I have to confess that this was an unknown name to me and I had to look it up. It was situated in Alloa but was closed in 1983 and demolished in 1992, and the most surprising thing is that it seems to have been a grain distillery. My only previous experience of single grain whiskies was pretty dire so I inevitably approached this with little positive expectation.

Carsebridge

Duncan & Taylor, 31 year old, distilled 1979, 55.7%

Colour

Pale

Nose

Strong but nothing immediately identifiable. Later a scent of coffee was noticeable but I suspect the high strength was holding back the other aromatics.

Initial Taste

Warm, spicey, rich, again there was that hint of coffee. Gingery notes appeared. The taste was mostly front of the tongue. As the whisky warmed up it started to remind me of ginger nut biscuits dunked in cappuccino – no, I’ve never done that either but if I had this is what it would taste like

Later Taste

A hint of pear schapps and the taste broadens to the sides of the tongue.

Finish

A medium length finish which retains the spiciness.

Conclusion

A pleasantly warming dram for a damp day. My only negatives were that the nose seemed lacking in character compared to the taste and the spiciness, though very pleasant, eventually seemed a little one-dimensional. If I’d had a larger sample I’d have tried water with it to see what that did to the nose, but I’d split the tasting over two sessions as I’d been puzzled by it to begin with so there wasn’t really enough to try that.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this; it was far more complex than you’d expect from a single grain. I’d enjoy a dram of it occasionally but would probably move on to something else for the second one.