Daftmill Winter 2007 Whisky Review!

My first review of Scotland's smallest whisky distillery, which is sadly impossible to find in Australia.

Daftmill is a relatively young distillery located in the upper reaches of the booming Lowlands whisky region, roughly an hour's drive north of Edinburgh near the town of Cupar, Fife. I say relatively young because the distillery was actually built in 2003 and began distilling in late 2005, which puts it at roughly the same age as Islay's Kilchoman. But Daftmill waited until mid-2018 to release their first single malt whisky, at 12-years of age - which is positively ancient for any distillery's first release! This tiny farm distillery is owned by two brothers, Fraser & Ian Cuthbert, who decided to start keeping a small amount of their barley crops aside for use in their own distillery. That makes this one of the few 'farm distilleries' in the world that is growing their own barley on site, although the barley is sent away to Alloa to be malted before the milling and mashing takes place back in Fife. This really is a tiny distillery, since they only produce for two three-month seasons per year, one in winter and one in summer, in order to fit in with the peak farming seasons. Combined with just two washbacks and two small copper pot stills, that gives the distillery a capacity of roughly 90,000 litres of spirit per year, with an actual production of around 20,000 litres - which makes even Edradour look massive in comparison! That's closer to the output of a distillery here in Australia, and is absolutely tiny in Scotland - to give you a frame of reference, Bruichladdich has a production capacity of around 1,000,000 litres of spirit per year, while monster Glenfiddich hits around 13-14,000,000 litres with plans afoot for further expansion. The seasonal production at Daftmill would've been much more common in the early days of distillation in Scotland, since the farm distilleries had to fit in with the farming seasons that provided the bulk of their livelihoods, and used the leftover grain from their fields in their spirits.  

This very small production has had an unfortunate effect on the  worldwide pricing and availability of Daftmill's whisky. Despite being distributed by relatively large company Berry Bros & Rudd, there is no Australian importer for this much-lauded Lowlands single malt, so the closest option at the moment is Whisky Galore in Christchurch, New Zealand, who receive tiny allocations directly from Britain, and to their credit also keep the pricing quite reasonable. Even if you are quick enough and lucky enough, when coupled with shipping across the Tasman and the ever-looming greed and malice of the Customs department here in Australia, that price does escalate, and the same goes for personal imports direct from the UK - again, if you're quick enough and lucky enough. Some liquor stores in the UK have kept their pricing in the rational realm, while some have taken advantage of the huge demand and tiny supply and have increased their profit margins. But we can't really blame those resellers, because the secondary market for Daftmill, in the European auction sites, eBay and both licensed and unlicensed flippers, is disgusting. While the original retail pricing in the UK ranges from roughly 85-125 pounds depending on the bottling and cask type, which is not cheap to begin with, on the secondary market you're looking at 200-450 pounds, and even beyond in many cases. The buy-in point for a vatted release (as in, not a single cask) at 46% in the recent auctions tends to be around 160 pounds, and that's not including the buyer's premium, handling/storage fees, shipping charges and local customs charges. That's a massive leap over the original pricing, and just goes to show what a massive demand there is for this tiny operation's single malt, and I can't see it changing any time soon. 

I must admit that having watched this unfold over the last couple of years, plus the lack of an Australian distributor, I had resigned myself to missing out on tasting any of Daftmill's whisky for the foreseeable future, if ever, and had become a little jaded about the whole situation. But thankfully, a good friend was lucky enough to nab a bottle from the aforementioned store in New Zealand, and he was also generous enough to share it! Daftmill's wash is fermented for 72-96 hours, which is quite a long period, followed by slow distillation in those small stills that promote reflux, and the resulting spirit is very much suited to the expected style of the Lowlands region, with a light, delicate, floral profile - despite being double-distilled rather than triple-distilled, comparisons have even been drawn to the mighty Rosebank - that seems to show a great deal of maturity at relatively young ages, which is a sign of both good quality spirit and the use of good quality casks. The release that we're looking at today is the Winter 2007 batch, meaning it was distilled somewhere in November-February 2007. This bottling was drawn from six first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, and was bottled in 2020 at 46% ABV, with an outturn of 1,685 bottles. Rather confusingly there are multiple releases of each batch, i.e. multiple different releases labelled Winter 2007, and there don't seem to be designated batch numbers, but on the back label you'll find the individual cask numbers that made up the vatting for that particular release. In this case they were 40-42/2007 and 44-46/2007, making this the Winter 2007 batch for Asia, which makes sense since the bottle was sourced from New Zealand. All of Daftmill's single malt is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, and most releases to date have been matured in first-fill casks of either ex-bourbon or ex-sherry varieties. Shall we?

Daftmill Winter 2007 (Asia Release), bottled 2020, 46%. Fife, Scotland.

Distilled 2007, matured in first-fill bourbon barrels, bottled 2020. Cask numbers 40-42 & 44-46/2007. 1,685 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Grassy, floral, sweet & sour. Fresh cut grass, touch of natural yoghurt, cream cheese & lemon juice. With more air the grass becomes dry and the yoghurt fades, leaving lemon icing / frosting, vanilla custard and a little charred oak. 

Texture: Rich, oily & buttery, but also delicate and floral. Very easy drinking. No heat at all. 

Taste: Dry grass and cream cheese again. Sweeter vanilla and less citrus here. Hints of sweet dried flowers (pot purri), light wood spices - sandalwood & cinnamon. Some buttery fresh oak and a touch of dried leafy herbs. 

Finish: Short-medium length, but tapers off quickly - there's the delicacy we were talking about! A touch of spirit here, but not at all in a hot or harsh way, rather a pleasantly light & floral spirit. Hints of that buttery oak and dry grass, a touch of honey and those dried sweet flowers again, followed by subtle vanilla and lemon cream cheese icing / frosting.

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious stuff. It's aired nicely since that initial opening, with the cask influence fading nicely it's now showing a great balance. Is it "the new" Rosebank? I suppose I can see a couple of similarities if I squint, but they're two different spirits - double distilled vs. triple distilled, and old refill casks vs. young first-fill casks, plus different eras of production, so it's a moot point really. And they aren't competing with each other anyway, both have plenty of merit, and both do stand out among most of their Lowland brethren - some of which are nothing short of forgettable. Although this is my one and only experience with Daftmill so far, the quality is evident. Despite essentially being a part-time operation, they obviously aren't taking any shortcuts - although we could already tell that by the fact that they waited twelve years before releasing their first whisky! 

I can see the Daftmill hype being justified at the original retail pricing, but not at the ridiculous secondary / auction pricing. If you can get a bottle at the RRP, I would suggest grabbing it. But if you can't, don't pay the current rates at auction and retail or private flipping. Paying 2-3 times the original retail for anything that is essentially a current release is just crazy. Hopefully that situation will calm down over time - hopefully! But there's only one way that it will stop, and that's if people stop buying those bottles and stop paying those prices. Then the people that are buying these bottles and immediately putting them up for sale might actually have to keep them and drink them. Oh, the horror!

Cheers!