Cambus Diageo Special Releases 2016 40 Years Old 1975

A distillery bottling of Cambus, aged 40 year old distilled in 1975 and bottled at 52.7%. Just 1812 bottles were filled. Cambus, one of Scotland's oldest grain distilleries, ran near Alloa from about 1806 until its closure in 1993. In 1906 its grain was advertised on the front of the Daily Mail as not a headache in a gallon, during the What is Whisky debate.

It was drawn from Coffey stills on Lossburn Reservoir water, for a delicate spirit that leans on the cask with age. Ex-Bourbon casks held the grain, soft oak that drives the sweetness. At thirty five years and more it is rich and oily, coconut, butterscotch and tropical fruit over old oak. Long ageing turns light grain into a deep, oily, dessert sweet whisky. Closed in 1993, the site is now a Diageo cooperage beside the Blackgrange warehouses. The spirit was drawn off two continuous Coffey stills, the water from the Lossburn Reservoir.

Bottled at a cask strength 52.7%, it is rich. The ex-Bourbon gives butterscotch, coconut and cream. The texture is oily and buttery, the sweetness coating. The finish runs buttery, soft and warm. This is the sweet, oily grain of a vanished DCL distillery.