At 12:02am on Saturday, 1 January 2000, as the world celebrated the dawn of a new age, workers at The Dalmore were at their posts securing a notable achievement for the Highland distillery: the first in Scotland to run new spirit off the stills in the third millennium, officially witnessed three minutes after midnight. The final whisky of The Dalmore Decades is also perhaps the most distinctive: it has spent all 20 years of its life in a Matusalem Oloroso sherry butt in a radical departure from the distillery’s practice. Rare and intriguing, black maraschino cherry and bitter chocolate drench the palate, and a final kiss of licorice and tarte Tatin ebbs slowly in the background. While it took 20 long years to craft this unique spirit, its exceptional quality can be recognized in a matter of seconds.