Glencadam 10-year-old

Bought: Whisky Galore, 23^rd May 2016

Ratings:
95/100 – Whisky Bible 2016
82.49/100 – Whiskybase (average from 189 member votes)

The Glencadam 10yo is one of those whiskies that once you get it you wonder what took you so long. It’s been on my wish list for years, which began when I noticed its high score in the Whisky Bible. 95/100 classifies this dram as a “superstar whisky that gives us all a reason to live” and the author, Jim Murray, says about the taste “immediately zingy and eye-wateringly salivating with a fabulous layer of sweet barley. Equally delicate oak chimes in to ensure a light spiced balance and a degree of attitude.” He summarises with “sophisticated, sensual, salivating, and serene, this malt is all about juicy barley and balance. Just bristling with character and about as puckeringly elegant as single malt gets…and even thirst-quenching.”

82.5/100 on Whiskybase, although not as impressive as 95/100, is nevertheless a very good score from nearly 200 member votes. Comments include “it’s delicate indeed, as the label suggests. A light bodied dram.” And “I like it. It is a bit youngish, but definitely has character.” But some feel the quality has been diminishing in recently year. Jim Murray’s review dates back to 2009/10 and underlying whiskies change over time even if their labels and details don’t. I just hope I’ve not left it too late and most of the qualities of this brilliant 10yo are still in the bottle.

Here’s Jo of ‘Whisky Wednesday’ giving us his thoughts about the Glencadam 10yo on You Tube (Sept 2013):

Taranty (Glencadam) 15-year-old

Bought – Online Whisky Auction, 31st October 2013

Like the Cawdordew I posted about yesterday, this is another curiously named malt by ‘The Whisky Connoisseur’ bottlers. I did a hunt for ‘Taranty’ and there’s a Taranty Fair in Brechin, where we find the Glencadam distillery and the source of this bottle. That makes sense. I then attempted to find out the meaning of the word ‘taranty’ and from the number of geneology links I got it appears to be a surname with origins in France. That suggests that the Taranty Fair was started by someone called Taranty, which also makes sense. As for the whisky itself, stopping writing this and drinking it makes complete sense!