WLP: 6 Today

Another year goes by!

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Having just returned from the Whisky Show 2022 [notes to follow in due course], you currently find me in the middle of my reflections on this year’s Campbeltown Malts Festival and Islay’s Feis Ile [WLP].

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Still recovering [from the Show], today’s anniversary toast will be small and swift – much like my first ever post on these pages exactly 6 years ago today [WLP]:

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Talking of milestones, this year’s lowly dram is a 15yo from Daftmill – not such a new distillery anymore.

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Daftmill 2006/2022 15yo Ob. [5338 bts] 55.7% WB88.02[51] WF89 2WB8/10 dramface7/10 WoW8.7

Made up from 28 1st-fill bourbon barrels, it’s refreshing to see a bottle presented without pomp or fanfare – the antithesis of Diageo’s meteoric Special Releases Collection 2022 [meatrobot]:

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Daftmill’s bottle, by comparison, states the basic facts: vintage, bottling year, age, abv, and a little about the farm & distillery. Job done! Let’s crack on.

• N: A bold [oak] dry yet somewhat fatty nose leads into notes of floral honey, pineapples & mirabelles over leathery Weetabix, a little engine oil,… a hint of apricots! An easy read that’s for sure, one I might start to crave, but try guessing the distillery, blind – Imperial meets Inchgower?!

• T: A powerful arrival, likened to releases from Buffalo Trace’s Antique Collection, and rather bitter-sour in conjunction with the sweeter previous bourbon cask contents. A little water goes a long way, providing a long & colourful unravel and a more viscose mouthfeel. ‘Scotch meets bourbon’ may be a working title.
• F: Somehow, the ripe vibrant spirit and [cask] resinousness is working just fine in tandem. The long finish, neat or otherwise, is more akin to the nose than the palate. We’re not far away from calvados at times, especially at the finish line.
• C: It’s remarkable that the spirit has survived those small casks for so long. There were plenty of concerns in the intervening years [WLP]. In the end, we’ve maverick whisky from a maverick farmer.

Scores 89 points

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