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Release Notes
Dailuaine was built in 1852 in the tiny hamlet of Charlestown-of-Aberlour. The water for fermentation comes from the Bailliemullich Burn and it boast 3 sets of stills and the wash stills feature an unusual pinched neck design that gives the lower neck a lip, adding to the refluxive properties of the still. Despite our best efforts, Dailuaine remains an underappreciated Speyside glory. That's mainly because the owners do so little to promote this great malt as it's so crucial to the structure of their many popular blends. It sits in a little valley just across the River Spey from the tiny village of Archiestown, hence the moniker, which would be otherwise lost on even the most travelled Scotch lover. Archiestown is of course a beautiful little place to visit, but not really on the road to or from any of the major public distilleries and Dailuaine is not open to visitors either. But, if you've ever made the journey into Speyside through the town Aberlour, you've travelled by this excellent distillery, just off the A95 and within striking distance of several other classics - Glenfarclas, Benrinnes, Knockando, Tamdhu, Cardhu, Glenallachie. It was teaspooned with a molecularly insignificant amount of Glendullan to demote it to a lowly "blended malt," but this excellent whisky tastes impeccable nonetheless. Dark malt and complex fruit coupled with the perfect kiss of creamy American oak from this refill hogshead.
K&L Wine Merchants
One of 224 bottles charged from refill hogshead HL 18033 in September of 2020. Spooned single malt from Dailuaine.
Yours Truly
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Nose: caramel, vanilla, apple crumble and dried fruits
Palate: fruit cake, dried apple and a dash of sherry influence
Finish: lingering, powerful and sweet
Palate: fruit cake, dried apple and a dash of sherry influence
Finish: lingering, powerful and sweet
From the Bottle
The Bottler: Douglas Laing & Co
| Established: 1948 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Douglas House, 18 Lynedoch Crescent, Glasgow, G3 6EQ, Scotland |
| → website |
They are proud Scots - and the Scottish attitudes of honesty, courtesy and friendliness is amply demonstrated as they go about their business at home and abroad boosting their business and customer satisfaction.
This guarded and cherished stock - sold by allocation - and was previously reserved for their blended whiskies - like the King of Scots, seen here.
But the brothers, once they"ve stopped looking longingly at their pride and joy, will cheerfully dig out a bottle from the corner of a warehouse and happily sell it to discerning customers with accompanying explanatory booklets and carefully-worded tasting notes penned by self-styled, in-house wordsmith, Fred with Stewart checking his spelling.
A key feature is their vast stock of different Malts built up over the last 50 years and it"s been a pleasing perk, benefit and privilege for the current directors to nose and taste some of the finest quality samples.
Fred and Stewart, astute as their father was ground-breaking, got their heads together at one tasting session and boldly declared: "Some of these malts are too good to blend." And so it was in 1998, before they headed off to celebrate the new Millennium, that their much sought-after OLD MALT CASK selection was rolled out.
And, in truth, they"ve not let their Dad down over the past 25 years in charge. Indeed, they"ve grafted to uphold the traditions of the family - apart from the sheep stealing and cattle rustling.
They have successfully expanded their markets so that their highly-rated ranges now regularly features blends up to 25 years old, using the original blend specifications handed down to them - and written out so they wouldn"t forget them.
Glasgow-based Douglas Laing & Co are independent bottlers and blenders headed by brothers, Fred and Stewart Laing, who proved the value of nepotism when they succeeded their father, Fred Douglas who founded the company in 1948.
Today the company has contented clients in the Far East, Europe, the USA, Russia, South Africa and Australasia and, increasingly, in the UK where London giants, Harrod"s, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges as well as premium independent Whisky specialists like The Whisky Shop Group and Vintage House are on the customer manifest.
The brothers" passports are rarely in their desk drawers as they carry out extensive tastings throughout the year all over the world, always dressed appropriately in the kilt, not the same one, of course.
from DouglasLaingWhisky.com
The Distillery: Dailuaine
| Established: 1852 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Carron, Aberlour, Banffshire AB38 7RE, United Kingdom |
In the new Millenium
Dailuaine (or Dailuainne) distillery was built in 1852 by William Mackenzie. When William passed away in 1865 his widow Jane decided to lease Dailuaine to a banker from Aberlour, James Fleming. In 1879 Jane"s son Thomas formed "Mackenzie & Company" together with James Fleming.
