Dailuaine 2007 'Peated Finish' Hidden Spirits Review

Hi everyone,

Hidden Spirits isn’t going to be an independent bottler you’ll hear a lot about. Partly because they’re an Italian based company and not much of the stuff makes it beyond.

However, you will be hearing about it from me. Because I think they’re awesome. I tried the 2007 Ledaig of theirs before and it was epic, and this one is fairly epic and its not even from a well known distillery. So, I will attempt to track down more of their stuff but in the meantime… Oh and also, I love the labels.

Peated finishes (finishing a whisky in a barrel hat held peated whisky) aren’t something we see a whole lot of. Some IB Ardmore’s, a Penderyn, a Balvenie from a while back but these tend to be Islay casks, whereas this is Ben Nevis!

 

Dailuaine 2007 ‘Peated Finish’ Hidden Spirits 56.1%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Fresh, very delicate peat, malt, lovely fizzy lemon citrus, lemon sherbet, very soft and understated nose.

Taste: Snowflake delicate arrival, impeccable, building oily malt and lemon sherbet freshness, very very delicate peat but less and less as it develops. Great balance too.

Finish: Long length. More peat here with the lemon sherbet now backing. Great.

Finished for 13 months in an ex-heavily peated Ben Nevis barrel! Did I mention mouthfeel is spot on too? Fantastic whisky, really impressively finished. Expert. Well done Andrea.

83/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #676

Whisky Network Review #810

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.

Why is this here?

Dailuaine 2002 G&M Connoisseurs Choice Review

Hi everyone,

Dailuaine is an interesting distillery as it's an obscure one but is pretty important to Diageo and has stepped into the role Cardhu was playing in the Diageo blends, mainly Johnnie Walker.

Not only is it a distillery but also the main waste processing plant for all of Diageo's Speyside distilleries.

This one is an indie from a time when Dailuaine was using steel condensers rather than copper, they swapped back to copper in 2006.

I don't know if all their stills used the steel condensers as they have 3 pairs but this one tasted like it could be...

Dailuaine 2004 G&M Connoisseurs Choice 46%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: A bit spirity, slightly sulphury Sherry, Cherry, only a little mango.

Taste: Soft, a bit unyielding actually, a little cherry, some Sherry, some spice, then a little sulphury.

Finish: Medium length. Some rubbish coffee and rubbery Sherry.

From Sherry hogsheads. Those sulphury notes are suggesting to me that this one could be from steel condensers but then again, it could the Sherry Hogsheads. Anyway, a little too rubbery at this age. Would love to see this whisky at 30 years old though!

65/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #423

Whisky Network Review #470

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

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 am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Signatory Unchill Reviews: Dailuaine, Glen Keith & Ben Nevis

Hi everyone!

I am back again today with 3 of the Signatory Unchillfiltered collection. Samples I bought of Finedrams.com^TM. I am really very impressed with this series as it fairly priced and every whisky I’ve had has been really good. These 3 are very good indeed and all are very tempting buys.

Recently I’ve been trying to try a lot of distilleries I have tasted whiskies from yet, with the goal to have a whisky from every distillery in Scotland (Completed Oct 2016 now). Some have been great surprises; some have been pretty generic. These are some of the good ones.

Dailuaine 1997 Signatory Unchillfiltered 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Juicy! Malty and fruity with ripe mango and pineapple, juicy and fresh, cinnamon spice, a little oak.

Water: Nuttier, walnut.

Taste: Malty, nutty arrival, then juicy complex fruit building, mango, pineapple, lime citrus then oak building with some peppery spiciness going into the finish.

Water: Drier arrival, drier development with more complex spice- Nutmeg. Less oak into the finish.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Lemon citrus and then a oaky bite! Nice.

Notes: Bottled 2014 at 17yo. 2 casks 7177 + 7178.

76/100

A lovely fruity whisky, properly matured. The tropical mango and cinnamon combo remind me of an older Laphroaig without the smoke.

Glen Keith 1995 Signatory Unchillfiltered 46%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Quite big and spicy but also light and fruity. Fresh lemon, pear, ginger, pepper, some fresh oak. More fresh and juicy after a minute- Mango and cinnamon.

Water: A bit more gentle.

Taste: Big, juicy and spicy. Fruity arrival- Mango and lemon then building complex spice- White pepper, cinnamon and ginger with lemon juice then oak, dark chocolate and coffee building and building then going into the finish.

Water: More tingling spice and lots of building oak. Lots of 90% chocolate and bitter coffee. Becomes unbalanced.

Finish: Long length. Oak, white pepper, ginger and bitter coffee.

Notes: Bottled 2014 at 19yo from casks 171206 and 171207. Lovely stuff, wasn't expecting it to be that nice.

A few days later I had this blind (My fiancée poured me random samples, really good fun) and found a lot more fruit and less spice. I didn’t guess it right though, I guessed this was Signatory Glentauchers 18yo.

75/100

A great spicy whisky without too much oak and tannins.

Ben Nevis 1991 Signatory Unchillfiltered 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Quite wonderful. Thick toffee, strawberry fudge, strawberries and cream, golden syrup, sweet honey, stewed raisin, fruitcake, light cinnamon, a little Sherried oak. Some sweet maltiness coming out- Sticky toffee pudding.

Water: More of the original spirit character. More fresh, orange juice, much more maltiness with nut, wild strawberry, a little biscuit. Some herbs appearing- Thyme.

Taste: Sweet arrival, toffee, fudge, honey, quite gentle, fresh fruit- Spicy orange then spicy oak kicking up, complex, some coffee and dark chocolate building. Very good balance.

Water: More clean arrival, then some sour notes with lemon and sour wood, some malt and nut then the oak kicks in. Becomes unbalanced.

Finish: Long length. Wonderful. Strawberry chocolate and Sherry oak spice.

Notes: Bottled 2014 at 23yo. Cask 2911, a Sherry butt I believe. Distilled just after the distillery reopened under Nikka.

Strawberries! I love strawberries!!

My Fiancée also choose this for the blind tasting and I knew exactly what it was. Those lovely strawberry notes are amazballs!

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Reviews #65-#67

Network Average: 78.8

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