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Region: Northern Highlands
Owner: Whyte & Mackay Ltd (Emperador Inc)
Founded: 1839
So, we get to the first of the ‘sherry monster’ producing distilleries. Those of you that know me, will be well aware of my aversion to the overuse of sherry casks. They will have heard me go on and on about balance, and as far as I’m concerned, balance is what makes a great whisky. Those bottling that attract the highest praise are a perfect harmony of spirit character, oak and oxidation character. Unfortunately ‘sherry monsters’ very rarely, if at all, as they are redolent of this equilibrium and are, in my opinion un-balanced.
You might think that I dislike all sherrried whiskies, but that is not the case. A judicious use of sherry casks can add a lovely depth and subtle dried fruit notes to a whisky. Those distilleries that vat together the two or more cask types, are the most successful, as the blender has perfect control over the amount of sherry influence there is in the final bottling. Those distilleries that prefer to finish their spirit in sherry casks are a little more hit and miss, as the results can be quite variable and are held hostage by the vagaries of the oak and time.
The biggest issue I have with the ‘sherry monsters’ is that all the flavours in the whisky are derived from the cask, especially if you are predominately using first fill sherry butts. When the whisky is relatively young any semblance of spirit character is crushed under the heel of the sherry and to be honest, that’s boring. I mean the whisky could come from absolutely any distillery, anywhere and where is the balance then? Basically put if I want to taste sherry I’ll have a glass of sherry, if I want to taste whisky….. well, you get the gist of that!
However, after saying all of that, I do like a sherry matured whisky of advancing years, especially by the time they get to 30 or 40 odd years old. The thing is, there is still no evidence of distillery character, but these gentle old whiskies often exhibit what is termed as an Armagnac-esque rancio. So where you lose in spirit character, you gain in the secondary and tertiary character gleaned from extended oxidation and maturation. And they can often be mind-blowing.
Back to the Dalmore distillery range, as I have mentioned the old and expensive bottling are without doubt superb, but to be honest my favourite bottling is the humble 12 year old. The current version spends 9 years of its life in ex-American oak, then half of that spirit spends a final 3 years in ex-Oloroso sherry butts and exhibits the right amount of balance that I am looking for, as for the rest, well to be honest, they are rather dull.
The question of course is why do they use so much sherry? Firstly, I suppose that there are a number of whisky drinkers that like all that rich dried sherry fruit in their whiskies, but I think there is a more profound reason for this and that is, well, get hold of an independent bottling company’s single American oak release and you will find out why. The style of their spirit is incredibly variable to say the least and the reason for that is down to their motley collection of stills.
The two wash stills in the old stillhouse are of different sizes, whereas the two wash stills in the new stillhouse, built in 1966 are the same size but of a different design. As the distillery waits until the low wines receiver is full, the strength and character of the low wines will never be consistent. This irregularity of size and design is mirrored in the four spirit stills. Each is fitted with a copper water cooler around their necks to aid reflux and interestingly their condensers are external shell and tube, but lie horizontally rather than vertically. So in essence the spirit stills are set up to create a lighter, cleaner style of spirit, which I have found in some independent bottlings, but at other times the character is harder, heavier and verging on the industrial. The easiest solution, therefore to mitigate this inconsistent spirit character is to effectively mask it with sherry casks, which is exactly what Dalmore does.
(Image Copyright James Mortimer Photography)
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