Yes, I admit it. I don’t just drink single malts, I also collect a few particular ones. Especially those from my favorite distillery, Caperdonich. Why Caperdonich? It’s certainly not because of the undeniable lack of flair of this ugly duckling, which was torn down in 2010. The origin of Caperdonich and its history don’t necessarily speak for it, either, nor does its end. But I don’t necessarily care about the origin of the contents of my glass, I care about its taste. And this Speyside distillery has a lot to offer in that respect. If I want to answer the „why“ briefly, I usually say: Because you never know exactly what’s really in the bottle… unless you’ve tried it beforehand or read some tasting notes. Well, I have other excuses reasons. A lot seems possible, and I haven’t even tried the tip of the iceberg yet.
This, however, also means that not all whiskies from Caperdonich taste great. While there are these almost legendary bottlings distilled around the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, there is also a rapidly increasing number of Caperdonich single malts from the 1990s. These are now reaching their peaks in terms of taste and are gradually being brought onto the market. But more on that later on.
First, a summary of the rather eventful history of Caperdonich in a timeline:
| Year | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1896 | J. & J. Grant | "Founded" as Glen Grant #2 by Major James Grant (or purchase of property and start of conversion work) |
| 1898 | Start of production (1 wash still, 1 spirit still with condensers) |
|
| 1901 | Production ceases | |
| 1923 | Used as maltings for Glen Grant | |
| 1929 | Douglas Mackessack installed as Managing Director | |
| 1952 | The Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distilleries | Merger of J. & J. Grant with George & J.G. Smith of Glenlivet |
| 1964 | "Caperdonich Distillery Company" was listed | |
| 1965 | Resumption of production after thorough modernisation work Filling of first cask on May 14 Production capacity: ca. 1.800.000 litres Distillery manager: Ernest "Ernie" Sherret |
|
| 1966 | Authorities issue final approval for operation on July 28 | |
| 1967 | Extension by 1 set of stills and new washbacks (2 wash stills, 2 spirit still, 8 washbacks) |
|
| 1970 | The Glenlivet Distillers (from 1972) | Merger of Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distilleries with Longmorn Distillers |
| 1974 | Reconstruction of cooperage and cask storage facilities | |
| 1978 | Seagram | Administrated by Chivas Borthers |
| 1983 | Distillery manager: Dennis Malcolm | |
| 1985 | Shape of stills was adjusted to those of Glen Grant | |
| 1992 | Distillery manager: Willie Mearns | |
| 1996 | Distillery manager: Robert MacPherson | |
| 2001 | Pernod Ricard | Taking over parts of the Seagram empire (39%) |
| 2002 | Final shut down (as well as Allt-á-Bhainne, Braeval, Benriach and Glen Keith) Production capacity: ca. 2.200.000 litres |
|
| 2009 | Forsyths | Property sold to Forsyths |
Glen Grant #2 – as Caperdonich was called originally, officially only being an extension of the Glen Grant distillery in the small Scottish town of Rothes – was planned and built at a time when whisky sales were booming. The building site near the „parent distillery“ Glen Grant was not chosen by chance, as a railway line built in 1858 ran behind the distillery extension. This made it easy to supply both parts of the distillery with raw materials and to ship matured whisky. The railway line was operated until the late 1960s.
It was of course no coincidence that J. & J. Grant used the same water for both distilleries (from the Caperdonich Well) and bought the barley from the same supplier. The purpose of the new distillery – whose stills were similar to those of Glen Grant – was to replicate the quality, style and, not least, the success that the existing distillery had at the end of the 19th century.
The well-known „whisky pipe“ between the two distilleries has, by the way, nothing to do with the Grants trying to stretch their Glen Grant or similar. Its only reason is a regulation of the British tax authorities, according to which new make produced in a distillery extension had to flow through the spirit safe of the main distillery. The pipe was not dismantled until the 1980s, but was only used until 1901.
But as fate would have it, the Pattison crisis hit the whisky industry hard in the year that Glen Grant #2 went into production. It is named after the brothers Robert and Walter Pattison, who started working with whisky in the 1880s. They began to blend it, promote it intensively and sell it. The Pattisons‘ business went more than well for over 10 years and with their powers of persuasion the two managed to get banks and stock investors to invest hundreds of thousands of British pounds. At their peak, the Pattisons spent as much money on an advertising campaign as it would have cost to build a new distillery.
The crisis came and its consequences were one of the reasons for the end of Glen Grant #2, just a few years after it opened. On top of this, Glen Grant was never really satisfied with the quality of the new make from the distillery extension. Although the raw materials were the same, it tasted different to the original. This was certainly due to the different shape of the stills, but also to the fact that Glen Grant cooled the new make from one of the two pairs of stills with worm tubs. Those were not used in the extension.
