Scotch Whisky Review #310: Lonach Caperdonich 23 Year (1992)
Distillery: Caperdonich.
Bottler: Duncan Taylor.
Region: Speyside.
Age: 23 Year. Distilled in 1992 and bottled in 2015.
ABV: 46.00%
Price: Sample courtesy of /u/bradbobaggins
Color: 1.2, Chestnut/Oloroso Sherry.
Nose: It’s light and fruity, though I can’t pick out any fruits in particular. Seems to be a mix of berries though. It’s got a slightly medicinal slant to things, almost as if it’s like Oriental medicine.
Palate: It’s quite malt forward from the start. Following it comes some slightly medicinal notes. Ginger and a mix of goji berries, jujubes, and other red berries are the most prominent notes. It kind of tastes a bit like the broth found in samgye-tang (삼계탕/Chicken ginseng soup), though it does lack a bit of the savory chicken flavor.
Finish: Medium in length. Again, it is fairly medicine with a candied ginseng flavor coming through very strongly. It’s super dominant and just overtakes everything else so quickly. There’s a bit of an almost burnt earthiness that goes along quite nicely with the ginseng.
Conclusion: In my quest to try to check off every distillery I can feasibly try, I’ve come to Caperdonich, or ‘Glen Grant No. 2’. There seems to still be a somewhat decent amount of stock laying around though so I figured I’d give it a try before things got too scarce. This bottling bares a lot of resemblance to a Glen Grant Chieftain’s I had once, with a lot of ginger. Unlike that Chieftain’s though, this one has other things going on to give it some more depth. The mix of berries and jujubes with the ginger really gives off the feeling of a very healthy flavor profile. The candied ginseng in the finish though is quite dominant and I can imagine it not being for everyone. Would I buy a bottle? Unlikely, but I’m glad to have tried this.
Final Score: 79.
Scotch Whisky Review #310, Speyside Review #115, Whisky Network Review #452
Scoring Legend:
- 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
- 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
- 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
- 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
- 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
- 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
- 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
- Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.
All of my whisky reviews and reviews of whatever else I think of can be found over on my blog.
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