Dailuaine 8 Years Old 2013 Exploration Series (Claxton’s)

An 8 year old Dailuaine from the bottler Claxton's, distilled in 2013, bottled at 50%. Dailuaine is a robust Speyside distillery at Carron, making a full bodied malt mostly for blends. Its big stills give a heavy, full bodied spirit that takes sherry wood especially well.

The spirit was distilled for the heavy, full bodied spirit Dailuaine is known for, for a rich, meaty make that suits sherry wood. Maturation in an Oloroso cask laid dried fruit over the meaty, malty spirit. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut over a robust, meaty malt. Most Dailuaine goes quietly into blends, a robust filler kept in part as single malt. It passed to DCL and Scottish Malt Distillers in the 1920s and was later modernised. The full bodied make rewards a long, patient maturation in good wood.

At its natural 50% it is concentrated. Baked fruit, fig and a savoury depth, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Beneath it run dried fruit, malt and a savoury edge. A full, malty finish ends on dried fruit and a warm spice. This is Dailuaine's heavy, meaty Speyside style.