It’s always an exciting day to have the first whisky review of a distillery here on Whisky Gospel and today is such an occurrence – and from a distillery that released their first whisky only last summer after almost 12 years – Daftmill distillery.

Daftmill distillery is a farm distillery owned bu Cuthbert family and is located in the lowlands region (the most expanding whisky region of the last decade!). The distillery is running in the farm’s quiet periods (midsummer and winter – hence the summer/winter releases).

Daftmill 2006 Summer Batch Release was the first wide spread release after the inaugural release, Chariot barley harvested in August 2004 from their Dam Park & Curling Pond fields was used and after distillation in it was filled into first fill Ex-bourbon casks from Heaven Hill in Kentucky before being bottled in 2018 after 11 years.

Daftmill 2006 Summer Batch Release (46%, 1665 bottles)

credit: whiskishop.com

Nose: Feels young at first with sweet barley and generous dash of honey & lemon. Vanilla, barley sugar, pears, floral with jasmine and white rose petals but the nose also picked along some chemicals like varnish and polish remover.

Palate: Quick spices and nuts hit, then comes a wave of floral and chemical notes followed by another big spice storm. Dry, oak spices, white pepper, strong and quite overwhelming disturbance  of chemical bitterness. Towards the end some barley, sweet candies and honey. Far spicier than the nose.

Finish: Short medium length, lingering spices and bitterness. dry jasmine and white rose petals, subtle honeyed candies but mainly bitter spiciness.

Thoughts: While the nose is fine despite (or because) of the chemical notes, for me this whisky utterly failed on the palate delivery with the strong chemical bitterness. I know some people do like it a lot but it’s not up my (whisky) alley, even after trying 2 different bottles a few months apart.