Dalwhinnie Distillers Edition 2016 Review And Tasting Notes
The Dalwhinnie distillers edition 2016 is one of the many special editions with which this legendary Highland distillery delights us from year to year.
It is a robust, structured whisky but with a warm, velvety flavor with very ripe fruit and an avalanche of spices. Do not expect a vibrant, taut, and subtle whiskey. Quite the opposite: it focuses on excess, on a cheeky and baroque aromatic set.
We decided to taste this Scottish single malt whiskey bottled in 2016 because it has rested for 4 years in the bottle and should have found a good balance. You will also find 2019 bottling around.
How is Dalwhinnie distillers edition 2016 made?
You may not know them, but the Dalwhinnie distillers editions want to represent points of excellence compared to their entry-level product, which is 15 years old.
They are mighty, sumptuous, and fleshy whiskeys. After a classic double distillation, they rest for 15 in American barrels used for the Bourbon whiskey and then make a further passage, of two years, in the barrels used to produce the Sherry Oloroso.
The passage is essential to make this distillate even more mature. Sherry’s classic oxidized aromas and flavors are all there: dried fruit, raisins, a thousand spices, and a slightly medicinal finish of herbs, a nineteenth-century apothecary counter.
The bouquet
The nose is dense, warm, syrupy, dominated by hints of vanilla, smoked mango, baked honey, custard, cinnamon, millions of exotic fruits, raisins, chocolate, but all this richness is well balanced by more pungent tones of aromatic herbs, heather, mint and pepper.
Raisin and hazelnut finish, super oxidized, with nutty Sherry tones that dominate.
The flavor
Very warm mouth that starts from a fruity cooked base, not very agile to tell the truth, the malt struggles a bit to emerge from all these nuances.
Overall it is a discreet whiskey for aromatic cleansing, very ambitious, soft, and rich, but if you are looking for the taste of pure single malt here you will have to dig a lot between spices, jams, cakes, and layers of cream.
It is an interpretation like many others, if you like powerful whiskeys full of arabesques then try it and you will not be disappointed. The finish is intriguing and very persistent, with nuts, chocolate and sharp mint tones. The smoked is very light, due to the wood more than anything else.
Food Pairings
If you taste it alone, it is a lovely and bold spirit, discreet overall, but if you combine it with desserts, chocolates, cheesecake, and chili chocolate, it becomes a bomb. It explodes into a myriad of flavors and is sure to find its full development. We never said that, but gastronomic whiskeys also exist and this Dalwhinnie is the undisputed king of whiskey and dessert combinations. Try it with trifle, brisket and pulled pork, chocolate salami, apple pie, tiramisu, creme brùlée.
Price
It costs 65 euros: not given as a gift, but not that expensive in reality, since we are talking about a fine bottle, produced in a limited edition, in the number of 1600 bottles.