Cambus 25 Years Old 1991 Cask #79889 (Glen Fahrn)

Bottled by Glen Fahrn, this Cambus, a 25 year old release distilled in 1991, from cask 79889 and bottled at 54%. 279 bottles in all. A lost Lowland grain distillery near Alloa, Cambus distilled from around 1806 until 1993. Closed in 1993, the site is now a Diageo cooperage beside the Blackgrange warehouses.

It was worked through continuous column stills from grain, for the light, sweet grain spirit Cambus was known for. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak for decades, the wood adding coconut and vanilla. At this age it is rich and waxy, the sweet grain folded into a buttery, oily body. The clean grain base lets the cask speak clearly across long years. Alfred Barnard visited in 1885, noting six huge warehouses holding seventeen thousand casks. A fire destroyed the distillery in 1914; it was rebuilt and resumed in the late 1930s. Cambus was once one of the largest grain distilleries in Scotland. Most surviving Cambus was distilled in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the doors closed.

Undiluted at 54%, it is layered. The ex-Bourbon gives coconut, vanilla and toffee. It is clean and sweet, the grain spirit shining through. The close is soft, dessert sweet over oak. This is an old single grain from a closed Lowland distillery.