Glencadam Distillery launches limited edition of its Highland Single Malt – Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish Aged 19 Years
A limited quantity of Glencadam Highland Single Malt, aged 19 years, has been released. The Sherry cask “Finish” has been created by the careful selection of mature whisky “finished” in Oloroso Sherry butts. The malt whisky was transferred from Bourbon casks into the hand-picked butts to “finish” its maturation for a generous period of time. This process of “finishing” bestows on the whisky refined characteristics, most notably, tones of Sherry sweetness. Our Master Distiller deemed that the time was right to bottle the whisky at 19 years of age when the malt whisky flavour notes had reached harmony with the rich, raisiny and fruit cake characteristics of the Sherry wood.
Just 6000 bottles were produced from the Sherry butts and each bottle is individually numbered. The result is an “enriched” and beautifully crafted Glencadam Highland Single Malt expression.
Colour
Ripe Golden Barley
Nose
Sweet and inviting with aromas of milk chocolate and toffee mingled with toasted walnuts, dried fruits and a subtle whiff of cigar smoke.
Palate
Creamy and rich with layers of chocolate raisins, almond nougat, butterscotch candies and dried figs followed by sweet clove spices.
Finish
Initially sweet with notes of salted caramel and chocolate mousse fading into toasty cinnamon and nutmeg spices leaving a faint, maple linger.
Review 127 9th May 2021
This review looks at the Glencadam 19 Year Old Single Malt Whisky from Angus Dundee Distillers.
Bottled at 46% ABV, it is both Non Chill Filtered (NCF) and Natural Colour.
It is widely available, example prices at the time of recording include:
The Whisky World £107.19
Master of Malt £103.90
House of Malt £103.95
The Whisky Exchange £111.00
Giving an average price of £106.66
For its value score it achieves 94.39 out of 100. The decent value score reflecting it's natural presentation.
With regards to cask maturation, it is Ex-Bourbon Matured and Oloroso Cask Finished, they don't state how long each period of maturation or finishing is for.
On the nose, you instantly get the Oloroso Sherry influence of rich fruits, fruit cake spices and oak. There are notes of both toffee and honey. It is a really lovely nose, we are sure, that if you let is sit for a while longer it will reward you with more for your senses to enjoy .
On the palate, this is something wonderful. It is rich fruit cake fruits and the spices that you would expect (cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg) but these flavours while bold, do not over power the Glencadam signature spirit, that delicate yet aromatic note nor does it outdo the bourbon maturation. It is a well balanced whisky. There is milk chocolate, oak and a slight whiff of a smoke element, however, we believe this doesn't have any smoked barley in the mashbill. The finish is quite long with oak spice and toffee apple appearing which seem to last sometime.
With water, the nose is relatively unchanged. On the Palate, the sherry has backed off allowing more of the bourbon notes to come forward with more oak, more spice and vanilla, it is now showing its pedigree displayed in its younger siblings of the 10 Year Old and 15 Year Old that we have reviewed previously.
This is a really really lovely whisky, however for an average price of £106.66, it is above our budget, but if you have the money to spend on a very good example of a sherry influenced whisky while still seeing the distillery spirit character appearing and some of the main cask influence, then this is definitely a whisky to consider, it is quite simply fantastic.
We do recommend this whisky, however, considering the age of 19 Year Old and the price of £106.66 we suggest this to be an Intermediate experience level whisky, but the alcohol strength and palate doesn't put it off being something a relative beginner to whisky could enjoy if they have the budget to spend on one bottle.
For an overall score we give this 90 out of 100. It really is fantastic.