Proceeding with the new releases of Valinch & Mallet, today we taste a Dufftown 11yo, finished for two years in a cask of ex-Faraon Oloroso. It’s a very particular bottle since it comes from the Bodega Hidalgo
La Gitana, and it endured 50 years of Solera before being purchased (with all the other casks of that same Solera) by Fabio and Davide. It’s worth mentioning that, these two guys, are playing around, experimenting with casks in the attempt of imprint new qualities to part of their stock, to do so they research for unusual casks able to really make a difference. They told us about their experiments in great detail, and we suggest you to check out the chat we had with them on Facebook few days ago…
N: the Oloroso imprint is impressive, but it’s a different kind of Oloroso, very deep. We find notes of crunchy honey bar, dried apricot; lots of hazelnut, overall a lot of dried fruit. Here a very Italian note, “panforte” (A typical cake from Siena, Tuscany)… and really a lot of Orange, a lot and in different forms: very spiced, but also orange liquor, Cointreau. Chinotto. Wood polish. We look crazy if we say Vetiver? Chocolate and wood, tamarind – after a while it gets darker, always with that slight vinegary note highlighted. Very interesting. During the tasting Fabio said “kumquat umami”.
P: very active with a clear wine influence, but also very balanced and relatively “clear” – it’s felt more clearly the oxidized of red fruits we usually connect with Oloroso. Bitter cocoa and walnut (walnut
sweets); peach peel. Pure oily licorice. Really really good. The orange note is still very exuberant. A taste of dates without that typical dried sugary feeling. To complete the profile (and the coherence of our
description), a clear sense of umami like soy sauce.
F: orange, walnut, rye bread. Extremely long, almost infinite. Cigar tobacco, a wee spicy and sultanas in alcohol.
A really unique profile, a lot of Oloroso but an unusual one, not the one we’re used to taste. This Whisky is really “alive”, in constant change and evolution: one of those tasty and iridescent malts that allows you to find new notes at every whiff. Really great, and really funny to drink: 89/100.
Sottofondo musicale consigliato: Anathema – Endless Ways.
