I did a very short review on this whisky before when I tasted it a club event last year. Since then I bought a bottle and then forgot to review it properly.

Adieu Lina is a whisky from the Daily Dram series of anagrams. Adieu Lina is Dailuaine, and there are a lot more available: Keen Light (Glen Keith), Oat Mint (Tomatin) and so on. A fun way of naming your bottles but not so obscure that you can’t figure it out without help.

This is a pretty old Dailuaine which I bought in my ‘Dailuaine is a pretty fine dram’ period last year. I tasted some three or four Dailuaines in a very short amount of time and all of them were pretty good.

Nose:

Image from Whiskybase

‘Real whisky’, if that holds any meaning. Quite some grain and cereal, pretty heavy although the sherry is not too thick. It has a bit of a beery character, with quite some bitterness in it, like a hoppy ale. Chocolate and coffee pop up a bit later, and veers in the cappuccino direction. Quite some fruit too with plums. Also some peppery spice. The wood influence is soft and gentle.

Taste:
The grain flavour is pretty sharp, with chili and mango to go with it. Hops and barley again, with very dark bread. Grilled peaches and pineapple. Quite bitter but very tasty. Old wood, wax and light sherry.

Finish:
Long and friendly with soft whole grain bread, grilled and dried tropical fruits with dried orange too. The hoppy bitterness is still here but accompanied by a bitterness that comes of orange pits. I get a bit of a white oak with sherry feeling from it.

A very, very tasty dram with loads of flavours to be discovered. I absolutely love this kind of stuff with high complexity and no flavours that overpower or out play the rest. Daily Dram did very well in selecting this cask and I hope to find more stuff like this!

Dailuaine 35, 1973, Adieu Lina!, Daily Dram, 47.6%, used to be about € 140, but is sold out now.