Dailuaine 11 yo 2012/2023 (58.8%, Watt Whisky, refill sherry butt, 552 bottles)
Don't Dailuaine and sherry usually go well together? Colour: bright straw. Nose: a leafy and vegetal profile that reveals plenty of distillery character I would say. This rather typical Dailuaine fatness that involves waxes, broths and cooking oils. The refill sherry brings a nice mineral edge to proceedings. With water: seems to get even bigger, with these notes of oily toolbox rags, rapeseed oil, camphor and putty. Mouth: these bigger aspects are well balanced by sweetness, such as honey in porridge, or sweetened breakfast cereals. Also some more vegetal notes such as bouillon and roast parsnip, but again with this honeyed side adding balance. With water: works well with water, really a mouth-coating, super oily dram with some waxy aspects and now also a lot of beery and ale notes along with some spiced breads. Finish: quite long, with some aniseed, green twigs, bitter herbs and more cooking oils. Comments: something of a beast, were they 'making Mortlach at Dailuaine' as Diageo sometimes seem to try out one distillery's profile at another. I would say water is obligatory here, a big, fat, heavy dram for when only such a whisky will do. 
SGP: 471 - 85 points. 

Dailuaine 33 yo 1989/2022 (46.3%, OB 'Casks of Distinction', cask #4144, refill American oak hogshead, 88 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: It isn't hard to imagine the same distillate from the Watt Whisky bottling we just tried, arriving at this sort of profile given sufficient years. This is really classic full bodied distillate with a lot of texture and inherent oiliness, given a long time in refill wood. So what we have is many variations on waxiness, cedar wood, mineral oils, hessian, many wee herbal details, tiger balm, ointments and camphor. Love this profile, and it seems quite a few of Diageo's makes end up here given enough time. Mouth: superb arrival! Pure wax, honey and crystallised fruits of all colours and types. Still superbly fresh as well, so you have wee coconut and tropical notes, that sit alongside sharper aspects that also suggest acidity. Gorse flower, mint, guava, lime and pineapple all showing up. Finish: long, and doubling down on these impressions of coconut liqueur and exotic fruit salad vibes - really a pina colada! Still wonderfully waxy and bright as well. Comments: hard not to love older Dailuaine when it clings so closely to its supposed distillate character of being a kind of 'diet Clynelish' with these inherent waxy qualities. Very old school and excellent.
SGP:651 - 91 points.

Glenfarclas 43 yo 1977/2021 (43.1%, OB, private for Jeroboams, fourth fill oloroso sherry hogshead, cask #7288, 215 bottles)
Colour: bright straw. Nose: honeysuckle, yellow plums, many orchard fruits, baked apples and youthful sweet wines. It's also pretty floral with pressed flowers and various delicate, aromatic types of tea. This honeyed side only increases, becoming more concentrated, crystallised and harmonious. Mouth: superb, assertive arrival in the mouth. Spicy, but controlled, on herbal notes, medicinal touches, aniseed, cough syrup, jasmine tea, dried mint and preserved exotic fruits. Carries the age extremely well and retains good freshness and power in the mouth which seems above the ABV. Also some feelings of waxy citrus rinds, mineral oils and wee leather and tobacco notes. Finish: good length, back on honeys, lemon curds, flower teas, cinnamon and various herbal infusions. Comments: A big, bright, fruity and still very much alive and kicking old 'farclas. I suppose that's fourth fill for you? 
SGP: 651 - 91 points. 

