Cambus 24 Years Old 1993 Cask Series 003 (North Star)

Single grain Cambus, an independent North Star Spirits bottling matured to 24 year old distilled in 1993 and bottled at 52.7%. Only 210 bottles were released. Cambus was a Lowland grain distillery on the River Devon in Clackmannanshire, founded around 1806 and closed in 1993. It was one of the five grain distilleries that founded the Distillers Company Limited in 1877.

The spirit was run off the distillery's continuous column stills, to build a soft, sweet grain character. A sherry cask wrapped the sweet grain in dried fruit and a nutty depth. Around two decades the grain shows coconut, crème brûlée and an oily weight. Continuous distillation gives a light, clean spirit, so decades in oak drive much of the flavour. Single grain Cambus is rare, mostly from independent bottlers and the odd Diageo Special Release. Alfred Barnard visited in 1885, noting six huge warehouses holding seventeen thousand casks.

At a hearty 52.7% it carries real weight. The Pedro Ximenez lends raisin, date and treacle over the sweet grain. A butterscotch and a creamy oak lift it. The close is soft, dessert sweet over oak. This is a single grain from the lost Cambus distillery.