Dailuaine SMWS 41.78 “Poker night whisky”

This is a continuation of my ongoing series that I’m calling “Scotch Malts, Wife’s Selection”, in which my wife goes through my backlog of SMWS (Scotch Malt Whisky Society) samples that I haven’t reviewed yet, pours them blind, and then I review it blind.

Poker night. An evocative image of people sitting around in a smoke filled room. Usually it’s all men, however I’m used to women being the ones who really, really want to play poker in my social circles, so that always struck me as odd.

Anyway…

There’s a bunch of people, all drinking and smoking, potentially using ill-gotten gains to bet with. All while playing a game that uses statistics, a control over ones facial expressions, and a general understanding of how matchups of various cards work.

So the question is: What whisky does one drink during such a night? And since it’s whisky, what whisky evokes these ideas?

That brings us to Dailuaine SMWS 41.78 “Poker night whisky”, one of the few SMWS releases with a name that mentions whisky.

So this should sum up a night of drinking whisky in a smokey room being a manly man. Let’s see if it does, shall we?

Price: $129.99 CAD

Region: Speyside

Date Distilled: March 2005

Age: 11 years

Cask Type: 1st fill barrel

Outturn: 114

Abv: 60.4%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/8

Nose: Honey, cereal, red licorice, marsh

Lots of honey on the nose. Just a nice amount of red licorice and some marshiness. It’s quite light on the nose.

So… Now I’m imagining a bunch of guys smoking cigars that have gotten too damp and eating some honey crisp.

Taste: Banana, caramel, cereal, peach

Nice punch of banana, some caramel and peach “meh” ness that I’m used to from Speyside, and then that cereal again to tie it to the nose. Less sweet, more funk here.

Now I’m imaging the cereal the guys have has bananas in it. Cut up by their moms.

Finish: Grassy, malt, mint, vegetal funk, bakeapple (cloudberry) jam

Finish is the funkiest part, and probably my favourite. The cereal has grown to a lot of vegetal funk.

Suffice to say, whatever man cave they are playing poker in needs a wash.

Conclusion: What the fuck poker nights are you going to? Seriously people.

Yes, I guess this one immediately. Why? I have no damn idea. Nothing about this reminds me of a poker night. It’s a bowl of funky cereal, for all the good and bad of that (in a whisky; if this was cereal, throw it away).

This is a bunch of funk near the end, lots of cereal, and an ever growing honey note on the nose. Yes, that rubs me the right way. No, the name isn’t accurate this time.

78/100

Guess: Poker Night whisky

Actually: Dailuaine SMWS 41.78 “Poker night whisky”

Scotch review #801, Speyside review #229, Whisky Network review #1308