This merger in 1998 sent shockwaves through the whisky world. Although Diageo is by far the largest "player" in the industry measured in number of distilleries, the distance to #2 Pernod Ricard measured in production capacity isn"t that significant. In 2005, Diageo"s 27 malt whisky distilleries had a total production capacity of some 60,000,000 litres of pure alcohol per year (which is a little over 25% of the total malt whisky industry capacity).
Pernod Ricard"s production capacity actually isn"t very far behind Diageo"s. More than 20% of the Scotch whiisky industry"s annual output comes from their 13 distilleries, which produced over 45,000,000 litres of pure alcohol in 2005. Even cask strength whiskies are not made up of pure alcohol, so when diluted those 45 million litres of alcohol equal roughly 100 million bottles of whisky. The annual output of Pernod Ricard"s distillery could keep a small country inebriated full time.
The Saladin Box (named after its inventor Charles Saladin) is a big, flat device which mechanically turns the germinating barley inside and allows air to pass through it. In 1965 the stills were converted to internal (steam) heating . If you happen to be interested in indirect firing of stills and the developments in this area, check out Charles MacLean"s article in Malt Maniacs.
The Saladin Box at Dailuaine was closed in 1983 when the distillery started to purchase its malted barley from one of the large "industrial" maltings. Just like many other distilleries, Dailuaine became part of industry giant Diageo when United Distillers (UD, part of the Guiness Group) and International Distillers & Vintners (IDV, part of Grand Metropolitan) merged.
Between 1884 and 1887 Dailuaine was rebuilt and expanded, making it one of the largest distilleries in the Highlands at the time. In 1889 Dailuaine was the very first distillery to be fitted with a "pagoda" type roof designed by Charles Doig. Many distilleries followed suit and these days the pagoda roof has become more or less the "traditional" shape. Famous distilleries like Aberlour, Ardbeg and Benriach all have pagoda roofs. I"ll try to make a nice picture of one during my next trip to "the holy land" Scotland.
In 1890 or 1891 the existing partnership was converted into the Dailuaine-Glenlivet Distillery Ltd. which merged with the Talisker Distillery Ltd. and (among others) Imperial distillery to form a new company; Dailuaine-Talisker Distilleries Co Ltd. in 1898. Dailuaine-Talisker became a subsidiary of the DCL in 1925, although the distillery was run by SMD for decades. These days both Dailuaine and Talisker are still part of the "stable" of distilleries of Diageo - almost 30 distilleries now and they"re even building new ones. A fire in 1917 destroyed part of the distillery, including the historical pagoda roof. Dailuaine was forced to close, but reopened again in 1920. Four decades later, in 1960, the distillery was expanded from four to six stills and the floor maltings were replaced by a so-called "Saladin Box".
But wait - I"m getting side-tracked; Dailuaine is owned by industry leader Diageo... Even after Diageo greatly expanded the range of six Classic Malts they introduced in the late 1980"s (which included the Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, Lagavulin, Oban and Talisker distilleries) around 2004, Dailuaine wasn"t part of the additions to the "Classic malts Selection". According to the new distillery map on www.malts.com (the "umbrella site of Diageo for their classic malts) the additions to the line were Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Glen Elgin, Glen Ord, Knockando and Royal Lochnagar.
That"s 13 malt whisky distilleries that made the selection. Dailuaine wasn"t so fortunate, and the same goes for other distinguished distilleries like Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol, Dufftown, Linkwood and Mortlach - as well as slightly less distinguished distilleries like Glendullan, Glenlossie, Glen Spey, Inchgower, Mannochmore, Strathmill and Teaninich.
2000 - After a 16yo "Flora & Fauna" bottling that was released in 1991, hardly any official bottlings appeared for roughly a decade. In 2000 that changed when a 17yo "Manager"s Dram" (aged in sherry casks) was released. I"ve searched the books in my library and the world wide web for additional news, but found none.