For the next few decades, Glen Grant #2 was condemned to serve as a warehouse for spare parts for its parent and later also as malting floor. Not a nice life. But now it became clear that when planning Glen Grant #2, it was a wise decision to largely adopt Glen Grant’s production specifications.
A turning point in the history of the distillery was 1961, when Armando Giovinetti visited Rothes and returned to Italy with 50 cases of 5-year-old Glen Grant in his luggage. In the following years, Giovinetti made Scotch whisky, and especially Glen Grant, so popular in Italy that the owners of Glen Grant had to think about expanding their production.
In order to meet the increasing demand, expanding production on the Glen Grant site would not have been efficient. The space-consuming maltings were still in operation here. Ultimately, re-commissioning Glen Grant #2 came cheaper.
The managing director of the two distilleries at this time was Major Douglas Mackessack, a great-grandson of Glen Grant founder James Grant. From 1959, he was supported by Hugh Mitcalfe, his son-in-law. But Hugh Mitcalfe was not only a son-in-law, above all, he was a pioneer in whisky marketing. With his contacts to Armando Giovinetti, for example, he laid the foundation for Glen Grant to sell half a million cases of single malt in Italy in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1960s, however, the company was facing the luxurious problem that whisky of Glen Grant that could be sold as single malt was no longer available for blends. But since blends also wanted/needed to be served, the silent distillery across the street was revived.
By then, a tax law in Great Britain prohibited the sale of whisky from two distilleries under the same name. When the silent extension reopened, the new (old) distillery was given the name we know today, Caperdonich. On September 14, 1964, the “Caperdonich Distillery Company Ltd.” was officially registered under the company number SC040951. And on April 2, 1965, the Inverness tax collector granted the Caperdonich Distillery a provisional distillery permission, after a few „distillation tests“ with water the week before showed that the plant was without leaks. The final operating permit, including the use of a new warehouse, followed on July 28, 1966.
Thus, the distillery did definitely not get its final name as late as 1977, when the first single malts were bottled (by Cadenhead). Until then, whisky was only used in blends and wouldn’t have needed a name of its own. This was confirmed by Dennis Malcolm, master distiller at Glen Grant and, with a few interruptions, having worked there for more than 50 years. After the reopening the only question was whether bottlings would bear the name of the distillery, since the „Caperdonich Distillery Company Ltd.“ was registered as „dealers, brokers and agents for whisky, wines etc.“, not as a manufacturing company.
More information about Caperdonich’s new beginning can be found here: Caperdonich – the resurrection
Just as interesting is the often unsuccessful attempt to translate the distillery’s new name. It originates from the Gaelic word for a nearby source of water: Tobar Domhnaich (the process water comes from the „Back Burn“, not the „Black Burn“… just to point that out). However, since the exact spelling of this Gaelic name is uncertain, the translation discusses controversially. Most people are in favour of the „secret well“, others – like the management of Glen Grant – translate it as „Sabbath Well“. On the back label of one of the only original bottlings from the old days, the makers translate the name as „secluded spring“. The best translation, also stated and explained in old Ordnance Survey Name Books, is, however, „Sunday well“.
After the application for the re-construction was handed over in 1964, Glen Grant #2 alias Caperdonich began producing whisky again in 1965 after a very thorough modernisation. Ernest “Ernie” Sherret was Caperdonich’s first distillery manager before he also took over Glen Grant in 1969. Almost 1,8 million litres of alcohol (= 7.800 gallons per week) were distilled at Caperdonich in the first year. But that was not enough. In 1967, the production capacity was expanded. A new building was built for additional fermentation vats and production was largely automated. Now, the brewing and distilling operations could be controlled from 2 consoles by just 2 workers, even though the theoretical production capacity was almost doubled by a new wash still and a new spirit still. And yet, until 1971, a third of the malt still came from across the street. The remaining malt was bought from Robert Hutchison & Co. of Kirkaldy and other malt houses. After 1971, the malting drums, installed by Major Grant at Glen Grant in 1898, were shut down. At that time, there was neither barley nor peat on the Caperdonich site.
Since 1967, the stills were also heated with steam, giving the distillery around a decade of technical advantage over Glen Grant and other distilleries in Scotland. The wash stills had a cylindrical widened neck and were therefore very similar to Glen Grant’s smaller stills, although they could hold 360 litres less. In contrast to Glen Grant’s, the spirit stills had a spherical condensing zone, which could partly explain the slightly different taste of Caperdonich. Although Caperdonich is generally considered to be a light and fruity whisky, it is also described as having a little more „edge“ than Glen Grant’s.
