Review by: The Muskox

Singleton is an odd brand of whisky. Rather than dedicate to marketing one distillery as a single malt, Diageo prefers to spread the load over three distilleries, resulting in a different Singleton distillery depending on where you are. The USA gets Glendullan, Asia gets Glen Ord, and Canada and Europe get Dufftown. Seems like Asia lucked out with the best distillery of the bunch, but whatever. This special release is a Dufftown.

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Distillery: Dufftown.

Bottler: Official bottling.

Region: Speyside.

ABV: 55.1%. Cask strength.

Age: 17 years. Bottled in 2020.

Cask type: Refill American oak hogsheads.

Price: N/A, sample.

Color: Light gold. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Nose-singeing heat right off the bat, which comes with odd notes of wood glue, cardboard, shoe polish. Underneath is lots of toffee, some oak, and fruit notes. Tangerine, banana, and peach. Fresh lemon zest.

Palate: Medium-thick texture. Arrives off-sweet – crabapple cider, banana sap, cilantro stems, and something slightly vinous. Just a little butter and some honeysuckle in the middle. Moderate heat on the development, with tangy charred oak, apple juice, and more tangerine. Tarter notes of lemon pith come in towards the finish. A little more cardboard.

Finish:

Fairly short and light. Sweet tea, cider, and lemon pith. A little powdered sugar. Lingering spice – ginger and pickled jalapenos.

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Possible SMWS bottling name: “Industrial-scale explosive lemon chemistry”

Conclusion: This is… not great. Water didn’t help much either – it’s still just as hot, with even more lemon. Yeesh. Dufftown continues its downward trend towards being a D-tier distillery for me.

Final Score: 73.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.