pkingmartin
Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
January 20, 2022 (edited March 13, 2022)
The nose starts with a sour and bitter mix of dark berries and sherry followed by milk chocolate candy bar with toasted hazelnuts then fruits of sour cherries, Granny Smith apple peel and orange juice that transition to moderate barrel spices of cloves, ginger, and dusty attic floors with medium ethanol burn.
The taste is a medium mouthfeel that starts with a pleasant fruity and floral mix of dark berries, orchard fruit and light orange blossom that quickly turns moderately bitter with a high drying spice that slowly fades to dark chocolate orange, apple chips, toasted hazelnuts and a moderate ashy oak with medium ethanol burn.
The finish is medium length with dark chocolate orange, light floral notes, apple chips, powdered ginger, burnt cloves and moderate ashy oak.
The nose on this is slightly offensive with those wine and sherry barrels causing a sour and bitter flavor mix before sweet earthy and nutty notes that fade to sour citrus and dusty wood. The taste started promising with a really enjoyable floral, red berry and orchard fruit mix but was quickly overpowered by a bitter high spice that almost never ended until thankfully some light fruits and nuts emerged along with ashy oak that finishes drying and ashy with chocolate, citrus and light floral notes.
The mixture of aging in American white oak ex-bourbon casks, Matusalem oloroso sherry casks and Cabernet Sauvignon barriques seems to have created a sour, bitter and spicy mixture that I personally find overwhelming and drying. At the price of $200 around me, this is a hard pass for me and much better whisky can be found for far less.
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@jim1013yyf Perhaps but it’s likely that my taste just doesn’t line up with the Dalmore profile. Tasting is very subjective and some that I really like, others have found to be underwhelming.
Huh could it be a bad batch? My experience with this dram is quite the opposite
@Scott_E Thanks, seems like a terrible idea for your distillery to lower the quality of your products and hike the price, but guess they are still selling plenty.
@ContemplativeFox if you’re feeling a bit far out look up Dirtwire on Spotify or your streaming platform of choice. Might be my background drinking artist of choice for this month. Might also lead me back to absenthe.
And here I was thinking of trying this again I'm case I'd been to hard on it. I agree that the premise of pair with a cigar is questionable. Personally, I don't look for whisky to pair with anything other than a comfy chair and chill music.
@pkingmartin spot on review btw.
@PBMichiganWolverine @pkingmartin I can second that. The first cigar malt was fantastic, full, rich and at the time could be found for under $100 (like $89). Then they reworked it, diluted it and charge $240 (or so).
@cascode Thanks, those sound like much better pairings for a cigar than this one.
Oh, and the review and rating are spot-on 👍
I’ve never been impressed with this malt, even the old pre-2009 version (which was better). I don’t get the attraction of an understrength, pedestrian NAS sherry-monster that is *way* over-oaked and marketed as specific to cigar pairing. Personally I’d rather have a nice cognac or armagnac with a cigar anyway, rather than a whisky that is trying to imitate cognac.
@pkingmartin ages ago, I had the original Dalmore Cigar Malt. That was amazing. This new one is a shadow of that discontinued one, at 3x the price.