Dalmore Distillery 1992 Authentic Collection 22

So I’m back in London. Not right now, in the past. At Cadenhead’s. Again, in the past. I’m in Canada now.

Anyway, I’m there, looking over these minis that I want to try, and I notice a Dalmore. And it doesn’t have that normal Dalmore red hue. So I’m intrigued. And then the shopkeep informs me that it is, in fact, a Dalmore that has only ever been in a Bourbon hogshead.

Sold.

Dalmore Distillery 1992 Authentic Collection 22 is a definite buy, but not for the normal reasons. I’ve only ever had one Dalmore that I really, really enjoyed. However finding a Dalmore that is not finished with Sherry/Port/Red Wine/The Tears of Children is very hard. They don’t tend to do that. Probably for a good reason.

And finding one that is Cask Strength will cost me selling my wife and cat’s into slavery. Which I’m against, in case you’re wondering.

Thus finding a mini that solves both of these intrigues me. I’ve had only one before, and didn’t like it. A normal person would take that to mean I shouldn’t have another.

However as you’ve read, I’m not the most normal person. So let’s see how this tastes.

Price: N/A in Ontario

Region: Highland

Abv: 59.5%

Cask Type: Bourbon Hogshead

Number of Bottles: 264

Colour: 2/5Y 8/8

Nose: Cereal, nectarine, mace, spruce, Orange Juice, melon, lime, honey

It’s odd to get a cedar/spruce/pine flavour in a whisky so old, however there it is. It works with the spices and the fruit. It’s also nice to see some of the fruit I attribute to sherry casks in other Dalmores may come from the juice itself.

Interesting.

Taste: Ginger, Sprite, vanilla, pepper, anise, pine, nutmeg, cheesecake

Not as interesting as the nose, however the “interesting” pine is now there. Which isn’t going well as it did before.

Very hot and spicy. Not much else sticking out unfortunately.

Finish: Lemon, oak, thyme, star anise, smoke, cumin, orange, molasses

Again, spice. And more spice. Spice that I used to think only came from the sherry cask, which I don’t know where else it would come from.

Almost finishes like a rum. It’s an odd dram.

Conclusion: This dram does each and every flavour to the hilt. It speeds through a ton of different spices each time, and a good amount of citrus and herbal notes to. So I can’t give it heck.

And beyond having some pine in there, it’s pretty tasty. However there’s also this lack of complexity or just… spice overload that doesn’t make it fun.

I don’t know. Honestly I’m going to keep looking at Dalmore, however I can now see why all the finishes. This is better than the last Bourbon Hogshead Dalmore I had, however I still can’t find what I’m looking for (if it exists at all).

79/100

Scotch review #306, Highland review #51, Whisky network review #450