The Dava Way

First Four ‘The Dava Way’ Bottlings

You have probably heard of Dunphail distillery, a soon-to-be distillery located a few miles south of Forres, in Speyside. Dunphail has been founded by Dariusz Plazewski, who already founded the deservedly hyped Bimber Distillery in London. Whilst Dunphail is not yet producing, and thus not making money (except by selling in advance founder packs and casks shares), they decided to add an independent bottling branch to the distillery. This branch is called The Dava Way, named after one of Scotland’s many long-distance walking and off-road cycling routes, between Forres and Grantown-on-Spey, and passing less than a mile from Dunphail distillery. My good friend Matt McKay, who started as director of communication for Bimber, is now also the Director of Whisky Creation and Outreach at Dunphail, and selected the first four ‘The Dava Way’ bottlings. Until Dunphail has a regular revenue, The Dava Way will allow Dunphail to gain visibility and help the operational revenue. Matt reached out to me to offer to send me samples of those bottlings, and obviously I could not refuse!

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Dailuaine 11yo SMWS 41.104 Some like it hot

SMWS Dailuaine 41.104 – Some like it hot

Dailuaine is one of the numerous Diageo distilleries located in Speyside. In 1852, William Mackenzie founded Dailuaine, but died only 13 years later. His widow leased the distillery to a banker from Aberlour, James Fleming. After Mackenzie’s son and Fleming founded Mackenzie and Company in 1879, it evolved in 1891 into Dailuaine-Glenlivet Distillery Ltd. A few years later in 1989, Dailuaine merged with Talisker and formed Dailuaine-Talisker Distilleries Ltd (nice couple isn’t it?). Unfortunately, in 1915 Thomas Mackenzie dies without heir and the next year, Dailuaine-Talisker is bought by its previous customers John Dewars & Sons, John Walker & Sons et James Buchanan & Co (nope, not “& Sons”, sorry). After a fire, a closure, and a reopening, it’s bought in 1925 by Distillers Company Limited (DCL) that will later become the company known today as Diageo. Fast forward nowdays, Dailuaine is still active and has a capacity of 5.2 million litres of pure alcohol per annum.

The bottle we review today is a 11-year-old Dailuaine bottled by SMWS under the number 41.104 and the name “Some like it hot”. It was released in 2018 in the Spicy and Sweet category. Matured in an refill bourbon barrel, it was distilled on the 23rd March of 2006. Bottled at cask strength at 58.1% abv, it gave an outturn of 186 bottles.

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