Dailuaine 1973 - 30 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 15863

Founded in 1852 and expanded to its current six stills as early as 1960, Dailuaine is a large but relatively obscure Speyside distillery, one of many in owner Diageo’s portfolio, which it joined in 1925. Dailuaine bears the proud distinction of being the first distillery in Scotland to have had Charles Cree Doig’s famous pagoda roof on its kilns, although sadly this historic structure was destroyed by fire in 1917.

Dailuaine can make over 5m litres of spirit per annum, but the importance of its whisky to Diageo’s blends means that its official bottling history is rather scanty. Dailuaine 16-year-old Flora & Fauna was introduced in 1991 and was followed by a Rare Malts Edition and a superb Flora & Fauna Cask Strength bottling in 1996-7, before Dailuaine finally got its own Diageo Special Release in 2015. Thankfully, independent Dailuaines first appeared around the end of the 1970s and are now abundant.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.