Ô Belgique, ô mère chérie,
À toi nos cœurs, à toi nos bras,
À toi notre sang, ô Patrie!
Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras!
Tu vivras toujours grande et belle
Et ton invincible unité
Aura pour devise immortelle:
Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté!
Nationalism is for insecure children, but a bit of patriotism does not hurt. What will it be?
Carolus? Negative.
Belgian Owl? Nein.
Dailuaine? Yes. Belgians like Dailuaine. At least, the Belgians I know do. :-)
Dailuaine 16yo (43%, OB, L0343LS000 00039534, b. 2010): nose: I always remember this as not only the best in the colloquially-known Flora & Fauna range (admittedly, I have never tried the Speyburn), but as a perfect sherry maturation. A whiff of it and I can see why I have that impression! Leather, shoe polish, exotic wood (teak, mahogany, redwood, ebony) and dried fruits (raisins, dates, figs, cranberries soaked in Cognac), nut oil (Brazil, nut, macadamia), a touch of chocolate and wood varnish (carbonyl style). The second nosing might bring what one would identify as frying egg white (a touch of sulphur, I guess), though one would have to look really hard for it. Mouth: the sherry speaks again, with just a murmur of barbecued meat that is completely overpowered by juicy sultanas, dried dates, mince pies, dark chocolate and chocolate coulis. Repeated sipping cranks up the wood oils (teak), posh furniture wax and shoe polish. The more I sip it, the nuttier I find it, with almond milk (including the bitter skin), Brazil-nut paste, ground walnuts -- but always hand in hand with raisins. Finish: unsurprisingly, the finish gathers all the above (dried fruits, nuts and wood oils, shoe polish and subtle chocolate) and adds a drop of coffee to keep it varied and exciting. It has a clear sweetness to it, whether it is Pedro Ximénez sherry or Port, marmalade-glazed or honey-coated nuts, it is very noticeable. Look, it is not overly complex, right? But boy! does it do what it does well. I could easily drink this all night. 8/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)
Dailuaine 17yo 1996/2014 (56.9%, A.D. Rattray Cask Collection, Bourbon Hogshead, C#10622, 281b): similar age, but aged in Bourbon, this time -- and of course, this one is a single cask, bottled independently. Nose: amusingly enough, this one appears much meatier than its sherried counterpart; faded leather, white meat (pork roast or chicken breast), musk. It is only a few seconds until that meat makes room for hay and cereals, however: roasted barley, hops, oats, and what appears to be a faint smoky touch. That dissipates in favour of sunny farmlands (crusted earth in the fields), horse's hair, then back to smoke (think: pizza oven) and... cooked vegetables (broccoli? Really?) Baked-potato skins, nail varnish -- woah! Wait a minute! When did this become so rich? It even has a pinch of warm beach sand. Latterly, lemon trees appear (I wonder how, I wonder why), citric, fruity, fragrant, refreshing. In fact, that morphs into a pleasant calamansi sorbet. Mouth: warm and creamy, it has red chilli and sweet paprika on smashed banana, pouring honey, lemonade, bitterly-unripe mandarin -- in fact, the bitterness is bordering on pickled gherkins. The strength is hard to ignore too. From the second sip on, it is clear that this is in the high fifties, and the chilli is joined by grated ginger and lemongrass, as well as that calamansi sorbet, which has now melted (or is it Sicilian lemon instead of calamansi? I love it, in any case). Finish: here too, it is an infernal carousel of flavours -- a carousel that spins so fast it is hard to figure out what is happening. Lemonade, unripe mandarin, sweet chilli, hot-as-fook smashed banana, dry farmland, toasted barley and barley drops, horse's hair, roasted potatoes, but also butterscotch, hot caramel and crushed bay leaves, which are rather drying, in the long run. The sorbet is still there too, though it is lime sorbet, now. And it has melted completely. And someone is heating it up on the fire. And it WORKS. This unassuming dram has turned into something quite special, after a few years of breathing in an open bottle! 8/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)Even if the 17 is great, I stand by my judgement: the 16yo OB remains one of the best Dailuaines bottled that side of thirty years of age.
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