Imperial Distillery closed in 1998 after 101 years of service. Several years later, in 2013, the distillery got demolished and in 2015 a new distillery has risen in its place and starts distilling. Not entirely surprising, this distillery is Dalmunach.

With it being operational for almost a decade, whiskies are starting to come out more frequently. Luckily, with a couple more years of maturation there are also bourbon cask releases instead of what came before in the ‘weird’ wine casks that seemed to be the mode of operation.

Dràm Mòr managed to get their hands on a few casks (this is their third and oldest release so far) and they were kind enough to ship over a sample for me to try.

Sniff:
A timid nose with hints of parma violets, some chalk and a hint of aniseed too. Slightly milky with the tiniest note of all purpose cleaner (lime and alcohol…)

Sip:
The palate is very consistent with the nose, although some notes are added. Sawdust, straw, and white pepper.

Swallow:
The finish puts on the afterburner initially, and adds a note of vanilla to the mix. Less focused on the dusty and floral notes, more on the straw and a note of oak.

The floral notes seem to pay homage to the forever-gone Imperial distillery, which is nice. It’s not something that happens all too often. Luckily it’s not perfumy like 1980s Bowmore is, because that’s just way too much laundry detergent for anything drinkable.

It’s not an overly complex whisky, but it’s nicely balanced with not too much cask (as with the wine cask releases that I’ve tried) or too little which would make it too spirity. All in all, good stuff at a decent price for such a new distillery!

Available for € 80 in Belgium (and circling that price in Austria and Germany)

86/100