3 Dufftowns

Some distilleries that are open is very hard to get hold of other than distillery botllings of, Strathmill, Cardhu, Deanston for instance. Dufftown is also one of these whiskies I think, having only tasted about three versions of it since the start of my blogging in april 2008. This gonna be fun, one of those tasting where I have absolutely no idea what to expect.


Dufftown 20yo 50% Old Malt Cask Douglas Laing

This is one of the darkest whiskies I've tried, red wine color, barely transparent. One of thos old fantastic OMC sherry casks? Smells sweet, honey, raisins, cinnamon, cumin, more honey and caramel toffee, a bit buttery. Amazing! The taste is bitter and resinous, after that lovely nose this is somewhat a letdown. I think it needs some water as it seems somewhat restrained. With added water it gets a bit more synthetic, not much better, but most of the rather awful bitterness (cotton and phenols) disappears. The aftertaste on the other hand is a grace such as the nose, light and peppery, red paprika, honey and lightly phenolic.

A bit off tracks, yet fun to try, one I'd rather nose than taste: 6.5


Dufftown 27yo 1982-2010 53.6% Bladnoch Distillery Forum

This one is way paler in color, I find it's getting further and further between the extreme sherry-bombs nowadays. But when trying fairly new ground(to me), I think it's nice to see it in different colors(literally). Smells bitter perfume, mint candy and bitter herbs. Very bitter, is this the awful flavor that the sherry cask to a certain extent managed to hide in the OMC bottling? When the nose here is the disappointment, the palate is on the other hand very good. Much vanilla, cream, mint, flour sugar, maple syrup and chestnuts. The finish is rather short and peppery, and leaves a little to be desired, although it doesn't ruin it for the exciting palate in any way.

Sweet stuff, matured well with its youth still intact: 6.5


Dufftown 13yo 59.4% James MacArthur's

I see some people often starting with tasting the youngest whisky of the session and saving the oldest, and probably more sought after whiskies till the end, like a grand finale. Not always a good idea, as the young ones often have a higher %abv, at least it's often the case with young cask strengths. And peatiness mellows over time in a cask if you're having an Islay tasting or such alike. I have the 13yo as the last whisky as it's about 6% higher in alcohol volume, so the taste is likely to be stronger. The color on this one is almost like water, one of the lightest colored whiskies I've tried. I wonder what happened if they watered it down, it'd look like Vodka? It smells heavy and spirity. Bitter stuff, this bitterness has followed me through this entire tasting, whatever I have to say about this whisky, in holds a certain standard throughout. It's a bitter whisky. The taste is so dry, it's like licking, and even chewing dry wood, combined with spirity notes. This one needs water. Diluted it becomes even more aggressive, burning my tongue, spirity as hell. This is a kick to any palate, seems so raw it could've been new-make.

Raw and immature. My guess is it's a bad cask: 2.5



Next tasting: Glendronach Distillery