An old Gordon & MacPhail bottling from 2013, from a distillery that closed in the Scotch whisky dark times of 1983. And it's my first taste of Dallas Dhu!
Unlike almost all closed distilleries in Scotland, Dallas Dhu (pronounced "Dellus-doo") can still be visited and toured, but only as a museum. The distillery was founded in 1898 in the town of Forres in Speyside, 40 minutes' drive east of Inverness. The site is only two miles from Benromach Distillery which was also founded in the same year by the same man, Alexander Edward, who was also responsible for Craigellachie and Aultmore distilleries, although he sold Dallas Dhu after less than a year before it had even produced spirit. Both Benromach and Dallas Dhu were closed in 1983 by then-owners DCL, which would became United Distillers, now Diageo, alongside other more legendary distilleries like Port Ellen and Brora. Thankfully Benromach was rescued and reopened by Gordon & MacPhail in 1993, while Dallas Dhu has served as a museum since 1988. The site is still owned by Diageo, but is under the control of Historic Environment Scotland. Interestingly there have been calls to re-open Dallas Dhu, and thanks to its historic status much of the original buildings and decommissioned equipment are still in place, but nothing seems to have been decided on just yet. As far as the distillery itself goes, the only really remarkable feature was the worm tub condensers, which are still in place as part of the museum along with the malting floors and kiln (both decommissioned in 1968), the single pair of pot stills and the dunnage warehouses which were actually in use until 1992 when the distillery's license was cancelled. Despite owning the site Diageo were apparently not part of these calls to recommission the distillery, but to be fair they're busy rebuilding and reopening Port Ellen and Brora, so despite it's solid reputation amongst whisky geeks the little-known are much rarer Dallas Dhu would have to be far further down on the company's list of investment options.
While originally named Dallasmore, named after the nearby village of Dallas, the distillery was renamed as Dallas Dhu in 1899 under new owners, and the name roughly translates to 'black valley'. The distillery closed a number of times, from 1930-1936 and from 1939-1947 following a major fire and then World War Two, before meeting its end - so far - in 1983. There have been a couple of official bottlings from the owners, under their defunct 'Rare Malts Selection' brand which was the equivalent of Diageo's current Special Releases range, but most Dallas Dhu single malts are independent bottlings. Unsurprisingly given their location twenty minute's away in Elgin, most of these have come from Gordon & MacPhail, and the early examples were bottled under license of the distillery owners, along with the likes of Linkwood and Mortlach. Casks of Dallas Dhu are much rarer of course, although G&M actually bottled a 50-year old Dallas Dhu in 2019 as part of their 'Private Collection' range that was drawn from a single refill sherry butt and sold for around 6,500 GBP. G&M are actually in the process of building a new distillery near Grantown on Spey, one hour southwest of Elgin, named The Cairn Distillery, and Benromach has been and is very successful under their ownership. I wonder if they entered a bid on reopening Dallas Dhu? It would certainly be more cost effective than designing and constructing a new distillery from scratch, and they'd have the distillery's heritage to build on - although it's very possible that the owners wouldn't be willing to relinquish the brand name itself which would deter many possible investors. But I'm only speculating there!
This particular bottling of Dallas Dhu is from Gordon & MacPhail, and was distilled in 1979 and bottled in 2013 at 43%. But unfortunately that's about all we know, there is no mention of cask type or size, and I suspect it will have been chill filtered, but I'm unsure on colouring. If there has been E150a added it's certainly been minimal, there's no orange glow to this single malt. But there shouldn't be either, this is a 32-33 year old whisky after all! Being bottled around eight years ago this isn't a bottle you're likely to see on the shelves of your average retailer, but then that applies to basically all of the closed distilleries' whiskies these days. When it was more readily available it could be had for around $600 AUD, which is very reasonable considering the rarity of Dallas Dhu. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who understandably couldn't resist a birth-year (yes, he's quite old) bottling from a closed distillery. Let's get into it!
Distilled 1979, bottled 2013, so 32 years of age. Unknown cask type, suspected chill filtered, unknown colouring.
Colour: Amber gold.
Nose: Fresh & surprisingly lively for a 32-year old whisky. And quite sour! Lots of sour green apples with a couple of sweeter red apples thrown in, all doused in fresh lime juice. Quite grassy and herbal with a touch of honey in the background. With more time some lime sherbet lollies, savoury gravy powder, caramel syrup and white pepper.
Texture: Light-medium weight. Slightly oily, savoury and peppery. No alcohol heat at all.
Taste: Oily & earthy entry, with some sharp black pepper and dunnage warehouse notes - dank old wood and damp earth. Could even be a touch of peat in there for good measure! Gentle wood spices coming out with warm cinnamon and drying sandalwood, maybe a touch of ginger powder. Leathery and a little dusty, like old books. Gravy powder and more white pepper.
Finish: Short length. Old pencil shavings, a little dried lime. Nutty caramel syrup but not overly sweet. Browned apples and white pepper. Turns a little sour and lightly astringent towards the end.
Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Notes: What an interesting dram! Unexpected flavours, but more unexpected aromas! The nose is totally, completely different to the palate and finish. It's fresh, sour, fruity and almost fizzy / effervescent, while the palate is more savoury, oily & peppery, and there's a lovely earthy, dank dunnage warehouse note in there - not to the extent of something like a Brora or a Springbank, and it doesn't hang around, but it's in there. This whisky does fall a little short on the finish - pun intended - and the oak seems to show itself most here. Some oak influence is to be expected after 32 years in casks, but the oak does seem quite fresh on the finish. A higher bottling strength could possibly have helped lengthen the finish, but that wasn't G&M's way back then - and still isn't in many cases, although that does seem to be changing lately. Albeit very, very slowly!
It's always a very special thing when you get the chance to try a closed distillery's whisky, especially for the first time! These old bottlings are a great way to travel back in time to when the whisky world was a quite a different place - and I'm talking about both 1979 and 2013! It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of the proposed repurposing / resurrection of the Dallas Dhu site. There's no time like the present, and it's certainly a shame to see it live out it's days as a museum. Although that's also helped keep it in good order, and should make it easier to bring it back to life, so it might turn out to be a good thing in the end!
Cheers!
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