In 1970, The Glenlivet & Glen Grant Distilleries merged with Longmorn Glenlivet Distillers and the Edinburgh-based blender Hill Thomsom & Co. The name “The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd.” was not introduced until 1972. Longmorn and Benriach joined the Caperdonich family with Glen Grant and The Glenlivet. The new consortium now had all functions under one roof that are important for the production and distribution of whisky, including blenders and bottling plants.
Comment:
„Glenlivet“ was the name of the distillery known today, but it also describes the geographical location of distilleries in the valley of the River Livet, the Glenlivet. Some of the distilleries in the area and a few independent bottlers used to advertise their product with that attribute; and still do so today. The official difference is made by the word „The“, preceeding Glenlivet when referring to the distillery.
Seagram, the world’s largest alcoholic beverage producer at that time, took over The Glenlivet Distillers on January 31, 1978. They had previously offered an impressive £47.000.000 for the company. The sale of Glen Grant and Caperdonich was economically necessary in order to continue to grow and remain competitive. It was agreed that the management structures would be retained. In Seagram, more precisely the British subsidiary of the Canadian company, a buyer had been found who also was the best customer of the distilleries.
This probably corresponds roughly to the time when the Glen Grant and Caperdonich cooperage with its 11 employees around the veteran Allan Clark (at Glen Grant since 1928) was closed. But it also has to be mentioned that in the years before, the coopers no longer had built new casks, but „only“ inspected and repaired casks from blenders and bottlers. It was simply no longer worth it.
Although some single malts were bottled in 1977 already, Seagram used the whisky from Caperdonich almost exclusively in blends like Chivas Regal, Queen Anne, Passport and Something Special. It is possible that the quality of Caperdonich’s whisky was only average at that time, so it was not sent to the market as a single malt. This could also have been the reason for Seagram to decide to change the shape of the stills in 1985, to match those of Glen Grant.
There are, hence, not many single malts bottled by Caperdonich, unless you count those that have appeared with beautiful regularity (and with rapidly increasing prices) in recent years by Chivas Brothers, the current „administrator“ of the Scottish distilleries on behalf of the parent company Pernod-Ricard and sole shareholder of the 600 shares of the Caperdonich Distillery Company Ltd. Before Caperdonich was taken over by Seagram, only a small percentage of the new make was sold as single malt. As far as I know, only two in-house bottlings were made available:
- a 5yo, that was bottled for the Italian market at the end of the 1970s
- a 12yo, that might have been bottled at the same time, from the collection of Edoardo Giaccone
(I do only know a miniature bottle version of this with number 121)
All other bottlings of single malts were and are stored in casks that were sold to independent bottlers. They are matured primarily in former bourbon or sherry casks. Occasionally, bottlings with a finish (for example in a rum cask from Alambic) are sold.
The end of Caperdonich came in 2002, after the Scottish part of Seagram was taken over by Diageo and Pernod-Ricard in December 2000 (the takeover was approved by the European Commission in May 2001). The deal cost the two companies a total of around 5,5 billion British pounds, of which Pernod-Ricard paid 39%, allowing it to add a total of 9 Scottish distilleries to its portfolio: Allt-à-Bhainne, Benriach, Braeval, Glen Keith, Glen Grant, Glenlivet, Longmorn, Strathisla and Caperdonich.
Pernod-Ricard, however, let Caperdonich go silent already after a few months. Although they had guaranteed that no jobs would be lost as part of the takeover, sustainable production was apparently not up for discussion. Alan Winchester, who worked for Chivas Brothers for many years, once explained that Caperdonich was too small, and that, after the takeover, many of the production equipment, such as the compressors, were installed in other distilleries of the group. Caperdonich became a depot for spare parts again.
When it closed, the distillery had a stainless steel mash tun with a copper lid that could hold 4,6 tons of mash. The 8 wash backs (2 made of stainless steel, 6 made of cast iron) held 23.000 litres each. The 2 wash stills could contain 11.500 litres, and the 2 spirit stills 8.000 litres each. By then, they were heated indirectly with electricity. Caperdonich was able to produce around 2.200.000 litres of alcohol per year.
After many years of inactivity, Pernod-Ricard sold the site of the distillery to a neighbour in 2009, the well-known Speyside coppersmiths Forsyths. In 2010 they torn down parts of the Caperdonich buildings and used the site as storage space, also for parts of Caperdonich’s technical equipment. In an interview in the Whisky Magazine, Richard Forsyth estimated the cost for demolishing Caperdonich to 300.000 British pounds. Only two warehouses are still in use today.
