I did a week of reviews of old single grain Scotch whiskies in October: a 43 yo North of Scotland, a 43 yo Invergordon, and a 40 yo Caledonian. Of the three, I was only particularly enthused by the Caledonian. Best to quit while ahead, you might say. Accordingly, here is another week of reviews of old single grain Scotch whiskies. Three completely different distilleries this time, all of whose names start with “c” (a good omen perhaps). They’re also all either from sherry casks or sherry finishes (the previous trio were all ex-bourbon). They’re also not quite as old as that 40-something trio. Well, one of them is older than all three of those but the other two are quite a bit younger. We’ll start the week with the youngest, a 27 yo Cameronbridge that was distilled in 1990 and received a sherry finish (of what duration, I do not know) before it was bottled in 2017 by the German bottler, Jack Wieber on the occasion of their 20th anniversary. You’d expect a quality pick for the occasion. Let’s see what I make of it.

Cameronbridge 27, 1990 ( 59.1%; Jack Wieber; sherry finish; from a bottle split)

Nose: Dark sherry with leather, dried orange peel and a bit of pipe tobacco. Leafier on the second and third sniffs. Gets earthier with time (dried mushrooms). Continues in this vein. A few drops of water bring out more of the dried mushrooms (and also a whiff of dead rodent).

Palate: Comes in with raisins added to the rest from the nose. Syrupy mouthfeel at first—and surprisingly approachable at full strength—but the sherry separates almost immediately as I swallow. Sweeter on subsequent sips with some cherry. Let’s see what water does for it. Well, it mostly fixes the sherry separation here and emphasizes the earthy notes over the sweet.

Finish: Medium-long. The sherry separation continues and with time gets quite pronounced. A little more sour here with water; and the sherry does still separate at the end.

Comments: An oloroso finish, I’d guess; and given the quick sherry separation on the palate, I’d also guess it wasn’t applied for very many of those 27 years. Other than that I quite liked it. I preferred the nose neat, the palate with water; the finish didn’t really do it for me either way. Either way, hard to distinguish this from a heavily sherried malt of similar age.

Rating: 85 points.