It’s not every day that The Dalmore unveils a coveted bottle of ultra-aged single malt Scotch whisky. Today, it debuts three. The stunning triptych is all part of the luxury brand’s Cask Curation series: excruciatingly rare expressions, each successive chapter highlighting a specific style of barrel seasoning.
Cask Curation launched last year with Sherry Edition. Now, we’ve scored a taste of this year’s followup, Port Edition. It’s bound to get whisky collectors all worked up—just 150 sets are going out into the global market this month and each one commands a suggested retail price of $37,500.
The Dalmore Cask Curation Port Edition consists of three separate Scotches from the storied, 185-year-old Highland distillery. The youngest in the batch is 27 years in age, followed by 30- and 43-year expressions. Taken together, that’s a whole century’s worth of maturation. Each of the liquids were primarily matured in ex-bourbon barrels, then finished for a minimum of 24 months in speciality casks sourced from Graham’s, one of the world’s premiere producers of port.
The speciality casks in question are known as “pipes.” They’re handcrafted elongated barrels from Portugal, often holding upwards of 550 liters worth of liquid inside their staves. The artisans responsible for the famed fortified wine within aren’t known to give them up so easily. But a foundational ethos of The Dalmore Cask Curation series is to showcase the superior relationship this legendary distillery maintains with other storied barrel stewards across different categories.
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For the 27-year-old Bottle I, Graham’s offered up a fresh pipe formerly used to hold single harvest tawny port from 1997. The 98.6-proof liquid that emerged is rich in texture, holding roasted chestnuts, crystalized ginger, and marzipan in its midsts.
“This whisky encapsulates the charm of a well-balanced port,” says Greg Glass, whisky maker for The Dalmore. “It is warm and luscious.”
Bottle II went into a 1994 vintage tawny port pipe. The secondary cooperage here resulted, curiously, in an orange marmalade bomb. It noses with brûléed blood orange and coats the tongue with tangerine jam. At 43.9 percent ABV, it’s an eminently sippable dessert dram.
And yet, its depth of flavor is eclipsed by the eldest statesmen in the bunch. The Dalmore Aged 43 Years is a slow-moving sensory overload, beginning with sugary plum notes in its nose, continuing through the tropical fruit of its velvety body, and into the cedar and warmed toffee of its protracted finish.
“It’s absolutely magical,” says Glass of his 43-year-old masterpiece, which was finished for a full 36 months in pipes previously soaked with a 72-year-old port. “Along the way, it acquired antique notes and an abundance of rich, dark fruits.”
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He’s not overselling the sip. It’s the most compelling expression in the series, despite being the gentlest by way of ABV. Regardless, it’s highly unlikely you’d ever get the opportunity to savor it solo. The Dalmore Cask Curation series arrives as a set. In the case of the Port Edition, it’s packaged in a teal green tube handcrafted in Tuscany by Italian luggage makers AB Florence. Each bottle features chrome stoppers and silver foil embossments bearing the age statement of specific Scotch within.
If you’re on the prowl for a set of this wildly elusive keepsake it’s best to reach out directly to The Dalmore’s prestigious Private Client Team. The superstitious sort might fear that bad luck comes in threes. But when it comes to The Dalmore, at least, good drams arrive in precisely that number.
Related: The Dalmore’s New Whisky Provides the Taste of Luxury Scotch for a Fraction of the Price
