Some whiskies from certain distilleries have a reputation that precides them. Dalmore is one of those brands which is all about the brand and the marketing. It is marketing as an aspirational product where simply owning it makes you special. In all this cold hard marketing so much is potentially lost. I think thought that perhaps if I tried an indi bottle I would discover the real Dalmore a few years ago. However, that experiment didn’t pay off either as you can read here. In fact, while I might dislike all the superficial guff at Dalmore the best I have tried has been the 15 year old. Which while getting annually more expensive can’t be argued with as a decent thing to drink.

Perhaps I can add the NAS Port Wood Reserve to the heady height of “decent thing to drink”.

The Dram

The Dalmore Port Wood Reserve is essentially just a standard recipe of ex-bourbon maturation for X period of time before a finishing period in port pipes for Y times. These pipes are from Graham’s but X and Y are unknown. What we can tell you though is the price is around £70 and the bottling strength is 46.6%. Oh and the great personality that is the master distiller Richard Paterson has made a proclamation on his creation.

Utterly individualistic, this noble spirit displays a multitude of exotic flavours – a complete revelation!

Tasting Notes

Colour – whisky colour

Nose – touches of fruit and the subtle hint of rich fruit from the port pipe.

Palate – thin texture and little flavour really. Prickles of spice and chilli heat

Finish – short and disappointing finish some cloves and ginger

Final Thoughts

It is just too boring and too expensive to be worth your money. If you worked hard and dreamed of one day being able to afford aspirational whisky and then tried this you would wonder why you bothered.