Whisky: Cambus 30 Year (1989), Alambic Classique Cask 19094

Country/Region: Scotland/Lowland Grain

ABV: 61.1%

Cask: Sherry Cask

Age: 30 Years (Distilled 1989, Bottled 2019)

Nose: Classic sherried fruits atop lacquered wood and cinnamon sticks; wood and dry baking spices tingled with more subtle honey or caramel, hints of leather and coffee alongside more polished wood.

Palate: Medium-bodied with rich sherried fruits and baking spices; lacquered wood and wood polish arrived with woody tannins, cinnamon, leather, more dried stone fruits, and struck match heads toward the end.

Finish: Medium to long and drying with wood and dried fruits.

Score: 5 (73)

Mental Image: Ruined Alter to the Sherry Gods

Narrative & Notes: Well sherried? Yes. Interesting? No. Sure to tickle the fancy of sherry fiends, especially those in the mood for something without a lot of maltiness or peat or really anything to distract from the dried fruits and spices brought by the cask.  I found this too tannic and simple for my taste, and I have not been a massive fan of these massively sherried Cambus, though there are some exceptional casks out there.

Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment as the lack of any verbose analysis or description on my part likely makes obvious. Not a bad whisky, but I am not sure I would accept a pour if someone offered. I might instead drink something else or forgo having a dram entirely.

There are a lot of positive reviews for this whisky on Whiskybase. Maybe they are all people trying to flip bottles, or I missed something about this whisky, so your mileage may vary.

Image Credit: Captain Scotch

About Cambus

One of the founding members of Distillers Company Limited in 1877, malt whisky production at Cambus began in 1806 before the operation retooled for grain whisky in 1836. Cambus was one of the largest producers in the nineteenth century, expanding multiple times. The twentieth century proved more difficult as fire destroyed much of the distillery in 1914. For over two decades, the distillery was silent; it reopened in 1937 after significant rebuilding but shuttered again during the Second World War.

While Cambus survived the initial decade of the Whisky Loch, Diageo (or United Distillers at the time) shuttered the distillery in 1993 as part of a broader reorganization plan as the company looked to stabilize after a tumultuous decade. Quite a bit of stock was sold off at that point and it is not unusual to find Cambus from the late eighties and early nineties under the label of independent bottling companies.

The distillery campus was used for storage and filling operations after 1993 and then repurposed in 2011 as Diageo centralized cooperage operations at a single site.

More common than some of the other closed grain distilleries due to its late closure, but after three decades, stocks are, of course, only decreasing. There have been quite a few sherry maturations from the early nineties, which fans of big, loud, sherried whisky may find appealing and cost-effective given the age.