I looked through my tasting notes but I doubt I can do a ‘Closed Distilleries’ theme week now. I guess it will be Speyside then! That’s an easy one with half the Scottish distilleries being there.
This bottling was recently made available by Wu Dram Clan to celebrate their third anniversary. It’s one of three, with the Unnamed Islay from earlier this month as one, and an upcoming Glenburgie as the other counterpart to this Caperdonich.
Caperdonich is a distillery that’s been closed since 2002, and bottlings have recently begun to be increasingly expensive. Honestly, with this clocking in just under € 400 it’s not even that ‘out there’.
Originally also known as Glen Grant II, it’s kind of obvious what the distillery’s purpose was. Things weren’t meant to be after little over a hundred years and the place closed down. After some wheeling and dealing one pair of the stills were sold to The Owl Distillery near Liège in Belgium and have been installed there since 2013. The other pair of still is intended to be installed in the Falkirk Distillery.
Anyway, the whisky then! Let’s find out!
Sniff:
Quite rich. A combination of lighter notes of dried fruit, and heavier notes of straw and oak. A slight garlic-y note, somehow. I don’t think I ever had that before… Apricot jam, mango chutney. Quite a lot of oak, even for a 22 year old whisky.
Sip:
The palate is a very interesting combination of big oaky notes on one end, and a rather spirity approach on the other. There’s not much in the middle, strangely. Quite a lot of sweetness, of peaches and apricots mostly. A very minor note of minerals and iron.
Swallow:
The finish is back to that spirit again. Lots of newmake notes, this must have been some intense spirit when it came of the still! Apricots, with stone, oak, iron.
Well, to say this is an interesting whisky would be an understatement. Generally I’ve found myself to not be the greatest fan of ‘younger’ Caperdonich, but this one is very good. It’s also really cool to have all these weird combinations of notes. Of richer dried fruit and minerally iron, of lots of oak and a strange note of garlic. Really cool stuff!
88/100
Malt Fascination 