The rise and rise of blends, part 4: Cadenhead’s seven star blended scotch whisky

46% ABV, natural colour, unchill filtered oloroso cask finish, 2021 release, paid €40

What is it that turns the name of a company into an actual brand? More precisely, what is it that transfers the name of a spirits merchant, a ‘boozemonger’, into a brand? If you were to go through the frankly enormous back catalogue of Scotch whisky, there are of course many illustrious brands which are undeniably connected to the people involved with that brand: Dewar’s, Teacher’s, Chivas Brothers, obviously Johnnie Walker, but also Gordon & MacPhail, Berry Brothers & Rudd and William Cadenhead. All names of people who are forever connected to their company and their brand. But for each of these well- known, successful and celebrated names, there are probably dozens of companies who are either long gone, or slipped through the cracks of history into oblivion, or both: Usher’s will likely still ring a bell, but, from the top of your head, what could you tell me about Ainslie & Heilbron, Bulloch Lade & Co., Sanderson & Son, Macley Duff, RH Thomson, Spalding’s and so many others? Rest assured, I too had to do some searching to track back the names of these companies. (ftr: in many cases: Diageo, or rather its predecessor DCL ‘happened’ to these brands and companies. Most became subsidiaries within the DCL group, others crashed and burned either after the Pattison crash or after the rapid succession of setbacks in the first half of the 20th Century). I find that for the sake of some deep dive into whisky history, and even though it’s been mothballed, scotchwhisky.com remains a brilliant source to get your geek on.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that if you’re a company/brand that’s been around for nearly 2 centuries, it takes a mixture of factors to pull it off – likely a ‘blend’ of chance, good fortune, sound business models and solid management. In this particular case for instance, William Cadenhead wasn’t the man who started the company, rather he ‘inherited’ it from the man who did – George Duncan. When Duncan died in 1859, the company was acquired by one of his longest employees, William Cadenhead, who shortly after not only changed the name of the company to his own, but also married his former bosses’ widow. Fast forward some 120 years and despite some untimely deaths at the head of the company and the well-known troubled waters the Scotch whisky industry had to sail through during that time, Cadenhead’s had become a well-established brand and company, known for its quality whiskies (and rums), and, much like Gordon and Macphail, at that time probably one of the last Mohicans of ‘blending houses’ in the original sense of the word. And yet the last heir of the Cadenhead family saw herself forced to auction off the lot (due to her own disastrous bookkeeping), which brought the company under the ownership of J&A Mitchell, the owners of Springbank. Ever since, the company’s headquarters are to be found in Campbeltown rather than Aberdeen where it was founded. What they didn’t do though, was alter the company name a second time, and that probably says something about ‘the institution’ and reputation of the name ‘Wm Cadenhead’.

Despite Cadenhead’s having a huge and impressive stock of casks from pretty much every distillery in Scotland and beyond, they tend to hold back on releasing whiskies purely and solely under the name ‘Cadenhead’s. Sure, blended malts and blends under the name ‘Cadenhead’ are out there, but unlike Johnnie Walker, they didn’t choose to build a range of long lasting Cadenhead blended whiskies with different age statements. So when they do release something purely and solely under the Cadenhead brand, I tend to sit up and pay attention. Probably because it’s a bit of a rarity, and also because I expect them to get it right. The accumulated and combined knowledge and understanding of all things whisky at that company must be mind-blowing. Factor into the equation their available stock and they frankly owe it to themselves to knock anything baring the name ‘Cadenhead’ out of the park. Build up the anticipation why don’t you, Malty…

And yet, this one flew almost entirely under my radar. In fact, it took me by surprise to find it sitting on a shelf at one of my go to stores, as it really stood out with its retro look and yesteryear’s bottle design. Based on the presentation I assumed it was an older bottling, a relic of the late 80’s or something. So I was even more surprised to find out that it is in fact a recent release from 2021. Now, even more recently a very similar looking bottle of the ‘seven star’ brand came out that did cause some buzz, mainly and probably because of the 30 yo age statement, which comes with a RRP of around €90. Which indeed seems very appealing. This NAS, though, can be yours for less than half that amount of money. Having said that, upon returning home the handle of the paper bag that I brought it in with tore off, and unfortunately the bottle didn’t survive the crash. Luckily I did manage to salvage about 15 to 20 cl of it as the whisky came oozing though the paper bag and I managed to pour it into some empty sample bottles at hand. So I’m reviewing an unchill filtered, yet in this case also definitely a paper filtered whisky. There’s a first time for everything…

Nose

Nutty – almond, going towards a soft marzipan note, floral and fruity on citrus, apricot and a hint of mango. Some fudge and caramel, with chocolate in the mix while honey and gentle vanilla bring back a lighter touch to the overall experience. An experience, I’m happy to point out, which is absolutely flawless with a spot on balance making this very inviting and accessible. A drop of water and the viscosity jumps right out. Easy nosing, and absolutely delightful.

Palate

Oof, things start off a bit prickly and its noticeably less sweet than the nose would suggest. This is more floral-vegetal-grassy now, with hints of leaves even. The mouthfeel is oaky and quite dry. It does open up with some drops of water added, bringing back vanilla and honey, adding in a clear cereal-grainy note as well. Still good, but the nose wrote out checks the palate doesn’t entirely seem able to cash.

Finish

Medium long, clinging an drying with leaves and wood notes.

Final thoughts

The nose is excellent. This truly highlights what blending is all about as it brings together a plethora of flavours and senses and marries them together in near perfect harmony. It is by far the best part of the whole experience, and while on the palate it couldn’t entirely live up to this, I really enjoyed my (unfortunately somewhat cut short) time with this whisky. In short, this is a very accessible, almost ‘archetypical’ whisky. My one point of critique would be that they’ve done too good of a job blending things together as to me this comes across as a jack of all trades, losing perhaps some identity and personality in the process. Having said that, this is pretty spot on for the money! 83/100

Next week: let’s end this series with a blast from the past, shall we?

the sad remains of my bottle. Requiescat in pace...