The Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve Single Malt Scotch

Classification: Single Malt
Distillery: The Dalmore
Region/Island: The Highlands
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Age: NAS but rumored to be 12-15 Years. Matured in American white oak ex-bourbon casks, Matusalem oloroso sherry casks, and cabernet sauvignon wine barriques
Proof: 88

The Dalmore Cigar Malt Reserve is not so much a whisky as it is an unspoken agreement between your glass, your cigar, and your better judgment to take the evening very, very slowly.

It greets you politely on the nose — nuts, a bit of chocolate, strawberry if you lean in close enough — with just a whisper of chimney soot, as though it spent the afternoon sitting in the library of a stately old manor that definitely has a ghost or two. There’s leather here, raisins, plum pudding… the sort of aromas that make you cross your legs and adjust your cufflinks without meaning to.

The palate is indulgent: chocolate fudge, wafer biscuits, strawberries in a rich drizzle, and just enough spice to keep the conversation lively. One moment it’s orange peel and Christmas spice, the next it’s a bouquet of dried flowers that’s clearly been sitting in the room of someone far more interesting than you.

The finish lingers like a good story told by someone with nothing to prove — spice, red wine, a hint of tobacco curling lazily in the air, and dark chocolate that hangs around just long enough to make you wish it wouldn’t leave.

Sip it in a leather chair, cigar in hand, and watch the world slow to your preferred speed. It’s the kind of dram that convinces you your opinion on foreign policy matters more after the third glass.