Another marvellously well aged single grain whisky from Signatory Vintage’s Cask Strength range. This time round, they’ve bottled a dram from the closed Cambus distillery.

Once found in the lowlands, Cambus was a grain distillery that dated back to 1806. The distillery was originally founded as malt producer, but converted to grain in 1836. It became one of the founding companies of Distillers Company Limited, which eventually grew to become Diageo. During its lifetime, Cambus grain spirit was highly prized by blenders – said to be more delicate than other grain spirits.

The distillery had an integral role to play during the ‘Whisky Trials’ of the early 20th century, with the owners producing a one off official bottling and placing an advert in The Daily Mail staking its claim as a genuine whisky. Cambus eventually closed in 1993, but the site still plays an important role in the modern Scotch industry, providing the location for Diageo’s vast in-house cooperage operation.

This 1991 vintage comes from the last few years of production at Cambus. The spirit was distilled on the 29th of May in that year, and bottled on the 31st of August 2020, having aged for fully 29 years in a single refill sherry butt.

The result is a sophisticated and subtle single grain, with notes of sweet grain, sultanas, raisins, soft stewed plums, baked apple, gentle spice, vanilla, toasted coconut flakes, milk chocolate, figs, apricot, black tea and dusty old oak.

A remarkable bottling, presented at warming cask strength of 57% ABV and without chill filtration or colouration. Just 397 bottles were produced.

Cambus is slowly becoming something of a collectors speciality, and it’s easy to see why. Bottlings like this are becoming increasingly rare.

• Product type
  Grain
• Distillery / brand
  Cambus
• Country
  Scotland
• Region
  Lowland
• Bottler
  Signatory
• Cask type
  Sherry
• Distillation date
  29th of May 1991
• Bottling date
  31st of August 2020
• Age
  29 years old
• Non-chillfiltered
  Yes
• Natural colour
  Yes
• SKU
  043050