Whisky : Dalmore 12 Year SMWS 13.80 “Cerf sans moustache”

Country/Region : Scotland/Highland

ABV : 61.3%

Cask : Refill Ex-bourbon Barrel

Age : 12 Years (Distilled 21 Sept. 2006)

Nose : Dockside candy store— spearmint gum wrappers, apple flavored soda, and creamy peanut butter all accompanied the maritime salt of a fishing dock.  Dried tropical fruits, leather shoe polish, sticky amber, and burnt incense flickered in and out.

Palate : Medium bodied with a malty, salty, buttery profile.  Loads of dry oak notes of old wooden bleachers along with molasses, brown sugar, and sweet white grape juice.  Odder notes began to build on the back end; bitter dark chocolate, herring and cream, old tobacco scented books, and rancid olive oil.

Finish : Lingering molasses and salt.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Abused Library Books

Something Better : Caol Ila 10Y SMWS 53.305 (similar minty/herb and tropical fruits, more char)

Something Better : Longrow 15Y Chardonnay (similar old books, fruits, less caramelized sugars)

Notes :  Intriguing, but not altogether the most pleasant dram.  A few drops of water took the edge off the sharp youthful spirit and muted of the weirder notes while highlighting buttery vanilla and white grape juice.  This Dalmore definitely belonged more in the “weird and interesting” category than it did in the strictly “good,” and I would much prefer a dram to be weird than boring.

The name alone on this was pretty odd, I don’t know a whole lot of mustachioed deer.  I was left picturing a buck with a huge handle bar mustache who one day shaved and no one recognized him.  I do not know what an unmustached deer has to do with this whisky though occasionally the titles are U.K. or Europe specific jokes that just don’t register way out here in the Pacific.  However, not even google gave me a good hint on this one.