Dalwhinnie Winter's Gold

I am very ashamed that after 347 whiskies, i just had a Dalwhinnie, one of "the 6 classic malts of Scotland". And i am not even going for the most iconic and classic one, the 15yo. This one called "winter's gold" has the perk of been distilled only in winter, so that's that. 43%abv, Burnished gold color. Yep, winter and golden. On the nose it is quite good, with wedding cake notes, strawberry marmalade, burnt cake crest and heather. Actually it prepared me for a great time in the palate that just didn't happen. On the palate, prunes, earthy peatiness, salt and coastal flavors. Reminds me too much of an Oban. Aftertaste is very, very, very short and that is why it lost most of the points. Overall this is a pleasant dram, nothing from out of this world and you won't die if you never taste it, 71 over 100.

It’s an interesting concept to make a cold weather whisky in Scotland. It’s seldom exactly warm here. Dalwhinnie Distillery is at a high altitude in a beautiful, fairly remote location and does tend to get some pretty typically ‘Scottish’ weather. They suggest you serve straight from the freezer. To my taste, it enhances the spicy notes, but dulls some of the lighter flavours. The upfront flavour is a wide range of spices and a good hit of alcohol. It has a sweet honey note and a background of light smoke, but mostly it’s the spice that dominates - pepper, chilli, cinnamon. The flavour develops to bring out the fruit, apple and orange, but this is very much second fiddle to the spice. It has a pleasant medium long spicy, peppery finish. For it’s cheap price point, this is a very lovely dram. I’ve gone through a few bottles of this already and it will have a regular place in my cabinet.