Whisky Review: Provenance Dailuaine 10 Year 2004/2014

Dailuaine is a distillery that I've appreciated ever since trying it as part of Compass Box's Oak Cross blended malt. Since it's a work horse distillery for Diageo, we don't see too much of it in official single malt form. That makes the IBs we do see a little more exciting.

This whisky was distilled in 2004, filled into a sherry butt, then bottled in 2014 at 46% without coloring or chill filtration.

I purchased this sample from Dramtime, who no longer have it as a sample but do have full bottles.

Provenance Dailuaine 10 Year 2004/2014 Cask #10551

Nose: classic sherry cask notes of stewed fruit, a little dank, a pleasant level of oak, sweet malt and floral notes, raspberries. After adding a few drops of water it becomes maltier, more floral, and more balanced,

Taste: fairly hot throughout, malt and sherry sweet up front, solid sherry influence continuing, some mixed fruit around the middle, then a clean fade into the finish with very little oak. After dilution most of the heat diminishes, it becomes much sweeter up front, some of the sherry turns into dark chocolate, and some nice oak emerges at the back.

Finish: sherry residue, sweet malt

Much like the Prime Malt Dailuaine I tried, this isn't a world-beater but it is a solid whisky at a reasonable price. I'm not getting as much complexity out of it, which is a shame since I think the basic Dailuaine profile with a little sherry could be great. With that said, if I wasn't already drowning in whisky I would seriously think about getting a bottle. It's a nice malt and I think it could be even better blended with other whiskies.