Review: Dailuaine 34 Year

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Dailuaine is one of those brands where you might quickly glance at the name, realize you can’t easily pronounce all those vowels, and move on to a more familiar option. However, if you take the time to get to know this interesting Speyside distillery, you’ll realize that they have a lot to offer when bottled as a rarely-offered single malt.

Diageo’s Special Release range from 2015 included this 34 year old Dailuaine. Distilled in 1980, this whisky didn’t quite age for that full 35th year, hence the 34 year age statement. Aged in ex-bourbon casks, it was bottled at a cask strength of 50.9% ABV.

For a distillery that produces almost exclusively for Johnnie Walker blends, there must be something special about the whisky set aside for the oldest OB Dailuaine ever released and the first OB bottling in a long time.

[table2 caption=”Dailuaine 34 Year – 50.9% ABV” colalign=”center|left”] Category|Notes Appearance|Gold Nose| Oak-driven profile, honey bordering on maple syrup, pears, clove. This gets more syrupy as time goes on. It almost takes on a cola note. Taste|Chocolate orange, wet cave, some nice old oak, leathery, some salinity as well, raisins, stewed fruit, quite meaty. Finish|Smokey and drying, burnt sugar, more clove, hints of mushroom, apples and pears and some lemon zest. Good length here. The fruit and oak are the last to fade as well as a subtle reminder of that earthiness throughout the pour. Overall Thoughts|The first OB Dailuaine release since 2009 was a good one. A complex, well aged malt that hits all the right notes for me. It’s a bold, meaty, and earthy dram atop the fruit and malt notes you’d expect from a Speysider. Total Score|92/100 [/table2]

34 YearDailuaineReviewscotchSpeyside