{"id":1246,"date":"2016-01-21T20:40:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T01:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2017-10-08T15:19:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T19:19:39","slug":"dalwhinnie-15-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/21\/dalwhinnie-15-year-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dalwhinnie 15yo is something of a standard bearer for me. It gets one of the best meta-critic scores for its flavour cluster<\/a> (H) – and it is surprisingly complex for such a light dram. It is also widely available, and reasonably priced for the quality. It is currently $95 at the LCBO.<\/p>\n

A final point to commend it – it is one of Mrs Selfbuilt’s current favourites among my collection. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Let’s see how it compares to some other commonly available Scottish single malts in this flavour cluster:<\/p>\n

AnCnoc 12yo: 8.66 \u00b1 0.38 on 14 reviews ($$$)
\nAuchentoshan American Oak: 7.50 \u00b1 0.92 on 6 reviews ($$)
\nCardhu 12yo: 8.11 \u00b1 0.52 on 15 reviews ($$$)
\nDalwhinnie 15yo: 8.70 \u00b1 0.38 on 14 reviews ($$$$)<\/strong>
\nDeanston Virgin Oak: 8.23 \u00b1 0.48 on 9 reviews ($$)
\nTomatin Cu Bocan: 8.10 \u00b1 0.33 on 10 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n

As you can see, the Dalwhinnie and AnCnoc<\/a> offerings lead the pack here. You can expect to pay a bit more for the Dalwhinnie 15, though.<\/p>\n

Here is what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n

Nose<\/strong>: Sweet floral quality, with apple blossoms and honeysuckle. Light fruits like apricots, pears, peaches, and apple.\u00a0 Honey is definitely the dominant sweet note, although there is a touch of vanilla as well. There is also definite whiff of smoke. Very nice.<\/p>\n

Palate<\/strong>: Tons of honey now, along with vanilla and toffee flavours. Same fruits as the nose. Malty overall, with a strong cereal component. Not as drying as some malty whiskies, nor as cloying as some fruity\/floral ones. Individual flavours are sharp and clear, as opposed to smooth and mellow. A surprising amount of smoke comes in at the end, and lingers as you swallow.<\/p>\n

\"Dalwhinnie<\/a>Finish<\/strong>: Moderate. The sweetness lingers after the smoke clears, so there is no real bitterness to speak of. Persistent malty notes, and a touch nutty and fruity until the end.<\/p>\n

The GH flavour super-cluster<\/a> is considered to comprise the “aperitif” class of single malts, owing to their typically lighter flavours. But make no mistake about it, there is a lot going on under the surface here.\u00a0 The individual flavour components are crisp and clear, not muddled into a “smooth” jumble (as you sometimes find on lighter whiskies).<\/p>\n

The smokey aspect to the finish suggests to me that this may be better suited as a disgestif rather than an aperitif (i.e., an after-dinner drink). I expect it would also do very well as a refreshing highball<\/a> in the summertime – which should nicely bring up its sweet aromatic characteristics.<\/p>\n

For more reviews of this whisky, Jason at Whisky Won<\/a> and Ralfy<\/a> both have quite positive reviews. Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a> and Ruben of Whisky Notes<\/a> both give it more middle-of-the-pack scores.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dalwhinnie 15yo is something of a standard bearer for me. It gets one of the best meta-critic scores for its flavour cluster (H) – and it is surprisingly complex for such a light dram. It is also widely available, and reasonably priced for the quality. It is currently $95 at the LCBO. A final point to commend it –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62,57,141,17],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-15yo","tag-dalwhinnie","tag-scottish","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4568,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/4568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}