a dark wizard was up to some kind of jiggegry-pokery with these distilleries, but it turned out just to be some kind of complicated business thing ultimately leading to Diageo who are running the whole show from behind the scenes like a frightening criminal enterprise but with rather nicer products than murder and kidnapping and things.

I've lost track of this waffle so I'll give you the vital statistics and move on. It was a 70 cl bottle for a price I can't remember because it's so long since I bought it, but it was about 400 Norwegian kroners. That's £33.35, $44.28 US, €37.41 or 79.25 Dutch guilders. Have we done guilders yet? Bottled at 40% so not really a craft presentation. Didn't say no colouring or chill filtering anywhere on the label, so we can assume it has been chill filtered and painted. Interestingly enough it's matured in both American and European oak casks. American oak gives a woody vanilla flavour, and European oak gives a kind of Christmassy spice flavour so we've got a bit of a clue there about some of the flavourswe can expect. European oak casks have often been used for sherry before they're used to mature whisky, so we can expect some raisiny, dark, dried fruit type flavours too.

Packaging

My bottle was just a bottle, no tin or box or anything. I've seen pictures online of it next to a box but mine didn't have one. Not sure what that's about. Maybe they stopped doing a box or did a limited release with special packaging for Christmas or something. Who knows.

The most notable thing about the packaging (which I acknowledge isn't a particularly interesting subject) is the shape of the bottle. Most whisky bottles are pretty much a circle but taller. This one is kind of flattened. It's reminiscent of the flat-ish slightly curved ones designed to be easily concealable in a jacket pocket, although those are more often a smaller size. You know, those ones that are shaped a bit like a big hip flask. Have a look:

It's thin.

Althoug it's kind of flat it doesn't have that curved shape that makes it fit nicely in a pocket. Here's an aerial view:

No pocket in the world is that shape.

I did a bit of speculating about why they would make a bottle this shape. In the end I concluded that I have no idea, but I was thinking maybe it's to make the bottle look bigger when it's on the shelf. Picture the scene: You're in the shop glancing furtively around, taking note of prices and the peering at bottles of things you've never tasted in an attempt to guess whether the quality matches the price tag and thinking "I wish David would get some more reviews out so that I can gain some sort of clue", when all of a sudden you see a relatively low price and a bottle an inch or two wider than most. "Bargain!" you think, and immediately snatch one from the shelf only to find it's flat and thin. "Hey, I'm not getting a big bottle for a cheap price here," you say to yourself, "I'm just getting a normal sized bottle for a relatively cheap price. Well, it's already in my hand and I picked it up so enthusiastically that anyone who saw it will think I really wanted it. If I put it back now they'll consider me indecisive and my social standing will diminish. I'd better just buy it quick and go home before I'm laughed out of the village." Thus a sale is achieved. As much as I enjoyed that little story I think it's more likely just a point of uniqueness, or a bottle design that they've been using for decades and has become something of a brand identity. It would make sense if the distillery sells whisky under several brand names, or several distilleries use the Singleton name. The bottle shape seems to be associated with the Singleton name rather than any of the distilleries, so brand identity is likely the game.

A couple of other points to note about the way it's packaged are the nice little trout logo which appears on the top of the foil over the cap (see the picture above) and on the front of the bottle, the gold line around the foil which I think is supposed to look like a fly line what with the trout on the top and all, and the description on the label on the back.

Reminds me of standing knee deep in a river, flinging my line back and forth for hours with not a single fish. Stupid trout.

Nice label. I'll explain why...

The thing I like about this label is what it says. I'm not sure if you can see the label well enough to read it in the pic there. Maybe you can get a bigger version if you click on it or something. I'll type it out just in case:

"We're on a mission to create great tasting single malt scotch whiskies that burst with flavour. Rich and perfectly balanced, the maturation in American and European oak casks gives a cascade of flavour with layers of rich stewed fruits, soft brown sugar, and toasted nuts."

The thing I like about this is that it gives you a clue about the flavours. If someone wasn't at all familiar with what to expect from a Speyside whisky then this brief description gives them a general idea of what to expect while leaving room for them to explore it for themselves. Obviously it has a bit of a positive spin for marketing purposes, but we're all intelligent enough to take what companies say about their own products with a pinch of salt.

Smell in the bottle

Always worth having a good sniff before you pour your first dram. You don't have to let whisky breathe like you do with wine, but it adds to the anticipation. I remember smelling the bottle when I opened my first ever single malt and smelling the most amazing smell I had ever smelled. Talisker 10 it was, back in the late 90s when it was much better than it is now. My old friend Mr. Tiffen recommended it. As I recall he bought a bottle of ten year old Laphroaig at the same time. After we'd made out purchases I exclaimed "Let's flee!" and we exited the off license forthwith.

