Dallas Dhu Centenary 1899-1999 UD (UD – bottler)

Dallas Dhu, from the bottler UD - bottler, from cask 262, bottled at 40%, one of 438 bottles. Dallas Dhu was a Speyside distillery near Forres, closed in 1983 and now preserved as a museum. The Glasgow blenders Wright and Greig bought it before it opened, for their Roderick Dhu blend, and gave it the name Dallas Dhu.

It was worked through the pot stills for an oily, fruity make, for a fruity, oily make of real depth. A bourbon barrel held it, vanilla and a soft toffee over the oily malt. Without an age statement, vanillin sweetness and a waxy depth point to good years in oak. Refill oak lets the malty Dallas Dhu character lead, orchard fruit and honey beneath. The clean spirit shows the cask clearly, vanilla and honey over a malty fruit. Water came from the Altyre Burn, in the hollow south of Forres where the distillery sits. With the distillery long silent, every bottle draws on a finite, dwindling stock. No new spirit followed it after 1983, the stills kept as a museum piece.

Bottled at 40%, it is rounded. 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 an oily, honeyed Speyside single malt.