Trivia:
- Around 2005, only 2% of Dailuaine"s output was bottled as a single malt whisky. Nevertheless, the distillery is one of the biggest in Diageo"s portfolio, measured in production capacity; only Dufftown, Glendullan, Caol Ila, Clynelish and Glen Ord have a larger (potential) output within the Diageo "stable". With that impressive production capacity in mind, it"s surprising that Dailuaine is such a "low profile" distillery....
- By far most of the malt whisky distilled at Dailuaine ends up in the Johnnie Walker blends.
from Malt Madness
The Owner: Diageo
| Established: 1997 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: 8 Henrietta Place, London, W1G ONB, UK |
| → website |
Diageo also distributes Unicum, its lighter-bodied variant Zwack and Jose Cuervo tequila products in North America. However, Cuervo operates as a separate company in Mexico and is not owned by Diageo. Similarly Grand Marnier is distributed by Diageo in many markets, including exclusively in Canada, and a deal was reached in 2009 to significantly expand this partnership in Europe.
Furthermore, Diageo owns the Gleneagles Hotel.
Diageo was formed in 1997 from the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan plc. The creation was driven by the two executives Anthony Greener and Philip Yea at Guinness plus George Bull and John McGrath of Grand Metropolitan. The product portfolios of Guinness and Grand Met were largely complementary with little overlap.
Diageo is the world"s biggest whisky producer with 28 malt distilleries and two grain distilleries.The company operates the Scotch whisky distilleries of Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol (situated at Pitlochry), Caol Ila, Cardhu, Knockando, Glen Elgin, Clynelish, Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, Glen Ord, Lagavulin, Oban, Royal Lochnagar, Strathmill, Talisker, Teaninich, Mannochmore, Mortlach and Glenlossie, which are sold not only under their own name but used to make the various blended scotch whiskies sold by the company, and owns the stock of many closed distilleries such as Port Ellen, Rosebank, Brora, Convalmore, Glen Albyn, North Brechin, Banff, and Linlithgow. The company have opened a new malt distillery adjacent to their maltings at Roseisle (1st new make spirit produced Spring 2009). This will be one of the largest malt distilleries in Scotland. The new building contains 14 traditional copper pot stills. An expansion programme is also underway at its Cameron Bridge Grain Distillery in Fife that will make it the largest grain distillery in Scotland. Diageo also owns the Port Dundas Grain Distillery in Glasgow, and jointly operates the North British Grain Distillery in Gorgie, Edinburgh, with The Edrington Group.
Diageo plc (LSE: DGE, NYSE: DEO) is the largest multinational beer, wine and spirits company in the world. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has American Depositary Receipts listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The word Diageo was formed from the Latin dia (day) and the Greek geo (World), symbolising the use of the company"s brands every day, everywhere. Its head office is located in the City of Westminster in London. It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Trivia:
- In December 2003, Diageo provoked controversy over its decision to change its Cardhu brand Scotch whisky from a single malt to a vatted malt (also known as a pure malt) whilst retaining the original name and bottle style. Diageo took this action because it did not have sufficient reserves to meet demand in the Spanish market, where Cardhu had been successful. After a meeting of producers, Diageo agreed to make changes.
- In 2006, the Cardhu brand quietly changed back to being a single malt.
- In July 2009, Diageo announced that, after nearly 200 years of association with the town of Kilmarnock, they would be closing the Johnnie Walker blending and bottling plant as part of restructuring to the business. This would make 700 workers unemployed and caused outrage from press, local people and politicians. A campaign against this decision was launched by the local SNP MSP Willie Coffey and Labour MP Des Browne. A petition was drawn up against the Diageo plans, which also involves the closure of the historic Port Dundas Grain Distillery in Glasgow.
- In February 2009 it was reported in the Guardian that the company had restructured itself so as to avoid paying tax in the U.K., despite much of its profits being generated in the U.K.
- Diageo is engaged in a tax scheme in the United States of America, commonly referred to as the "Rum Bailout", which will guarantee it USD$3 billion in revenues and profits.
- The National Puerto Rican Coalitionplans to run a series of ads in New York City and Puerto Rico urging a boycott of Diageo-owned alcoholic drinks to protest the giant British-owned corporation"s controversial production move of its Captain Morgan rum from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
from Wikipedia