I took this bottle with me to visit family in the mountains of West Virginia since I am including it with our upcoming fourth round of samples. My dad has been encouraged to stop drinking by his doctor, so I figured I needed something very promising if I was going to convince him to imbibe with me one last time. The Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve is a re-release from Dalmore after lots of cries for them to bring it back. This particular bottling contains undeclared aged malt from 3 different casks: ex-American white oak bourbon, 30 year old Matusalem Oloroso sherry and Cabernet Sauvignon wine. It’s bottled at a weird 44% ABV and is a beautiful orange/amber in the glass. A quick spin produces slippery, but thick legs before settling back down. After giving it 25-30 minutes to breathe it reveals some amazing vanilla, sherry and red raspberry notes that are laced with light smoke. I envisioned what Macallan 18 or Rare Cask would smell like if it had a pronounced smoke layer. It really draws you in and makes your mouth water. The palate was hit or miss, IMO. Heavy notes of vanilla, raisins and berries again that turn insanely hot and drying rather quickly. It totally turns the nose, and amazing finish, on its head and keeps this one from being a near perfect dram for me. Speaking of finish, it’s long with a hot burn (where I’d expect and appreciate it more). There’s peppery notes and ginger spice that slowly fade back to everything I got on the initial nosing. It starts and finishes exactly the same: Mouth watering and luscious. The unbalanced middle keeps this from being one of the greatest whiskies I’ve had to this point. I get the feeling that cigar smokers get and enjoy that burning sensation thats present here on the palate and that’s ultimately what will make or break this one for them. That feeling is lost on me a bit, but it’s still a solid and near-great dram. Prices on this “rare-ish” malt have been steadily climbing. I bought this one almost 2 years ago and paid roughly $110 for it. I see it fetching $160-180 now and I’m not sure it’s worth that price. I’ll be pouring samples of this one in less than a week and maybe when I revisit it it will have calmed a bit, as it was this afternoon I’d have to limit it to a solid 4-4.25 star dram. It could’ve been perfect, I think, so that’s a little disappointing to me. Cheers, my friends.