Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Type: Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Gradation: 54.1%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex Bourbon Hogshead
Chillfiltered: No
Additional Coloring: No
Owner: Valinch & Mallet Ltd.
Average price: € 325.00
Official website: www.valinchandmallet.com
Vote: 90/100
After celebrating the hundredth bottling with a mighty Clynelish, Valinch & Mallet presents us with the one hundred and onepart of the Lost Drams collection in an elegant black bottle, with a whisky from a closed and then demolished distillery.
Founded in 1898 by the creators of Glen Grant (and for this reason initially known as Glen Grant #2), it unfortunately short-lived, closing just four years later.
It only reopened in 1965, on the initiative of Glenlivet Distillers, which baptized it Caperdonich not being able to maintain the previous homonymous, and the size is such that it can operate with only two people.
Acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2001, the following year it stopped production and was demolished ten years ago.
As always a single barrel, with a distillate from the 2000 (therefore one of the last produced by the distillery), that gave life to 315 bottles in 2020.
As the dedication on the back of the bottle says, “A way to show you that even as times change, the best casks have always to be bottled.“
Tasting notes
Full gold in the glass.
Heather and lavender emerge on the nose, a flowery and herbaceous profile that caresses the nostrils with firm kindness, soon wrapped in a soft embrace of vanilla hot cream, kaiser pear, cinnamon, lemon, cedar wood, tea leaves. A mineral thread designs the aromas, giving balance to a masterful sense of smell for composure and elegance.
Elegance that is also reflected on the palate, with the register that becomes warmer with the notes enhancing the contrasts between its souls, where the cream crosses spices, fruit is infused with tobacco leaves and wood caresses coffee. Drops of lemon and anise dot the flavors, from which balsamic and menthol impressions emerge.
Long and herbaceous finish with a slight bitter tip, of tobacco, coffee, cream, cinnamon, wood.
Austere but far from algid, it releases a warmth of pronounced elegance as if to emphasize the vivid essence of a distillery now lost, the memory of what it was and that can still be for the goodwill (and foresight) of independent bottlers like these.