Dailuaine 15 Years Old 2002 Cask #DL 12016 (Old Particular)

This Dailuaine was bottled by the Glasgow bottler Douglas Laing, a 15 year old, distilled in 2002, from cask DL 12016, bottled at 48.4%, one of 356 bottles. Dailuaine sits at Carron on the Spey, a big, sherried Speyside malt rarely seen on its own. Its big stills give a heavy, full bodied spirit that takes sherry wood especially well.

It was run through the distillery's big copper stills, for a rich, meaty make that suits sherry wood. A sherry butt held it, the wood lending raisin, fig and walnut to the robust malt. In the oxidative middle years oxidation draws out a deeper dried fruit, vanillin and lactones fully expressed. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and coconut over the meaty malt. Long ageing turns the fresh fruit towards dried fruit, fig, leather and a warm spice. Dailuaine's heavy, malty make is prized by blenders for the body it gives.

At its natural 48.4% it is concentrated. Dried fruit, malt and a rich, savoury depth, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The texture is full and rich, the fruit lifted by a meaty malt. A full, malty finish ends on dried fruit and a warm spice. This is one of Speyside's heavier single malts.