IB SMWS 13.42 11yo 1996/2008 62.5% - Dalmore

[TheTross]

'Matches, gunpowder and brimstone'

Nose: Mainly a very creamy, lightly-sherried sweetness at first. Fairly well honeyed with some toffee/fudge. Some fruits. Lightly spiced. A few buttery (bordering on butyric) notes. A very faint suggestion of matchstick in the background. Water enhances the spicy, buttery side and does reveal a touch more sulphur.

Palate: Lovely. Slightly buttery, with honey, toffee/fudge and some (exotic) fruit. Again there's an almost ethereal sulphurous edge that is neither here nor there (but is, for the benefit of those that cannot stand it, definitely present). With water the whole becomes much softer and a little sweeter.

Finish: Long and repeating. Some honey, butter and toffee again, but this time a few sporadic sulphury notes make a more confident (yet still very gentle) appearance. The addition of water mainly serves to tone the heat down, but it also brings out a little lemon at the end.


As someone who likes finding burnt matchstick aromas/tastes in his whisky, I found the SMWS description to be rather disappointing. Yes, there is a certain amount of sulphur to this but to me it's always on the fringe rather than being an integral component. That said, this really is a belting drink that would presumably receive far more plaudits (and a different pithy moniker, obviously) were there no sulphur.