Friday 28 September 2018

Singleton of Dufftown 12yo, Tailfire & Malt Master's Selection Reviews

Hi everyone,

I only realised the other day, when looking through the sidebar on my blog, that I haven’t reviewed a whisky from Dufftown distillery yet, which is crazy because my first bottle of single malt whisky I bought was Singleton of Dufftown 12.
Its never been a particularly impressive or well regarded distillery though and the attempts of Diageo to make something of it as a single malt seem to have fallen a little flat. They tried age statements, then they tried no age statements with cool names and now they have a new one that just sounds the same as everything else on the market. I’ve tried three from these different eras.

Singleton of Dufftown 12 40%
Colour: E150a
Body: Light
Nose: Fruity Speyside, lots of stewed apple, sweet pear, pastry, hot fruit crumble, apple pie, apple juice, some nut, some malty chocolate, cream.
Taste: Fruit and nut. Soft and mellow. Nutty, malty arrival, fruity development- Soft apple, pear, lots of vanilla, some honey, little bit of spice.
Finish: Short length. Fades gently with... well nothing really.
My 1st single malt whisky! Mental that I hadn’t reviewed this before. Quite thin and average at times, especially into the finish.
64/100

Singleton of Dufftown Tailfire 40%
Colour: E150a
Body: Light/Medium
Nose: Fresh, strawberry, sweet fudge, sweet toffee, raspberry and meringue, pavlova, clotted cream.
Taste: Soft, 'smooth,' sweet toffee, fudge, biscuit, vanilla then creamy with strawberry vodka?!, some young spirity notes into the finish.
Finish: Short/Medium length. Strawberry vodka, spirity.
A bit different with those obvious fruity strawberry notes but it ends up being artificial and thin again. Almost tastes more like a grain whisky actually.
62/100
 
Singleton of Dufftown Malt Master’s Selection 40%
Colour: E150a
Body: Light/Medium
Nose: Malty, pear, marzipan and red apple. A little praline shell chocolate, but fairly classic Speyside. Vanilla and pastry after a bit.
Taste: Soft, vanilla, creamy, red apple, some ginger, some oak, apple juice, then malt and some generic chocolate.
Finish: Short length. Lacking power then more malty with chocolate again.
Another young one I think. Shows off more of a natural style though.
66/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #668-#670
Whisky Network Reviews #801-#803

Network Average: 75.1
Best Score: 94
Worst Score: 12
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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