The remaining production equipment had been given a longer life. Two modernised stills and the spirit safe were sold to The Belgian Owl distillery in Liège in 2013 – on the advice of Jim McEwan, who was working at Bruichladdich at that time – to replace their old alembic stills from Switzerland. Together with the mash tun from Caperdonich, the other pair of stills now produces new make at the Falkirk Distillery. It’s good that Forsyths‘ original plan to remelt the four stills never was realised. The old Porteus mill from Caperdonich has been working at the Annandale distillery since 2014 and three of the washbacks as well as a few smaller parts (such as oak rails on which casks are rolled) are now doing their job at the northernmost distillery of the Scottish mainland, Wolfburn.
The single malts of Caperdonich have never come anywhere close to the public reputation of those of Glen Grant. The ultimate loss of this distillery might even gone completely unnoticed by many whisky drinkers. And the demolition of Caperdonich was not even worth a few lines in the local press. Caperdonich was truly treated and marketed like an ugly duckling.
But why do I prefer a „dead“ copy when I can have the „better“ original from Glen Grant? Because the copy issue may have been relevant at a time when Caperdonich still was called „Glen Grant #2“. After reopening in 1965 and especially after being taken over by Seagram in 1977, the two distilleries increasingly went their own ways in terms of taste. This was in fact a necessity because Seagram/Chivas had to create suitable malts for its blends.
Additionally, the owners were quite experimental during the 1990s. At some point in time around 1993/1994, Caperdonich began working with new make based on peated malt. Both Chivas Brothers and independent bottlers have bottled malts whose peated notes are no less impressive than those of single malts from Islay. If that sounds a bit like „who’s got the longest“, I would like to add that peated bottlings from Caperdonich taste very good; giving my purely subjective perception.
The oldest drams available date back to the year of the reopening (May (!) 1965) and were bottled by William Cadenhead in their well-known „dumpy“ brown bottles by the end of the 1970s. In the following two years, new make was produced for bottlings by Douglas Laing (“Rare & Old” series) and Signatory Vintage, among others. In 1968, at least 53 casks were filled for single malts, mainly bottled by Duncan Taylor and Gordon & MacPhail. In 1969 and 1970, things seem to have been a lot quieter at Caperdonich, whereas no bottling is known from 1971. According to my counting, a whopping 80 casks were distilled in 1972 (a fantastic year, not just for whisky…), more than half of them bottled by Duncan Taylor. The time between 1973 and 1976 stands for another lean period, and independent bottlers were once again unable to get their hands on a single drop of new make from 1975. Cadenhead could finally secure a few casks of the last production under the old management in 1977.
During the first year with Seagram in charge, apparently every drop went into the company’s own blends. From 1979/80, Gordon & MacPhail, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and Signatory Vintage received a few casks again. Up to 1990, only four casks from 1982 had gone to Douglas Laing and Gordon & MacPhail, while some new make was distilled for the Chivas Cask Strength Edition and for Morrison & MacKay in 1988. More casks were released again after 1991 – and there was no shortage of them, with 217 bottlings having been sold until today. Malts with the most recent distillation date on the market are now from 2002. The following graphic illustrates the constant ups and downs. But for me, all of this is part of Caperdonich’s „new“ era.
This being said, let’s deal a little more with newer malts. If you take a look at the member ratings of Caperdonich bottlings on Whiskybase (I don’t doubt the sincerity of these ratings for the sake of simplicity…), you will only find a handful of single malts with more than 89 points that were distilled after 1972. On the other hand, the average rating of all bottlings is in the range of well-known and popular distilleries such as Macallan, Glenglassaugh, Balvenie and its old sister Glen Grant. It seems reasonable to assume that the older bottlings reflect the current zeitgeist a little better than the newer ones… without me saying that the newer ones are generally worse!
But what could be the reason for this difference? The short answer: I have no idea. Could changed raw materials have caused these changes? Possibly, because the whisky had to fit well into the company’s own blends. Was the distillation process changed? This is very likely due to minor, not publicly documented technical improvements over the years. Was the whisky stored differently? Definitely, if only because of generally detrimental changes in the quality of the wood.
Well, I don’t really care. Caperdonich is history and lives on through the casks and bottles that still are available on the market. And surely also through blog posts like this one. However, I would be very happy if the remaining casks were not simply pushed onto the market at a young(er) age in order to make some quick money. It would be nice if you could buy whisky from casks from the end of the 1990s in 15 or 20 years from now to compare it with the highly praised single malts from the early 70s that could mature for 35 years and more.
Keep dreaming? Yes, I will. And if I’m still writing this blog in 20 years, I promise that I’ll write about my impressions here. One last bottle from the early 1970s will definitely have survived by then.
Credit for pictures:
Title: Ernst J. Scheiner, The Gateway to Distilleries
Spirit Safes: Wave, Whiskymag-Forum
Outdoor picture from 2011: Google Street View
Other pictures: Thomas Backens, Whisky-Web.info
Thanks to all of you for allowing me to use these great pictures here!