Teaninich 1957-1979 - 22 Year Old - Cadenheads Dumpy

Teaninich is one of Diageo’s more interesting workhorse distilleries. The distillery was almost unknown before a handful of epic early 1970s vintages were bottled for the Rare Malts series, after which Teaninich slid back into obscurity.  As far as official bottlings go, since 2000 only the worthy Flora & Fauna 10-year-old, one Managers’ Choice and one Special Release bottling have appeared, the latter a highly-rated but horribly overpriced 17-year-old from the 1999 vintage.

Teaninich’s ultra-pure, austere, grassy spirit is well-suited to long ageing but casks of old Teaninich are still very rare on the market today: despite a recent increase in the number of indie bottlings from the distillery, most are under 15 years old. Indie Teaninichs bottled in the early years of this century were often 20-30 years old or even older and are worth seeking out at auction for fans of the uncompromising old school Highland style.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.