Dalmore Vintage 18 Years Old 2006

Dalmore from the distillery, an 18 year old, from 2006, at 47.2%. Dalmore is a rich, chocolate and orange Highland single malt, deeply marked by sherry wood. Most expressions are finished in aged sherry wood, giving orange, chocolate and treacle.

It was made in copper stills whose water jackets give a heavy make, building the luscious Dalmore style. A Pedro Ximenez cask added raisin, date, fig and a treacle sweetness. Into oxidative maturity, slow air ingress builds fruity ethyl esters (orange and dried fruit) over the chocolatey, sherried depth. Refill oak lets the full bodied Dalmore character lead, orange and dried fruit beneath. The distillery stands on the firth near Alness, in the Northern Highlands. The thick spirit shows the sherry clearly, dried fruit and orange over a malty depth. Much of its sherry comes from aged Oloroso casks, the Matusalem, Apostoles and Amoroso butts of Gonzalez Byass.

At cask strength 47.2% it is full bodied. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, chocolate and orange from the cask. A dried fruit and a chocolate depth give it weight. The finish is deep, sherried and dark. This is Dalmore, rich with orange and dark chocolate.