CAPERDONICH 1977 - CADENHEAD SMALL BATCH

This spring, during the Spirit of Speyside Festival, Mark Watt, now with Cadenhead, introduced those of us at his tasting, to the new Cadenhead Small Batch series.

The Small Batch series is made up from 1 cask to a vatting of a few casks and to make them more recognisable, its put in 70cl (small) clear dumpy bottles.... and we had an amazing lineup for that tasting - all were still cask samples at the time:

• Craigellachie 1994 18yo
• Cameronbridge 1989 24yo
• Cadenhead Creations Batch 1
• Glenlivet-Minmore 1970 43yo
• Bowmore 1998
• Highland Park 1988 25yo

Later, in the summer when these were bottled, I ended up with 2 x Highland Park 1988 25yo (a 2 cask bottling, btw) and 1 bottle of the Glenlivet-Minmore 1970 43yo (single cask) - Stellar stuff!! ...as were the Craigellachie for that matter :-)

Now, as I mentioned in my first Caperdonich review here on the blog, the grounds where Caperdonich Distillery used to be, now holds the expanded business of the Forsyth's Coppersmiths... and since I don't have a picture in my archives of Caperdonich, I'll bore you with a picture from Forsyths instead. When I visited in 2012 they were putting together a wash still for Irish Distillers in Middleton, Ireland - and a big one it was. It was on beams, so not to damage it but still, its a big one! Below picture is from next to the still... and I'm 6'4'' !! (193cm)

But back to today's review of the Caperdonich 1977, a bottling also from the small batch series. When I bought this, for me, it was clearly a bottle to keep... but I was also tempted to use at a recent tasting, so I caved in and did that, because I'm such a nice guy! ;-) and I know Mark Watt has a soft spot for Caperdonich, so I must admit I was expecting something extra special here.

Bottom half of a wash still going to Irish Distillers - its BIG, May 5th 2012 © The Malt Desk

Caperdonich 1977 35yo, 50,2%, Ex-sherry butt, 384 bottles, Cadenhead Small Batch

Colour is nutty brown

Nose:
Mid-aged rum and raisin, coffee, sweet sherry, some chocolate and dried fruits and mint. This could be extra spicy After Eights!

Taste:
Lovely clean sherry, though a tad bitter at first. Then oranges, dark fruits, mint again, honey and cherry liqueur. Finished on more dark and drying chocolate.

I'm a sucker for this style of whisky - a real autumn warmer and truly a little stunner and certainly one for you out there with a sweet tooth

You know how to pick them, Mark - Good job!

91/100!