Dailuaine 1973 - 22 Year Old - Rare Malts 60.92% - USA

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.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.