A Long Week And A Damn Good Dram!


Whisky: Abbey Whisky The Rare Casks 4th Release Glencadam 22 year old
 

Distillery/Brand:
Glencadam

Bottling:

Abbey Whisky The Rare Casks 4th Release Glencadam 22 year old

Region:
Highland

ABV:
55.3%

Colour:

Sunlight

Review:
It's been a long week, in fact it's been a long month, with Whisky Live Sydney done and dusted and Whisky Live Melbourne just a week away, a fresh batch of That Boutiquey Whisky Company imported by the company I work for, staff training on whisky, Dram Full events, past and future, whisky, whisky, whisky.

Heaps of whisky related things, events, promotions, but sadly too little whisky drinking going on.  So after work today when I got off work I already knew what I was going to have.

Abbey Whisky's newly released Rare Cask bottling 4, a Glencadam 22 year old, cask strength.  I'd talked to Mike, the owner of Abbey Whisky, a while back about the Glencadam and he'd sent me a sample several weeks back, but between never trying a Glencadam in my life, the high quality of all of the other Rare Casks bottled by Mike, and not having had nearly enough whisky over the last few weeks, well to say I was excited just doesnt do the word "excited" justice.

So after dinner I cracked the little sample bottle open, poured it into my favorite glencairn, and sat down to nose.

Sweet jesus I dont get to do this enough anymore,  the nose just immediately sucks me in and as I lick the few droplets that I spilled getting it out of it's bottle I know I'm in for one hell of a treat!

Let's get a little technical information out of the way first.

Glencadam. is a little Highland distillery, the only one in the region of Angus in Scotland.  A majority of it's whisky is used in blends such as Ballentines, however it's now being also bottled as a single malt which you can ever so often see in Australia if you're very very lucky.

This little whisky had 96 bottles come out of the cask, a refill bourbon cask, at a strength of 55.3%.

Alright with all of that out of the way let's get into the actual whisky shall we?!

The nose immediately sucks me in with pineapple, toasted oak, vanilla, pear juice, toffee, slight sherry, wee bit of mint. It's a good little nose and one I'd be content to sit with for a good 20 minutes.

However whisky is meant for drinking, not just smelling so let's give that a go shall we?

The flavors are lovely and intense, good balance, pepper, cherries covered in mint, candy sugar, vanilla, creamy and dry, begging me to take another taste, pear juice and melon, hint of milk chocolate.  Yum.

This little whisky ends with grapefruit, white peppers, and caramel, long and lingering.

Sitting here for the last half hour, forty minutes, watching the new Robocop while I sit here starring in my glass, man what a great way to wind down from the week.  A bottle of this would run along the lines of $150 AUS or so, which in my opinion is damn well worth it.  The only pain in the ass thing about the Abbey Whisky bottlings is I never have enough money to grab 2 bottles of them at a time, which is something I wish I could do, one for immediate drinking and one for future drinking.

Curse you Mike, curse you!


Nose:         23/25
Taste:         23/25
Finish:       21/25
Balance:    23/25

Overall:     90/100