17/09/2021 Glencadam

Glencadam 29yo d.1972 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#7639): nose: very fresh from the start, erupting with lemon-y custard and fruity yoghurt, calamansi, peach and sweet grapefruit, white peach, white nectarine, and a drop of Yves Rocher's Magnolia fragrance. In the long run, the fruit welcomes a woodier waft: faint cedarwood sheets, subtle eucalyptus powder and distant mint lozenges. All that is very timid, mind. Even later, a soft note of putty emerges, closer to window mastic than it is to plasticine. Oh! and it is plum-infused putty, to be sure. The second nose seems more vegetal, with lichens and mosses seeing the return of the citrus. Mouth: mellow and fruity again, it has juicy plums, blood-orange-and-apricot juice. Next to that fruity onslaught, one finds a pinch of wood spices (grated ginger, as well as cloves and cinnamon) and putty here too. The texture is somewhere between oily and custard-y, which is very pleasant. Repeated sipping adds a gently-metallic touch to the palate, maybe a pinch of dried verbena on clementines (foliage included)? It definitely has got that steel-blade quality to it, to some degree. Finish: long, custard-y and creamy, thick in a Dr. Pepper way, it blends the wood spices and the fruits to reach a perfect equilibrium. The second sip underlines the vegetal note that also appeared on the nose; it is not quite leafy, not flowery in the slightest, yet it has that light bitterness that comes with unsweetened peas. It just might be metal too, after all. Towards the Death, a delicate note of milk chocolate (or chocolate milk, at that rate) shows up too. Terrific dram. The markers seemed similar as the first time, though the spotlight was on different ones. 8/10