Alright, let’s bring my reviews of old single grain whiskies to a close. Today’s whisky is older than both the others I’ve reviewed this week (this Cameronbridge and this Cambus) and also all three of the considerably older single grains I reviewed in October (this Invergordon, this North of Scotland, and this Caledonian). It’s a 45 yo from Carsebridge, distilled in 1973 and bottled by the Thompson Bros. of Dornoch in 2018. Whiskybase lists it as being from a sherry butt but lists an outturn of only 349 bottles. Might have been a cask split with someone else? They did bottle another 1973 Carsebridge the next year with an outturn of 437 bottles (and a much higher abv); but 349+437 adds up to a lot of bottles, even for a sherry butt. If anyone knows where the rest of this cask went, do right in to the comments. Anyway, I liked both the Cameronbridge and the Cambus and hope this Carsebridge will take us out on an even higher note. Let’s see.

Carsebridge 45, 1973 (53.5%; Thompson Bros.; sherry butt; from a bottle split)

Nose: Banana bread with raisins, caramel: this noses like a rum at first. Also at second, third and fourth sniff. Some polished oak expands slowly in the background. It takes about 10 minutes but the sherry notes begin to emerge, dark with dried orange peel, dried mushrooms and brandied raisins. Water brightens the citrus up a little bit but also makes the earthy notes expand.

Palate: Here it’s a richly sherried whisky from the get-go and as I swallow a big hit of fruit begins to emerge: cherries, blackberries, quite a bit of apricot jam. Very approachable at full strength with syrupy texture. More oaky bite on the second sip but it works well with the sweeter fruit. The oak and the fruit both gain oomph with time. Let’s see what water does to it. It makes it brighter and sweeter and pushes the oak back.

Finish: Long. The fruit and the oak see each other out, with the oak getting the upper hand as it fades. As on the palate with water.

Comments: If I’d only been given a couple of sniffs I would have guessed it was a rum. But it’s a sherried whisky on the palate and probably the best single grain I’ve yet had. The sherry cask is dominant here—this has none of the notes I associate with grain whisky, even very old grain whisky—and the result is just very good old, sherried Scotch whisky: not easy to tell apart from a heavily sherried old fruity malt (this is almost in Longmorn territory). Very lovely indeed.

Rating: 90 points.