On opening
Initially brown sugar and alcohol, actually kind of rum-like.
Toffee/caramel
Powdery quality
Hazelnut syrup for coffee. That stuff they have in coffee shops that I publicly disapprove of while secretly enjoying a double latte with caramel or hazelnut syrup occasionally. A guy once ordered an americano with peppermint syrup at a coffee shop I worked in. I reported him to the relevant authorities.
Dried fruit, rich raisin, darker fruit but not quite prune
Possibly baked banana
Possibly a touch of vanilla
Touch of clove
Touch of nutmeg
Dark chocolate maybe
Woody smell, more like dry birch than oak. Pretty sure it's from the whisky but I do have a load of dry birch around for the fire.
Grape juice
Troika bar. Marzipan and turkish delight and chocolate layers.
Hint of clementine peel maybe. I've got a pile of those in for christmas.
Marmalade. Orangey, but also deeper brown sugar type smell.

Later
Sorry, I drank it all before I remembered to note the smell in the bottle again.

Appearance
Pretty much amber. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't at a touch of e150a caramel colouring added, but not much as far as I can tell. It has a slight copper tone to it as well, which suggests sherry barrel.

A pleasant sight. Get it in your eye holes.

Neat

Nose

Definitely Speyside
Raisiny
Very much nutty after a few minutes in the glass
I'm going hazelnut, but it seems to be sliding between hazelnut and hazelnut coffee syrup.
Woody after a while and quite intensely so. I want to say it's from the euro oak.

Arrival
Feels kind of thin in the mouth
Cereal
Expected more fruity flavours and caramel/toffee.

Development
Slightly Raisiny
bit of marzipan, sweet and almondy.
Woody spice or spicy wood
Cinnamon

Finish
Nutty
Earthy
Something vegetal. Kind of grassy.
Apple core.

Generally quite deep flavour and not too sweet.

1tsp water
Nose
Bit nutty
Bit of fudge
Kind of powdery quality, reminded me of home made fudge
Sweet apple juice
Bit more spice developing as the water works, mostly cinnamon.
Marmalade.

Arrival
Feels thin
Nutty
Bit of caramel
Touch of orange.

Development
Caramel
Hints of cinnamon, clove. Euro oak basically.
Dried fruits, raisin, maybe dates, maybe prune.
Nutty notes are interesting. A little elusive.
Walnut.
Woody nutty
Bit of marzipan
Bit of cereal

Finish
Bit of chocolate
Bit of raisin
Quite nutty.
Touch or orange marmalade, but not a very bitter one.
Dried apple.
Think I prefer it neat to be honest.

A few extra notes
The maturation process for this whisky uses European oak and American oak. Many sherry barrels use American oak now which has a lighter flavour which I usually describe as a woody vanilla. Europen oak is more intense and spicy in a christmassy kind of way. Think cinnamon, clove, nutmeg that kind of thing. Maybe allspice. The combination of the spice flavour from European oak with the sherry that's often stored in it before the whisky gives the whisky that lovely, rich fruit and spices Christmassy flavour.

The flavours nicely married. They're distinct, but very much blended together. Not usually the kind of thing I notice I don't think. I'm pretty sure they take some whisky aged in the American oak barrels, which may or may not be ex-bourbon barrels (American oak is sometimes used for sherry now), and some whisky aged in Euroean oak, which is in the format of ex-sherry barrels, and then blend them together, rather than aging in one barrel and then another. I'm not certain about this, but since they're not calling it double matured, I think it's had one maturation and a blending rather than one maturation and then another maturation in a different barrel. I'd say the blending has worked pretty well, unless I'm wrong about how they've done it, in which case ignore me.

Conclusion

A pretty good whisky for the price. Sweet, clearly Speyside, not over complex but there's enough going on and none of it is unpleasant. All the expected flavours are there, making me feel like I know what I'm talking about. Could do with a bit more body to it, but you can't have everything. On the standard scale of one to ten, ten being the highest of course and one being the lowest, I'd give this whisky to a friend who I'd invited round for a cigar. It goes very nicely with a cigar or a pipe in my opinion as sweeter whiskies tend to do. Would I buy it again? Yes. In fact I genuinely planned to, but never actually did and now they don't have it in the shop. It's pretty good value if you ask me, at least in Norway.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I enjoyed writing it and I'm very happy to have finally posted something again. I got myself a rum advent calendar the other day and I'm planning to do some very brief reviews of it's contents, so come back soon. Not before the first of December though, on account of the way advent calendars work. I've been trying to explore rum a bit, as well as other spirits so hopefully there will be more content in the not too distant future. Apologies for the long wait, hopefully I can get myself together a bit. You should all thank my old friend Mr. Tiffen and his good lady wife Mrs Tiffen for giving me a gentle kick up the arse from time to time. Without them this probably wouldn't have happened.