Glencadam 1972 - 29 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 7647

Glencadam is a relatively small Highland distillery that often flies under the radar of many malt fans. Owned by Angus Dundee Distillers, who bought Glencadam from Allied Domecq in 2003, the distillery celebrated a momentous occasion in 2021 with the installation of a water-wheel to generate their electricity - the original distillery built in 1825 was equipped with a similar water-wheel that powered operations for almost 100 years.

In common with its stablemate, Tomintoul, the vast majority of Glencadam’s gentle Highland single malt goes into Angus Dundee’s many blended whiskies. Prior to the Angus Dundee takeover official bottlings of Glencadam were almost non-existent, but there is now a solid core range enhanced by frequent single cask and small batch editions. Independent Glencadams are plentiful, with older vintages from the usual suspects generally very good value, especially at auction.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.