After I reviewed the 12 year old I figured it was the perfect time to review my second ever Dalmore. The Cigar Malt Reserve... a name that just screams upper echelon and class. @LeeEvolved was kind enough to offer this as a bonus sample for this round of the SDT. This is a NAS expression that is matured in 70% Oloroso sherry casks, 20% ex bourbon and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon casks. Bottled at a peculiar 44% ABV, and like many other Dalmores, it is chill filtered and has colorant added. This is a dark amber or mahogany color. Deep dark sherry on the nose. Dark cherries and berries. A wonderful robust vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, toffee and caramel. Christmas cake, raisins and figs. More dark notes like maple syrup, more sherry, mocha, coffee. Fruity notes of tangerines and nectarines with a hint of licorice and menthol. Hazelnut, walnuts and dark chocolate. Some tobacco and a little new leather. A beautiful nose, but a little less complex than the 12 year old. The palate is not as strong as the nose would lead you to believe (which I hear as a complaint from many Dalmore reviews). Really nice sherry, even if it is a little on the weak side. Sherry oak, cinnamon, nutmeg, a little vanilla and some pepper. Raisins, Christmas cake and walnuts. Tasty, but again lacking in the necessary power to really drive all these flavors home. A medium-light bodied mouthfeel, oily and creamy and a joy to hold on the tongue. The finish is medium long with spices, oak and sherry. While I’m not really sure about pairing this with a cigar, a will say without a doubt that this is a very good scotch. Not as complex or elegant and the 12 year old, but the sherry flavors are stronger and fuller. Like the 12, I feel this should have been bottled at a higher strength. 48% seems fitting, but 46% should have been the minimum. I was in my favorite duty free shop a few weeks after reading Lee’s review and saw a 1L bottle sitting on the shelf gathering a fine layer of dust. I grabbed it along with their travel retail exclusive bottle Valour. The CMR cost me $153, but again that’s for a full liter. While I feel that’s about $53 too high, I still bought it. Thanks again to Lee for the sample. Maybe I will experiment with a cigar and a dram of this in the future. 4.25. Cheers