Carsebridge 34 Years Old 1982 Cask #74603 (Signatory)

The Pitlochry bottler Signatory Vintage bottled this Carsebridge single grain, a 34 year old, distilled in 1982, from cask 74603, bottled at 49.9%, one of 169 bottles. Carsebridge, by 1980 the largest grain distillery in Scotland, was closed three years later. It was transferred to Scottish Grain Distillers in 1966 and closed in 1983 in the DCL consolidation.

The spirit was run off the distillery's Coffey continuous stills, giving a clean, mellow grain whisky. A sherry cask wrapped the sweet grain in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Ethereal and old, oak lactones give a profound coconut and vanillin a waxy vanilla, over tropical fruit and mellow oak. Patient ageing gives the oily, waxy texture prized in old single grain. Alfred Barnard admired its two elegant Coffey stills on his visit in the 1880s. Refill oak lets the clean grain show, the wood adding coconut and a buttery toffee. Closed in 1983 and demolished in 1992, its profile is fixed for good.

At 49.9%, undiluted, it is deep and sweet. The Oloroso lends dried fruit, fig and walnut, the oak adding coconut from its lactones. Soft toffee and vanilla sit behind the sweetness. Toffee and vanilla see out a long finish. This is a finite single grain from the lost Carsebridge distillery.