In Gaelic, Dailuaine means green meadow, and the name fits the hollow by the Carron Burn where whisky has been made since 1852. Most of it quietly disappears into other people's blends. This time, an Italian whisky merchant pulled a couple of casks aside and sent them on a sweet detour via Andalusia.
Expert description
Dailuaine 14 year 2007 Wilson & Morgan is a Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky matured in refill hogsheads, finished for 20 months in a 1st fill Pedro Ximénez sherry cask and bottled at cask strength, 53.9%. It was distilled in 2007, bottled in 2021, and only 529 bottles exist.
The bottle belongs to Wilson & Morgan's Barrel Selection, specifically the Cask Strength line, where the whisky goes from cask to bottle without being watered down. Fabio Rossi founded Wilson & Morgan in 1992 and the company is based in Treviso, Italy, though this release was bottled for them in Edinburgh. The cask numbers, 303877+881, are printed at the bottom of the front label.
Plenty of people have tasted Dailuaine without knowing it. The distillery belongs to Diageo, and the lion's share of its spirit goes into Johnnie Walker. For years, the official 16 year old in the Flora & Fauna series was about as close as you could get to a regular Single Malt Whisky from the place. The spirit is double distilled in six copper stills, and long fermentation paired with a brisk distillation gives a heavy, meaty, malty style built to handle long years in wood. The malt is unpeated, and the distillery stopped doing its own malting back in 1983.
Then there's the PX cask. You'd expect 20 months in wood that once held the sweetest sherry of them all to turn a whisky dark and sticky. Not here. After 14 years in refill hogsheads the spirit was still pale and floral, and the sherry shows up mostly as a winey edge, a touch of fruit on the nose and a dry, slightly astringent finish. Dailuaine does the rest of the talking, with cereal, flour and a whiff of the farmyard that no amount of PX sweetness could cover up.
Tasting notes
Nose
Surprisingly delicate for a Dailuaine. Springtime and flowering meadows, a spoonful of honey and just a faint trace of fruit and wine from the sherry cask.
Palate
This is where it wakes up. Big cereal and flour notes first, then something properly farmy. Wood shavings, wet leather and beeswax, before it swings back towards sweetness with tropical fruit and orange.
Finish
Drier with every sip. The winey astringency of the cask finally comes through, followed by lively spice and a mineral, almost stony note.
Specifications
Name: Dailuaine 2007/2021 Wilson & Morgan 14 year PX Sherry Finish
Distillery: Dailuaine
Bottler: Wilson & Morgan
Region/Country: Speyside, Scotland
Type: Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Age: 14 years
ABV: 53.9%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: Refill hogsheads, finished for 20 months in a 1st fill Pedro Ximénez sherry cask
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Natural colour: Yes
Distillation method: Double distilled
Distilled: 2007
Bottled: 2021
Number of bottles: 529
Edition: Barrel Selection Cask Strength, cask no. 303877+881
EAN no.: 8033749408808
Flavour profile
Floral · Malty · Sherry finished · Tropical fruit · Dry · Spicy
Did you know?
Dailuaine is where architect Charles Doig built his very first pagoda roof, over the distillery's malt kiln in 1889. The shape caught on fast and has since become almost a logo for the Scottish whisky distillery. Doig's original roof burned down in 1917.
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