The earth is all thawed out! It's time to pull those bulbs out that've been sitting in the basement all winter and get them back in soil. That odor between end of April-early May needs a name, because it's an note I get in a lot of whiskies. Damp earth/humic-y. I've caught this in Dalmores before. Let's see how this one does with the crew!
Dalmore Port Wood, NAS, color added, 46.5% abv, Highland single malt, finished in port pipes.
Sniffing around:
Dates and apple pie, molasses Simon gets. Molasses liqueur.
Kyle goes for leathery.
Scott pulls that grape flavoring, artificial one. The Port pops.
Simon thinks it's raisin more than grape flavoring.
Trevor points out the leather note, especially from the sample bottle. Wood shavings note too. Like he's a in a wood shop. Little humidor aroma. We're having a hard time finding it.
We cheers.
Bit of a mixed bag Scott says.
Simon gets the dates, raisins, molasses.
Sean finds a bit of orange. Simon likes that, like a potpourri orange rind type.
Scott finds it a little empty. Not diluted but like missing a lot. Not full flavors. Short finish.
Simon agrees, the palate is a little shy.
Scott gets some bitter coffee-ish notes. Simon agrees, maybe a cranberry type of bitter.
Reviews: Sean's pick. He's going 78. Palate lacks something for him. It's good but he had higher expectations. Scott follows that up with 62. He's going to have to revisit this. The nose was fantastic but the palate is hollow, soda water like. He's a fan of Dalmore too so this is an unpleasant surprise. Feels like he got catfished after the nose especially. Simon is more with Sean. He's going 79. He likes the flavors he likes the scotch. He won't be looking for a bottle but he thinks it's very nice. That shyness prevents it from going 80+. Trevor matches the 79. Cool things on the nose. It's coming together alright but not blowing it out the park. For Kyle it's getting knocked down every sip. Too hot for the flavor level. It could be good if it wasn't so hot and hollow. Lands at 77. Averages out to 72.4.
*Scott gave a few more tries and ammended his rating to a drain pour 49. Ouch. Average has been amended accordingly.
Overall: We think this is a skipable Dalmore. The 15 is better in every way. Perhaps a bad batch? Those nose was great, and the flavors we did get are ones we're typically excited about, but it just didn't come together very well. We want to score this higher but it's too weak.
Cheers!
The S&P Crew.
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