Cadenhead Whisky Shop Edinburgh

Cadenhead_Edinburgh

Ah Cadenhead’s. A truly remarkable shop. A truly remarkable bottler. WM Cadenhead is the oldest independent bottler in Scotland. Hailing back to 1842. That’s a long time ago. Cadenhead’s is currently owned by J & A Mitchell & Co (the same family who own Springbank), which means they still have that traditional feel. While bottlings from Cadenhead’s can be found at many specialist whisky shops, the best place to find them is at a Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop. Sort of like Apple products maybe?

There are Cadenhead shops spread about Europe, but in this post I will be talking about the best one. Edinburgh’s Cadenhead’s Shop. Ok well admittedly I haven’t been to the others but I can’t imagine them being any better than this. This little shop carries some of the most diverse and entertaining selections of whisky in the world. They also have live casks in the shop from which you can purchase some excellent whisky for excellent value. They also carry non-whisky spirits such as rum, gin, and brandy. Actually they were more known for rum back in the day and some of the old guard are still shocked to find that they carry anything else.

Continue reading

Advertisement

Ben Nevis 22 Cadenhead’s Small Batch 53.5%

BenNevis_22

Ben Nevis is quite an interesting distillery. At least in my book. As the name would suggest the distillery lies at the foot of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Scotland. It is currently owned by Nikka and a great deal of the whisky produced there is shipped directly to Japan for use in their blends. I believe Nikka Black 8 year old gets the lions share of the spirit but it also shows up in the Pure Malt series. Due to it’s heavy usage in Japanese blends, you don’t see too much of it on the shelves as a single malt. They have a couple standard expressions and some really expensive weird expressions aged in white port and ruby port. So finding a bottle of Ben Nevis was a real treat for me. I have found the independent bottlings of Ben Nevis to be quite exciting.

Distillery: Ben Nevis

Bottler: Cadenhead

Age: 22

Cask: Bourbon

ABV: 53.5%

Continue reading

SMWS 127.42 Port Charlotte Peat Freak Heaven

smws_127.42_port_charlotte

This is the second newest bottling of Port Charlotte by SMWS (127.43 is currently the newest) and one of the oldest bottlings of Port Charlotte at the moment. Port Charlotte is the heavily peated whisky produced by the Bruichladdich Distillery. This particular bottling was released just after SMWS started restricting sales of certain whiskies to phone orders at specific times of day. I suspect SMWS has implemented this new sales strategy to prevent people from hoarding whiskies with potential collectors value. Since the Port Charlotte distilling began in 2001, you won’t find much older than this right now.

Bottler: SMWS

Distillery: Bruichladdich (Port Charlotte)

SMWS Name: Peat Freak Heaven

Age: 12 years

Distilled: 2002/6/21

Number of Bottles: 127

Cask: Refill Bourbon

ABV: 63%

Price: £61.30 from SMWS

Continue reading