Strathmill and Dufftown are two of Diageo's Speyside workhorses, producing malt whisky largely for the company's blends. Strathmill's goes into J&B and whilst there are some single malt bottlings of the Singleton of Dufftown most of it goes into Bells.
But what we have here is not the blends but two independent bottlings, a Strathmill from 1976 and a Dufftown from 1982, let see how they compare side by side!
It was actually quite difficult to find out anything about these two drams, nothing about the Strathmill came to light, the Dufftown is listed on a few online retailers and on Whiskybase but there are no tasting notes.
| Dram | Strathmill 21yo (1976) | Dufftown 28yo (1982) |
|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | 46% ABV Morrison & Mackay | 54% ABV C&S Dram Collection |
| Bottler info | I can't find out anything about this one. | Ex-bourbon hogshead |
| My thoughts: | ||
| Appearance |  | |
| Mid gold in colour, swirls cling as a thick line and immediately fall as slow thick legs. | Again mid gold in colour, swirls leave a thin line on the glass which takes a while to form beads. Slow thin legs then fall. | |
| Nose | Typical ex-bourbon Speyside for me - honey, heather, porridge but with a little hint of tobacco smoke. This is a middle aged dram so deserves a little time in the glass - it rewards you with, for me, more typical ex-bourbon Speyside notes of orchard fruit and fresh cut grass. | Musty dunnage warehouse notes, a little honey and again some porridge notes. The ABV is obviously more noticeable on this one - the hairs in your nose are tickled! Again an older dram, a little time in the glass reveals hints of tropical fruit and some smoke. |
| Palate | Thick syrupy arrival, loads of tropical fruit notes and a big kick of ginger spice. Pineapple and peach smothered in vanilla custard, the smoke is gone but there is a huge drying note. The age has concentrated the flavours and I'm not believing the 46% on the bottle - this seems another 5 or 10% higher! A few more sips and the tart pineapple and spicy ginger are fighting on the tongue leaving a lemon fizz as the liquid disappears - this is really nice! | Again thick and syrupy - this time the dryness starts as soon as the liquid enters your mouth - all moisture is stripped away - very strange! There is spice but peppery rather than ginger - not as intense as the Strathmill. Loads of tropical fruit notes - pineapple, mango and nectarine but with a strange musty bookshop note - like a dry peach or apricot - maybe oak? The citrus fizz is there again as the liquid disappears and the dryness really takes hold. |
| Finish | Long dry tropical fruit notes with a spice which grows into a warmth in the throat. | Short sharp spice and a huge oaky dryness with a bitter dark chocolate note. |
| Overall | I'm pretty sure I've not tried J&B or Bells but if these two independent bottlings of their core malts are anything to go by I link I may add a bottle of J&B to my 'to buy' list The Strathmill has really nice - typical ex-bourbon Speyside on the nose but with huge fruit flavours on the palate and finish. I'm sure the 46% must be wrong! The Dufftown on the other hand just didn't tick the boxes, too long in the cask gave musty oaky notes on nose, palate and finish - I've only really seen this before on a 57yo Glenfarclas but that had some sherry notes from it's cask. I know some people whinge at NAS whiskies and think age-statements mean everything but those in the know understand that a whisky is ready when a whisky is ready. I for one think age statement should be shown anyway - if it's 3 or 5 or 7 so what? Let's get it in a glass and try it. These drams were towards the other end of the spectrum - people pay a lot of money for old age statemented whiskies and I think all they are really buying is some musty, oaky, too-long-in-the-cask whisky which, in my opinion, has been ruined. The Strathmill, at 21yo, has probably just hit the sweet spot for ex-bourbon and is a really nice dram (I just wish I could find out a bit more about it!). The Dufftown on the other hand has just started, or maybe even reached, that point where the oak is taking over and it's just not pleasant anymore. Imagine if you'd paid a lot for this bottle and opened it you'll be disappointed, but if you did pay a silly amount for it you'd probably have it sat on a shelf as a status symbol and it would never be opened so what does it matter what it tastes like? | |
Many thanks to Whisky brers for the drample swap.
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