Daftmill is a farm distillery. Owned and operated by the Cuthbert family, it only runs in the farm’s quiet periods; midsummer and winter, sometimes producing as few as 100 casks per year. When not distilling, Francis Cuthbert looks after the estate, growing the malting barley used to make this Lowland whisky.
2010 was the last time we used the barley variety Optic for distilling. It was grown in three fields next to each other that we call the South Fields. The whisky that went into this bottling was from 15 first fill bourbon barrels filled in the first half of 2010. Then stored on the ground floor of our dunnage warehouse until bottling in 2023. Bottled exclusively for the USA.
TASTING NOTES
Nose: very sweet and focussed on bubblegum, buttered popcorn and lemon barley water. A very impressive freshness and brightness to the nose, while still retaining full expression of the raw ingredients and impressions of bailed hay, muddle green herbs and tinned pineapple. Water brings notes of aniseed, dried apple rings and white flowers.
Palate: a little drier and more peppery up front than the nose suggests, but otherwise full of barley sugars, mint julep, flower honey and hints of cut grass and wildflowers. Highly evocative and superbly fresh! With water there’s more barley sugars, more natural sweetness and even some hints of exotic, hoppy IPA.
Finish: long, grassy, citric, bright and still beautifully, naturally sweet.
2010 was the last time we used the barley variety Optic for distilling. It was grown in three fields next to each other that we call the South Fields. The whisky that went into this bottling was from 15 first fill bourbon barrels filled in the first half of 2010. Then stored on the ground floor of our dunnage warehouse until bottling in 2023. Bottled exclusively for the USA.
TASTING NOTES
Nose: very sweet and focussed on bubblegum, buttered popcorn and lemon barley water. A very impressive freshness and brightness to the nose, while still retaining full expression of the raw ingredients and impressions of bailed hay, muddle green herbs and tinned pineapple. Water brings notes of aniseed, dried apple rings and white flowers.
Palate: a little drier and more peppery up front than the nose suggests, but otherwise full of barley sugars, mint julep, flower honey and hints of cut grass and wildflowers. Highly evocative and superbly fresh! With water there’s more barley sugars, more natural sweetness and even some hints of exotic, hoppy IPA.
Finish: long, grassy, citric, bright and still beautifully, naturally sweet.
