Dalmore is a Highland distillery founded in 1839 by Alexander Matheson. In 1867, it was sold to Andrew and Charles Mackenzie and remained family owned until 1960 when Whyte & Mackay took over and they remain in charge to this day (under various differing ownerships themselves!).
In more recent times, Dalmore has become linked with one of the icons of the whisky world, Master Distiller Richard Paterson, along with the distinctive bottle shape and stag’s head logo on the bottles.
Whiskies from Dalmore were a major part of Whyte & Mackay’s blends for many years until the distillery introduced a significant range of single malts.
All Dalmore whiskies will be matured in at least two different types of cask, one being an ex-Bourbon American oak cask and the other being an aged Sherry cask sourced from Gonzalez Byass. Each Sherry cask is personally chosen by Richard himself and it is this specific cask finishing that he has made himself so well-known for.
Dalmore’s warehouses are known to house some of the oldest whiskies in the world and have an overall capacity of 65,000 casks.
Stylistically, Dalmore is known for having orange, marmalade and even chocolate notes across its expressions, due to the combination and influence of casks used to age the whiskies.
Paterson’s personality has loomed large over Dalmore for nearly 50 years, since he joined in 1975, with Whisky Advocate magazine noting that ‘he has almost singlehandedly made Dalmore – the jewel of Whyte & Mackay’s portfolio – one of the most collectible whiskies in the world.’
The 12 bottle collection went on sale in Harrods in 2013 for £987,500. This was a collection of Dalmore bottlers personally selected by Paterson and Harrods wine and spirits buyer Nick Fleming. The collection features some of the rarest malts that Dalmore had ever made available including a bottle distilled in 1926. Paterson also included his personal journal discussing each of the bottles.
Launched on 1st May 2021, The Dalmore Constellation Collection consists of 21 bottlings, all from single casks and bottled in hand-blown crystal decanters and housed in bespoke presentation cabinets. With the bottles engraved by hand, the range of colours is staggering, with all bottles at natural cask strength and natural colour. The collection features bottlings from 1964 up until 1992.
The first whisky to be sold sold for over £100,000, this 64 year old Dalmore was named ‘Trinitus’ as only three bottles were ever produced and subsequently released in October 2010. At the time, Richard Paterson stated, ‘The Dalmore 64 is the pinnacle of my career, the best whisky I have ever created.’ Of the three bottles, one was purchased by a whisky lover in the US, one by a well known collector in the UK and the third sold at Whisky Show in London in the same year. Good luck ever finding one for sale now!
This limited edition Dalmore 50 was released to mark Paterson’s 50 years in the industry. 50 decanters were hand-filled to order and the whisky had been aged in Amercian white oak, Matusalem Oloroso Sherry casks from Gonzalez Byass and Colheita Port pipes before being finished for 50 days in Champagne casks from Maison Henri Giraud. Paterson himself said, ‘Bringing the Champagne together with Matusalem oloroso Sherry and Port is perhaps the greatest example to date of our ability to innovate in both maturation and cask finishing, while preserving the signature flavours of the Dalmore.’
-Steve McNeill
