Dalwhinnie 25 yo 1987 / 2012 Special Release 52.1% vs Dalwhinnie 29 yo 1973 / 2003 Special Release 57.8%

Merry Christmas 2018! Another year of blogging recording my tasting notes for reference .. I have been told blogs aren’t in anymore and it’s all about pretty pictures and instagram. While I don’t count myself an incorrigible old fogie yet there’s plenty reasons to stick to a format that works for me. I suppose the logic is somewhat closed, you might imagine Serge at Whiskyfun tells himself the same thing for the same reason.

 (drinkingmansguidetoscotland.com)

So Dalwhinnie..  it’s famous for an anecdotal story of how United Distillers renovated the worm tubs in a bid to modernize the distillery but it was found that the character of the malt had changed unacceptably and money was spent to reinstate the worms. So far I haven’t yet come across a genuine source that verifies the truth of it, but if you’ve been lurking in whisky forums and sites long enough you’ve probably heard more than one reference for a source.

Meanwhile know that it is a small distillery at high elevation and that itself has some effect on distillation. It’s cold so that has an impact on the worm tubs, which are of course cooled by environment factors. Also it is known that Dalwhinnie’s distillation is intentionally run in a way as to promote a sulphurous quality, though anyone tasting the 15 would have inkling of that, some older IBs though did have that come across,

(undiscoveredscotland.co.uk)

Dalwhinnie 25 yo 1987 / 2012 Special Release 52.1%

Its great quality is easily discernible here. Lots of paraffin and a blend of light oils, and dusty with the dust of whole spices. Dry cedar-y wood and stoney minerals. Just lightly earthy with distant floral aromatics like being downwind of a field in bloom. A bit of sooty grease and burnt paper. On the tongue it awakens with hot sand and dry heat. Chrysanthemum, pollen, clean white clay. It remains light but has a pleasantly oily quality and gets sooty towards the finish.

Dalwhinnie 29 yo 1973 / 2003 57.8%

Well colour me impressed again. And again it’s a somewhat ‘leaner’ nose the way say Clynelish is not, but there’s big hits of old muted wax, and dusty resins. Crystalized honey and well cooked yellow stonefruit in syrup. Drops of amber, scrapped nutmeg and old black pepper (that’s lost its piquancy). Also the ghost of clean sulphur which really suggests the sublimation of peat, but peaty it is not, if that makes any sense. More vibrant on the tongue, where that ‘sulphurous’ twang gives it bite, but the sweet honey and fruit soothes. There’s something here redolent of Mortlach. Develops into clean oils, lots of yellow hues and a bitter pith plus acidic zest sensation, and then a clean sharp exit.