The Duncan Taylor Octave Collection
Circled back to Delmonico in The Palazzo on my recent Vegas excursion. I wanted to have the seared ahi with the bone marrow Bearnaise (wasn’t on the menu, had Rambler’s bbq salmon over andouille hash; also amazing) and, of course, I wanted another crack at their “book of whisky”. It took me about 20 minutes, given the scope of their book, but I decided to try an expression from a distillery I hadn’t had before and one caught my eye: MacDuff. MacDuff is interesting to me because they sometimes release expressions under the brand “Glen Deveron”, which I find quite unique in the industry, yet here was a MacDuff branded expression:
The specific expression was an independent bottling from Duncan Taylor’s “Octave Collection”. An “octave” is a cask that is 1/8th the size of a standard cask and contains approximately 50 litres of whisky providing a higher wood to spirit contact ratio developing more character.
The 1998 Vintage is cask strength yet I didn’t even notice. What was remarkable to me was the light orange in the nose and the palate and, in short, that the nose, the palate, and the finish were all tremendous. Any one of those is a welcome experience. Getting two of three is the sign of something special. But, to get all three made this a truly memorable single malt. I enjoyed the dram pre-dinner along with my beef carpaccio which turned out to be an inspired pairing.
The GREAT news is this expression is widely available including at all Binny’s. To all of the upcoming Fear ‘an Tighs please, PLEASE consider putting this expression (and possibly other Octaves) in your tasting lineup!
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