Carsebridge 34 1982 Signatory Cask Strength Collection

Each year, during December, I break into any whiskies I have from 1982. Why? Because that’s when I ended up being born.

This year there are four, and I’m quite excited because a) it’s getting harder to find the already hard-to-find whiskies from this year. If you’re wondering why, look up when distilleries started shutting down in the 80s (because the 80s sucked)

Birthday Dram #1 is Carsebridge 34 1982 Signatory Cask Strength Collection, which is excited because a) it’s my birthday and b) I’ve never had something from Carsebridge before.

I’m pretty lucky to even be trying a Carsebridge. It closed in 1983, so this is some of the last juice to run through the stills. The distillery was originally founded back in 1799 or 1804, changed to patent still in 1852, and had a good reputation until the 80s sucked the life out of the world and distilleries were sacrificed to help heal the wound.

So let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Price: Discontinued

Region: Lowland

Cask Type: Refill Sherry Hogshead

Cask # 74689

Distilled: December 8th 1982

Bottled: January 18th, 2017

Stated Age: 34 years old

Number of Bottles: 168

Abv: 48.8%

Colour: 2.5Y 6/8

Nose: Caramelized mango, coconut cream, sandalwood soap, cedar

Interesting. Starts out with this burnt fruit sugar/tropical note, takes that tropical idea and then goes right into “manly soap” territory.

Bit shy, I think this may have been placed in the cask lighter. Or originally they didn’t plan for it to be used in 2017, who knows.

Taste: Mango, nectarine pie, soap, Orange Julius, violet, light brown sugar

A long time ago I tried out making my own mango pie. It tasted kinda like the start of this. That tropical mixture with nectarine pie elements. I should make it again.

Time brings out a cream/orange mixture, floral and brown sugar notes. It’s a very “pretty” dram, very light. Nothing too strong like smoke or caramel here.

That said, that soap part is not making me a fan.

Finish: Plum, cardamom, dandelion, OJ, oak, cocoa

More fruit, floral, and nice orange notes to round us out. Nothing too interesting in comparison to the taste and nose, however it’s certainly interesting in and of itself.

Conclusion: A soft, pretty dram that does orange and floral well, but has some missteps on the fact I don’t like to eat soap. But a lot of people do, what with those horrible soap gums being popular.

It’s really nice to have a single grain whisky that’s been given the time it needed to start to shine. We’re hitting those wacky, odd flavours going on, it all seems to jive (with soap and maybe the finish being a bit rough) and was nice to sip on.

83/100

Scotch review #1041, Lowland review #42, Whisky Network review #1627