Glencadam 1973-1990 - 16 Year Old - SMWS 82.1

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 Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) began in late 1970s Edinburgh when founder Pip Hills persuaded a group of friends to chip in for a cask of Glenfarclas, and was officially formalised in 1983. Today the SMWS has two venues in Edinburgh, a London bar and a string of international partnerships serving its 35,000 members. 

The Society’s whiskies are known for their unique SMWS coding system. Each cask bottled is assigned two numbers, representing the distillery and the bottling number, so 1.45 is the forty-fifth cask bottled from the first distillery and 33.27 is the 27th cask from the 33rd distillery.

Glenmorangie bought the Society in 2004, but sold it in 2015 to a private consortium who floated the SMWS on the stock market in 2021 via their holding company Artisanal Spirits Co.