Review 139: Dailuaine 15 Year Signatory 1997/2012

Review 139

 2/10/13

Dailuaine 15 Year Signatory 1997/2012: 46% abv

Background: Dailuaine (pronounced dale-you-an) is a distillery in Scotland which you may not have heard of, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t big. In fact, Dailuaine has quite a history and background. Dailuaine was founded by a gentleman by the Name of William Mackenzie in 1852, but as of 1865, he died, leaving his wife widowed. His wife leased the distillery to the man by the name of James Fleming, who wasn’t a nobody. James Fleming is actually the founder of Aberlour Distillery. Dailuaine was the first distillery to adopt a pagoda style building for the malt house, and in 1884 had the largest production capacity of any distillery in Scotland. Fast forward, and now Dailuaine has 6 stills, and has around 3.3 million liters of capacity per year. Dailuaine is a Speyside whisky, and is currently owned by Diageo. This means much of their production will go into blends. That being said, independent bottlers like Signatory with snatch up the opportunity at buying a barrel of this whisky should it fit the bill. And this one does. This is part of Signatory’s Non-Chill Filtered collection, and comes in at 46%, with natural colorant. This is the advantage of buying a craft presentation independent bottling. This one is even more special because it was bottled exclusively for Tiffany’s Wine and Spirit Shoppe in Kalamazoo, MI. We here at KCM live in Kalamazoo, so we knew we had to try it. And boy were we NOT disappointed.

Nose: Fresh grain, wheat and malt, slightly grassy, subtle smoke and peat, sweet honey, sweet melon, crisp mild spice, clove, mild vanilla, light, refreshing

            A/W: Grain forward, citrus, apple

Arrival: Spicy, smooth, creamy, vanilla, mild tobacco, fruit

            A/W: mellowed out, vanilla, malt, grainy

Body: Hot spice, bittersweet, honey, melon

            A/W: vanilla, big fruit, apple, custard

Finish: Orange citrus, smoke, light peat, lemon, cinnamon, cloves, kiwi, hot mouthfeel

A/W: Slightly nutty, big orange flavor, still spicy, slight mint freshness, mild seaweed saltiness, earthy, medium length

Final Comments: This is a great expression of a Speyside malt, with a wide variety of flavors but a fruity, light body and a nice spiciness to it. It isn’t as intense as you might find in a Clynelish, but the mild peat flavor to it adds an interesting sort of “zest” to the finish, comparable to a Highland Park 12, but not as defined (and without the sherry influence). It is well balanced and complex, but doesn’t delve outside of what you’d expect from the Speyside character. At 46%, it also takes on water pretty well, and you should not be afraid to experiment with this.

Why you’d buy it: You enjoy a fruity, somewhat spicy malt and want to delve outside of the world of Glenlivet, or you just want to experience slight peat without feeling like you are chewing on burnt wood. Also you love Tiffany’s.

Why you wouldn’t: You are scared of change, or you made a New Year’s resolution to not drink good whisky.

Score: 9.25/10

Review 119: Innis and Gunn Winter Beer 2012

Review 119

12/15/12

Innis and Gunn Winter Beer 2012: 7.4% abv

There is nothing better than a reunion. And we’ve had some good ones with Innis and Gunn. This is more like a high school reunion. A poor one. I recently had an Innis and Gunn Rum Cask, which is a fantastic Scotch Ale. This particular beer is a “porter”, but it doesn’t have that ominous black oil-like color that a porter normally does, so maybe the porter was...under-roasted? Despite this, it sounds like a pretty interesting beer, being an oak aged Scotch porter brewed with molasses, it is certainly unique. It is also a limited run beer, so we had to grab it. 

Well all of this self-hype was unnecessary, as the beer is not worth it’s cost if you’re looking for the same quality you got with the rum-cask Innis and Gunn. This isn’t against the company, but this just simply doesn’t do it. Here’s why: The nose gives off some good notes, shooting off raisons, caramel, vanilla, honey, milk chocolate, a slight sweet coffee flavor, cream, cantaloupe, molasses, and a moderate background tartness. This is the best part of the beer. 

The arrival is eventless, being sweet and light, with a slight lemon-lime character and some raisons. The taste contains raisons, coffee, slight hops, toffee, soda water/mineral water, and water in general. The body does contain a larger amount of wateriness, and there is more to be said about this later. The finish contains raisons, coffee, molasses, slight hops, toffee, earthy mineral notes, caramel, and an out of place tartness. So what’s the end result? 

KCM loves that beer makers can produce new ideas at a much faster rate than distillers, but this particular statement by Innis and Gunn is light, watery and inconsistent in flavors. The complexity isn’t there to speak of and there was a general disappointment in the lack of quality. Go grab a Rum Cask Innis and Gunn. It is still a fantastic brew.

Score: 6.25/10