Glenfarclas 29 yo 1992/2022 (52.6%, OB for Kensington Wine Market 30th Anniversary, cask #2906, sherry butt)
The opposite end of the wood spectrum I suppose? Incidentally, I have never been to Kensington Wine Market, but I can more than vouch for the owner's taste in Maple Syrup, which should be sufficient motivation for you to visit if you're ever in that neck of Canada. Colour: mahogany. Nose: a bright sherry profile that's immediately full of damsons, black cherries, plum wine, incense and wee umami touches of soy sauce and cocktail bitters. Hyper clean and wonderfully rich! Goes on with many of the usual suspects - sultana, freshly brewed coffee damp pipe tobacco - but wonderfully and effortlessly so. With water: broadens and becomes ever so slightly lighter with lemon balm, fruits stewed in armagnac and impressions of aged Drambuie and walnut oil. Mouth: a sherry bomb in the truest sense. Huge, jammy and sticky dark fruits, colliding with coal dust, walnut oil, hessian cloth, cola cubes and again this umami, almost salty vibe that suggests squid ink and Maggi! Really terrific and immensely powerful. With water: superbly plummy, jammy and juicy now. Rich dark fruits, aniseed, slightly funky bodega or dunnage style earthiness, and then more tobaccos and an increasingly dominating rancio aspect. Finish: very long, deeply warming, earthy, rather meaty now as well and still full of tobaccos, rancio, plums and bitter herbs. Comments: I'm not too often in the mood for these kinds of mega sherry bombs, but when that mood does strike, a whisky such as this is totally perfect. Love the tension between freshness, fruitiness and intensity of sherry character. Same score as the 1977, but the totally opposite side of the Glenfarclas coin. 
SGP: 561 - 91 points. 

Glenfarclas 20 yo 1969/1989 (58.2%, Signatory Vintage, dumpy, casks #52-54, 900 bottles) 
Colour: deep amber. Nose: not a million miles away from the 1992, but perhaps straighter, more mineral and on metal polish, natural tar, herbal bitters, some top notch VORS oloroso and wee dried exotic fruit notes. Clearly a bit more 'old school' but same ballpark in terms of quality so far I would say. With water: roast game meats, game salami, cloves, black truffle, coffee beans and damp humidor impressions. Massive and getting more clearly old school now! Mouth: excellent arrival, very meaty, gamey and spicy with quite a lot of wood spices and things like liquorice root and aniseed. Bottle aged herbal liqueurs and old tar liqueur like Claquesin. Mint, suet, marrow and rancio! With water: terrific rancio now, full of herbal cocktail bitters, green walnut liqueur, tarragon, eucalyptus, pipe tobacco, lovage and various stocks and broths. Finish: long, rich, full of sweet ales, herbal cough syrups, more liqueurish vibes and still plenty dark fruits and game meats. Comments: very fascinating to this next to the 92, this is clearly of a different era, but I would say, for once, I prefer the more modern one by a small margin. Now, both are superlative sherry bombs of the highest calibre. 
SGP: 662 - 90 points. 

Macallan 2003/2023 'Speymalt' (59.1%, Gordon & MacPhail, #13603613, 1st fill sherry hogshead, 298 bottles)
Colour: amber. Nose: juicy, jammy, generous and modern in the best sense. Rather lot of sweetness and some quite specific notes of strawberry and raspberry jams. Also bramble leaf, quince and cassis. With some time comes these deeper and earthier notes that also involve tobaccos and bitter chocolate. With water: gets rather orangey, with aged Cointreau, bitter marmalade and some figs and prunes. Mouth: another sherry beast! Immediately big, spicy, assertive and rather hot with wee chilli pepper notes that recall some Tabasco and then herbal bitters, winter ales and pumpernickel bread. Feels like it needs water. With water: creamier and more complex now with water, which is quite the improvement. Getting more towards camphor, dark fruit jams, more bitter marmalades, freshly roast coffee beans and bacon frazzles - if you are a connoisseur of UK pub snacks. Pretty excellent once reduced I'd say. Finish: long, richly fruity, bready, spicy and still with a nicely intricate mix of jams and reduced dark fruit notes. Comments: I really like it, but I can't help but feel such a cask would show better with a few degrees reduction. Dear G&M, please can we have an 18yo 100° proof Speymalt…? Seriously. 
SGP: 561 - 88 points.

