Dalmore has unveiled the next installment in its Cask Curation Series, a limited-edition three-bottle set celebrating the role of finishing casks from the finest wineries and bodegas. It’s a story that starts on the vine, and this one celebrates Dalmore’s exclusive 50-year relationship with Graham's Port and the wines of Douro Valley. The trio of whiskies in The Port Edition, aged for 27, 30, and 43 years, were finished in Graham’s single-harvest tawny port casks from 1997, 1994, and 1952 respectively. With the royal stag on the Dalmore bottles and Graham’s being a Royal Warrant holder, the 1952 cask selection is an acknowledgement of the year of accession of Queen Elizabeth II. Though the U.S. has a larger allocation than last year’s debut, there are only 150 sets available worldwide. Read on for our initial impressions of these new Dalmore single malts.
W.&J. Graham & Co. was founded in 1820 by William and John Graham. Born of Scottish parents, Andrew James ‘AJ’ Symington moved to Portugal in 1882 and started a port shipping operation. His company grew as it passed through the generations as the port industry faced the opportunities and challenges of the 20th century, with Symington Family Estates acquiring control of Dow’s, Warre’s, and in 1970, the opportunity arose to buy Graham’s. The fourth and fifth generation of the Symington family now runs Graham’s, including the vineyards in the hills of the upper Douro Valley, and Graham’s Lodge in Gaia over the river from Porto, where their maturation cellars are located.
Dalmore has exclusive rights to use the Graham’s name on its port-finished whiskies. Dalmore’s master blender Richard Paterson and Graham’s head winemaker Charles Symington founded the relationship between the two companies in 1974, and prior to this, Graham’s had never really sold casks to distilleries before. While Whyte and Mackay, Dalmore’s parent company, does source port casks from other houses for distilleries in its portfolio, such as Tamnavulin and Jura, only Graham’s casks are used for Dalmore.
To clear up any confusion, while Dalmore calls the vessels port casks and port producers call them port pipes, they are both talking about the same thing. For expressions like Dalmore Port Wood Reserve, it uses 600-liter port casks that have been used for Graham’s 10 year old tawny port. In recent years, these casks have been downsized to 400 and then 225-liter casks. Smaller casks are coming into use for health and safety reasons, as they are easier to move.
The Dalmore whisky making team visits Graham’s Lodge seeking casks with character and those that offer good storytelling angles; it may be a particular year on a vintage tawny cask or something shared by the Graham’s team about a particular cask in the cellar. Unfortunately for Dalmore, most times the port casks they want are not available immediately and patience is required until Graham’s empties the casks many years later for its own special releases such as their single harvest expressions or single cask tawnies. Graham’s selects and empties port casks twice a year, but casks are never emptied just because Dalmore wants them, only when Graham’s judges that the wine is ready. This year, Dalmore acquired 540 Graham’s port casks in total. Each one is transported whole, and Dalmore also buys 5 liters of the wine that was in the cask so that the staves forming the walls of the cask are kept drenched in port while they make the journey to Scotland. Dalmore recently paid €10,000 (approx. $11,000) for a vintage cask from 1940. The price is justifiably high as when a cask has been in use for that length of time, it will take many decades to replace it. Given the value of old port casks, Graham’s ensures they are monitored carefully throughout their lifetime. Graham’s has a stock of old staves on hand so that its coopers can replace individual staves if a cask needs to be repaired, without having to sacrifice the rest of the cask.
Port is used as a finishing vessel by Dalmore, rather than for full maturation. It takes whisky initially matured in first-fill bourbon casks before moving it into port casks, aiming to complete the finish over a minimum of 2 years, though the new 43 year old was finished for 3 years. Cask samples are drawn every year, and if the whisky isn’t developing as expected, they can transfer it into a fresher port cask. After the first year, a sweetness develops as well as a change in color, and by the end of the second year, the plummy notes are more pronounced as the whisky becomes richer and more elegant. If it’s left too long, the whisky can turn syrupy, though its character can still be salvaged by moving it back into fresh bourbon casks if it’s monitored closely. Dalmore’s whisky making team use a three-star rating system chalked on to the cask heads in the warehouse to mark the most promising casks, occasionally adding brief flavor notes in addition, such as “blood orange,” to casks with particularly pronounced flavor characteristics.
Port producers have a constant desire to have a classic year when they can declare a vintage, but this only occurs two or three times a decade. While vintage ports age in bottle, tawny ports age in the cask. Age statements on tawny ports represent an average age, and don’t represent the youngest liquid in the bottle like with whisky. The Cask Curation series debut was The Sherry Edition, and there are a number of fundamental differences between sherry and port casks. Sherry-seasoned casks can be produced to order in Jerez and in significant volume, but there are no shortcuts to getting the best port casks. The Sherry Edition used three different sherry styles from González Byass. This bodega has developed a high-quality 30 year old matusalem sherry cask, which Dalmore finds give consistently good results. Single-harvest tawny port casks are much more unique and less uniform, so the best casks are highly prized by Dalmore for their ability to impart individual flavor characteristics on its whisky.
The Dalmore Cask Curation Series The Port Edition is the second release in the four-part series. Presented in decanter style bottles in a teal leather travel case, each set costs $44,450.
Dalmore Cask Curation Series The Port Edition
95 points – Dalmore 43 year old finished in a Graham’s 1952 Single Harvest Tawny Port Cask, 41.8%
This nose is stunning, showcasing notes of antique leather in vintage cars, raisin, vanilla pod, sugared almonds, cinnamon, and tobacco. The flavor trajectory impresses with melting chocolate pudding, brown sugar, fig syrup, and plum mousse, followed by curiously pleasing tropical fruit, before rounding off with ginger, black coffee, black cherry, and licorice. Its finish is chewy with flavors of leather, oak tannins, gingerbread, and black tea.
94 points – Dalmore 30 year old finished in a Graham’s 1994 Single Harvest Tawny Port Cask, 43.9%
The immediate sensation of blood orange is rather wonderful, backed by aromas of warm honey on English muffins, vanilla, black currant, walnut, apricot kernels, caramelized brown sugar, and supportive spices. Rich dark chocolate on the palate, with dates, toasted brioche, espresso, aniseed, vanilla seeds, and leather, this concludes with a dark chocolate mouth-coating finish. It’s worth experimenting with water as it coaxes out milk chocolate and mandarin juiciness.
94 points – Dalmore 27 year old finished in a Graham’s 1997 Single Harvest Tawny Port Cask, 49.3%
Bright fruit and sweetness on the nose with red currant, allspice, fresh plum, damson jam, marzipan, raisin, and manuka honey, with hints of fig and espresso foam. The texture is velvety with an initial burst of marmalade, fig bars, and maltiness, followed by macadamia nuts, pepper, black currant mousse, then bitter dark chocolate, black coffee, and licorice. A mouth-coating finish of ginger root, sugared almond, licorice, and dark fruity sweetness.
