The Dalmore has unveiled the Decades No 6 Collection. The series features six single malts, with each bottle representing a decade of the brand’s history.
The first bottling of The Dalmore Decades series is 1951 – Royal Heritage, a 60-year-old single malt matured in twin Sherry casks, with notes of black treacle and ginger spice. It is one of the oldest whiskies ever released by The Dalmore, and the last of the whisky distilled during the Mackenzie era. Founders of the Distillery, it is the Mackenzie family heritage that allows The Dalmore to display the 12-point royal stag on each and every bottle.
Second in the range is 1967 – Expertly Composed Spirit. The 53-year-old single malt offers layers of clementine, coffee and muscovado sugar, and went through its final maturation in a Mont-Redon Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine barrique.
The Dalmore Decades 1979 – Curating Exquisite Casks is a 40-year-old expression matured in oloroso Sherry butts, with a final maturation in a Graham’s Port Vintage 1952 cask – one of Port’s rarest vintages. The resulting Scotch has notes of sultanas and toasted pistachios, finishing in pleasant notes of maple syrup, pineapple, and succulent dates.
The 1980 expression, named Unbroken Chain of Visionaries, celebrates the decade Master Distiller Richard Paterson arrived at The Dalmore. This 40-year-old single malt takes the traditional maturation of The Dalmore and reverses it: the whisky moves from Bourbon casks into Matusalem sherry butts, then spends more than five years back in first-fill ex-Bourbon casks before bottling. It features notes of chocolate, marzipan and cocoa powder.
The penultimate bottling of the series is the 1995 – The Creation of an Icon. The whisky is matured in ex-Bourbon casks and finished in Tintilla de Rota port pipes. It offers a burst of red berries, glazed nectarines, frangipane, and pecan pie on the palate.
Finally, The Dalmore Decades 2000 – Into the New Millennium was created at 12:02am on Saturday, 1 January 2000. While the rest of the world celebrated the dawn of a new age, workers at The Dalmore were at their posts securing a notable achievement for the Highland distillery: the first in Scotland to run new spirit off the stills in the third millennium, officially witnessed three minutes after midnight. It is described as the “most distinctive” of the bunch, having spent 20 years in Matusalem oloroso Sherry butts.
“The Dalmore Decades is a unique moment for us to celebrate our history and the key moments which have marked the last six decades,” said Paterson. “Each bottle tells a distinctive part of The Dalmore’s story: from the 1951, the last whisky created during the Mackenzie era, the family which owned the distillery for over a century and whose heritage allows us to display the 12-point royal stag on every bottle, through to the first Scotch whisky created in the new millennium.”
Paterson personally selected each whisky in the collection from the distillery’s exceptionally rare casks.
“These collections are a true tribute to craftsmanship forged over the decades and offer a fantastic opportunity for collectors in search of a rare, never-to-be-seen-again piece of history,” Paterson said.
The No. 6 Collection will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2021, and a percentage of the money raised will go to the V&A Dundee, a design museum in Dundee, Scotland. The Dalmore agreed to a four-year partnership with V&A Dundee as part of a long-term investment in the creative sector last year.
Alongside the No. 6 Collection, The Dalmore will release 15 one-of-a-kind, collectible Decades sets – the No. 5 Collection, containing five Decades whiskies through the years (1967, 1979, 1980, 1995, 2000). The collections are priced at £200,000 ($278,000 USD) each and are available to purchase from Wally’s in the US, Harrods in the UK, and Le Bon Marché in France, as well as through travel retail channels in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
Twenty-five sets of the No. 4 Collection, featuring the 1979, 1980, 1995, and 2000 bottlings, will also be available in a limited edition offering. This series will be available to purchase from retailers in the UK and France for £100,000 ($139,000 USD).
For more information, head over to the distillery’s official website.