Macallan 18 yo 1967/1986 (43%, OB, Corade Import France)
I rarely try old Macallan anymore these days, so this is a bit of a treat. Let's try to put out of our minds gargantuan and garish visitor centres, or vast decanter bottlings that you would require a separate seat on the airplane to take home… Colour: amber. Nose: old school sherry, but rather the fresher and fruitier kind, dominated as such by many dark fruits and delicate earthy and tobacco notes. I find many specific notes of sultana, fig and prunes soaking in Armagnac. There's also these very neat touches of leaf mulch and old sherry rancio too. A superbly balanced and enchanting aroma that doesn't really exist today - outside bottles of nice old sherry anyway. Mouth: a notch more drying than the nose suggested, going more towards earthy tones, dried mushrooms, tobacco leaf and things like walnut oil and salted liquorice. The overall impression is still full of 'beautiful old style sherry' though, and also a feeling of impressive freshness and power even at 43%, which I am almost always finding with these old Macs. Finish: medium to long, getting a little more floral and tad more honeyed, revealing some yellow plums and quince jelly in the aftertaste. Comments: simple in some ways, but utterly delicious is the overriding feeling upon tasting this old 18yo. Seriously, a simple but neat and quite perfect style that makes for a crazily quaffable profile that, as we've observed many times before 'Macallan built a brand upon'… 
SGP: 641 - 91 points. 

Macallan 18 yo 1965/1984 (43%, OB, Corade Import France)
Colour: deep orangey amber. Nose: I find this a more complex affair, less directly on fruity old sherry, and more a mix of petrichor and earthy notes, lots of leaf mulch combined with crystallised honeys, flower nectars, some very long aged dessert wines and mentholated pipe tobaccos. This one presents even older and more complex that 18 years I would say. It even starts to develop some delicate dried tropical fruits notes such as mango and papaya chunks. Detailed and highly compelling. Mouth: beautiful arrival, once again drier, but also more diversely fruity, more waxy and more on things like pollens, honeycomb, long aged SGN riesling and camphor. Feels like a different kind of sherry cask at work. I find a little herbal cough syrup and other faintly medicinal impressions. Finish: good length, perfectly drying, herbal, honeyed and waxy with many delicate dried fruits and some lovely fruit and herbal tea notes in the aftertaste. Comments: a notch higher once again I would say. I enjoy the simplicity and directness of the 1967, but there is something highly enigmatic and alluring that comes from this more complex and varied profile. Feels older than 18 in a very positive way.
 SGP: 652 - 92 points.

Macallan-Glenlivet 20 yo 1974/1994 (53.9%, Cadenhead, Authentic Collection, sherrywood matured)
Colour: amber. Nose: ah, one of those old sherry casks that seems to lend a kind of extremely deep and also luminous fruitiness. Immediately chock full of rancio, walnut liqueur, aged pinot noir, bone marrow and quince, but also interspersed with many stunning green, dark and exotic fruits. Also herbs, tobaccos, meats and medicines galore. Everything and the kitchen sink in other words! With water: leaner, more mineral, more gamey and more leathery, with a deeper earthiness and black pepper, bitter herbal extracts and resinous fir wood. Mouth: stunning! Really almost like a liqueur in texture and with this vivid, stunning sweetness. The fruits become almost sticky, like pure jams and purees. Also still wonderfully balanced between gamey notes, sweet tars and medicines, prunes, some ancient Armagnac and mineral oils. With water: loses some of the impressiveness as it gains a little bitterness, but it's still pretty wonderful. Finish: very long, back on tars, cough syrups, liqueurs, dark fruits poached in old armagnac and the most sublime rancio. Comments: sip this one neat I would say, But otherwise, a stunning old Macallan that's up there with the very best of them. Another bottling that makes you think of 1974 as being some kind of borderline in malt whisky after which things started to take a bit of a downward turn in terms of quality and individuality.
SGP: 661 - 93 points.