APPEARANCE Gold. NOSE A big, crisp, dry and veryaromatic nose with hints of heather and peat. BODY Light to medium. PALATE Smooth, soft and lasting flavours of heather, honey sweetness and vanilla followed by deeper citrus-fruit flavours and hints of malted bread. FINISH Long, lingering, surprisingly intense finish that starts sweetly, then gives way to smoke, peat and malt.

A great malt which Jim Murray awarded 95 points in his Whisky Bible, this is excellent value for money. The flavors are simple, but flawless, a clean, crisp 15 year old from the Dalwhinnie distillery, also part of Diageo's Classic Malts range.

Nose: Aromatic, toffee, fruit salad, lush nectarine, custard. Floral, apple blossom, honeysuckle. Apple peels, pear, touch of smoke.

Palate: Malty. Walnuts steeped in manuka honey with vanilla sponge. Gentle smoke weaves its way through the cereal with a touch of spice.

Finish: Long, malty, walnut, almond.

Technical notes

43% alcohol

Producer

Its name derives from the Gaelic for a ‘meeting place’ of sheep and cattle drovers. So remote is it, that in 1994 it was officially recorded as the coldest inhabited place in Scotland for that year. No other distillery may use the water from Lochan an Doire Uaine, (Gaelic for ”Loch of the green thicket”) which lies at 2,000 feet in the Drumochter Hills; neither may they enjoy Dalwhinnie’s™ unique combination of a clean, accessible, malty-sweet taste leading in to a smooth and smoky Highland warmth. Dalwhinnie distillery is situated between the gentle, grassy style of the Lowlands and the austere, firm body of Speyside which begins some 25 miles to the north. The style is that of the Highlands; a resilient marriage of gentleness and spirit.