Dewar Rattray ‘Individual Cask Bottling’ Dufftown 1976 (32 year old) 55.4%
Bourbon Cask 7753/ Dist: 1976 Btl: 2008/ Tasted: Oct 2008
Faintly rubbery aromas of old vegetation – yum! (Note the sarcasm!) There’s some mature orange fruit but the rubber becomes more intrusive. Like the distillery bottling its not subtle, earthy and rustic would be the kind way of putting it.
The palate is oily, mature and earthy with a rubbery middle (surprise!). It’s redolent of old fruit, decaying rose petals, manure and alcohol! – Yes it’s that pleasant!
A drop of water isn’t much help in fact it my notes say – Yuk, earthy, manure and old rose water with a side serving of old rubber! Enough said!
Dewar Rattray ‘Individual Cask Bottling’ Dufftown 1976 (35 year old) 58%
Bourbon cask 7743/ Dist: 1976 Btl: Feb 2012/ Tasted: Feb 2012
A big, brawny nose of bruised honey and succulent dried fruit. There is still an undeniable touch of the industrial about this (farmyards and manure).However it is very complex with some fleshy almost agave notes followed by roughly, burnt coffee grains, but, and this is the big but, that lovely mature honey and oak is keeping all that industrialness warped up in a blanket. Although every now and again it does yell ‘I’m a Dufftown goddamn it!’ But damn it’s good! I think I need to sit down!
The palate opens with some hard barley with a gentle industrial note. Burnt coffee grains and a forest full of tannins follow. The oils and alcohol build in intensity along with an almost floral marc-like note and a touch of decaying straw. My god it has an alcohol punch at the finish. A rough and ready Dufftown with enough mature honey to round off the edges!
Diluted the nose becomes a tad cleaner and leaner, but the coffee notes have become quite herbal now. In fact you might be forgiven for thinking this was from a refill-sherry cask given the abundance of herbal notes. The palate is ever so slightly watery and a touch confected, again revelling in that herbal pusedo-sherry character. Very oily now with the hard as nails barley more prominent and a serious amount of pepper on the finish. Still it is actually quite enjoyable, and definitely not dull!
Dewar Rattray Dufftown 1976 (35 year old) 58%
Bourbon cask 7742/ Dist: 1976 Btl: Feb 2012/ Tasted: Mar 2012
Oh my God. Surprisingly cultured and distinctly un-industrial! Those are definitely words I never though would come to mind when tasting a duffer! The aromas are quite dense and herbal with no shortage of mature honey, liberally sprinkled with icing sugar. There is a hint of roughly sawn, slightly damp timber which morphs into an earthy kind of character and there is even a slight violety note. Now eyes closed you could almost mistake if for an old Glenrothes, albeit from the wrong side of town!
Soft, gentle and quite oily on the palate, opening with plenty of wood tannins and sweet wood spices. Now at this point it could have become mouth puckeringly dry, but…… it doesn’t! The sumptuous, mature, herbal honey puts a stop to that and it evolves into a lovely macerated, liquorice mouthful. A bit piquant and edgy on the middle but a lovely barley light sugar comes back, mingles with some garnity/ mineral notes. Only in the after taste does it reveal that’s it’s a Dufftown, but only in a controlled, earthy, un-musty, un-industrial, un-murky fashion! Good grief! This is a superb old duffer! Is this a fluke? Who knows, just buy it and enjoy this very unlikely experience!
Whisky According to Chris Whiskyman 