Dallas Dhu 29 Years Old 1981 Cask #388 (Duncan Taylor)

This Dallas Dhu was bottled by the Huntly bottler Duncan Taylor, a 29 year old, distilled in 1981, from cask 388, bottled at 53%, one of 271 bottles. Dallas Dhu is a ghost of Speyside, its single malt rare and its stock now finite. It was designed by Charles Doig, the great distillery architect, with his pagoda roofed kiln.

Run through the distillery's pot stills and worm tub condensers, building the old fashioned Dallas Dhu style. Decades in ex-Bourbon oak rounded the spirit, honey and toffee over fruit. In the oxidative, evaporative years concentration brings dried fruit and honey over a deep, waxy malt. The slow loss of the angel's share concentrates the fruity, oily core over the decades. It was built in 1898 by the entrepreneur Alexander Edward, who first named it Dallasmore. The pot stills gave a fruity, oily spirit that ages slowly and with grace. No new spirit followed it after 1983, the stills kept as a museum piece.

Undiluted at 53%, it is layered. Baked apple, honey and a waxy oil, with a soft vanilla from the oak. The mouthfeel is oily, the fruit carried on a malty body. A malty, honeyed finish ends on apple and toffee. This is a malty, oily Speyside single malt of real age.