Dalmore is a whisky that i cherish. I always look for their new expressions, and to be honest, i have never understood the excessive criticism it usually gets, but people tend to give it a hard time because they often bottle their whiskies at 40%abv. Well, an independent bottler, Ian MacLeod, bought a single cask of 2009 Dalmore (something quite hard to do) and they bottled it to please some fans, at an astonishing 59.3%abv. Only 299 bottles where ever released, for the Taiwanese Market, with a beautiful brown eagle label and a metallic can that shows the picture of the same majestic bird in a very appealing way. In the glass, it has a reddish copper color. On the nose, absolutemy impressive. It starts with the typical Dalmore orange note; then it releases coffee, Brandy and Chocolate. Caramelized apples, dehydrated fruits and cherry "brigadeiros". After a first sip, the aroma became a fruit salad, very tropical. Kiwi, hazelnut and cocoa. Letting it breath for a longer time gave me a powdery, milk white cocoa note. A very sugary orange and apple strudel. On the palate it had this INCREDIBLE CHOCOLATE AND RED FRUITINESS; yes, in caps lock. Hints of salt and chocolate. It just feels spectacular, super sweet like a white chocolate with maraschino cherries. Ritter's white chocolate and coconut flan. Aftertaste is all about ginger, sawdust, chocolate, a very spicy but pleasant Wasabi and cherries. Great note of orange peel as well. Overall, this will compete for my top ten ranking of the year. This might be the best Dalmore i have ever had, and trust me, that is quite the statement from a man that loves this distillery. Ironically, this is actually not a distillery bottling, but it has showed me that when you are trying to please a crowd of cask strength freaks like me, Dalmore has a spirit that can be bottled at powerful force and it will deliver an amazing result. My score for this one is 100 over 100, just because i can't give it one thousand points. Slàinte!