Caperdonich 35 1972/2008 Duncan Taylor ‘Rare Auld’

Thanks to /u/whisky_lads for this sample.

Got these samples from a guy who isn’t active on here anymore. Tried hunting him down. Dog the Bounty Hunter, I am not.

So I’ve decided I am going to review these with the names they have on them. If that’s ever proved wrong, cool. I’ll change these up.

So next we have another old one, Caperdonich 35 Duncan Taylor ‘Rare Auld’.

Caperdonich has been mothballed fairly recently (in whisky years) in 2002. It’s owned by Pernod Ricard, and we don’t know if it’s every coming back.

Granted we’ve been there before. This distillery started as Glen Grant #2. Glen Grant used it to keep up with demand… and then was closed down 4 years later. Because of a credit crisis.

The more things change, ladies and gentleman, the more they stay the same.

In 1965 the distillery was reopened and rebuilt by Glenlivet and given it’s current name. It gained some upgrades, and could be run by 2 people.

In 1977 some Canucks showed up and bought it, and they kept it until 2001 when Pernod Ricard ended up with it. Then closed it. So far of the three they closed at the same time, Caperdonich is still closed.

Granted it took 6 decades to reopen it. The bottlings pop up, and can be quite random, which includes a peated malt made in 1998.

This is not that malt.

The Rare Auld bottling series is no longer on Duncan Taylor’s website. I’m going to assume this means it’s all fake and I’ve found a way out of the matrix.

Or rather they no longer make this specific bottling series. Either is possible.

So let’s see how this tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A in Ontario

Region: Speyside

Vintage: 11.1972

Bottled: 08.2008

Cask Type: Oak Cask

Cask Number: 7431

Number of bottles: 181

Abv: 48.7%

Colour: 7.5Y 9/6

Nose: Sprite, pine on fire, pastry, turnip, butter

Light, simple nose on this one, which is a surprise. It has this distinctive smell of fire, lemon, and earthy.

Good amount of butter. It’s okay, but I want more.

Taste: Caramel, mineral, green melon, lime zest, cola, ribs that have been cooked in cola

Hey, look, it’s me, your friend, more.

Lots of caramel notes on this one. Fruity, good amount of acid, more acid, and a bunch of caramel.

Meaty at one point. If I was having this blind, I’d guess Mortlach, because I’m bad at mystery drams.

Finish: Butterscotch, cinnamon buns, coffee, white chocolate, passion fruit, raspberry

And this is why we drink this. The finish is the best part. It’s sweet, earthy, buttery, more butter, I love butter, oh god I have to stop eating so much butter.

Also some fruit. Tart aspects to bring it all together.

Conclusion: It’s hard to rate this one, because honestly it’s really quite all over the place. The nose really never opens up. It’s unique, but… just that. And then the taste is a caramel bomb, which is great.

Then the finish shows you that it’s actually an old ass malt, and deserves your fucking respect, dammit.

As such, some might find my score odd. If this had the nose like the finish, my score would be a lot higher. Or if the taste was just a little more insane, I may have increased it.

As it stands though, I feel that this is the kind of dram you enjoy for the finish. And somewhat the taste.

83/100

Scotch review #561, Speyside review #172, Whisky Network review #925