James Eadie - Ben Nevis 11yo Malaga Cask Finish 58.1% 700ml

• Nose

  Initially there is a lot of cooling alcohol on the nose, which is somewhat tamed with a few drops of water. Then fruits come to the fore, a little cherry jam with a light hint of cinnamon. The whisky doesn't smell too sweet, it has a little fine vegetable broth that curbs the sweetness. The alcohol now comes in the form of a cooling menthol note, overall a little cough drop with herbs and malt. The aromas are not all that deep and complex, the whisky is a little too young for that.

• Taste

  The alcohol is too present in the mouth. With a little more water it becomes creamier, chocolate with cherry filling - not concentrated though, but a light hint on the palate. There is also wood. The aromas are quite fleeting, however, and are then released from the palate by the alcohol.

• Finish

  There is some wood left on the palate, but overall the aftertaste is not very pronounced.

James Eadie was born into a family of brewers and blenders. So when the famed whisky critic Alfred Barnard visited him in 1889, it was no surprise that they bonded over a dram.

The whisky in question was James Eadie’s family blend. Passed down by his father, it was known as James Eadie’s Trade Mark X from 1877, when it was registered as one of the world’s first brands.

For decades thereafter, James Eadie’s whisky captivated contemporaries. Barnard himself lavished praise on this “ancient Scotch mixture”, of which Mr. Eadie was declared the “fortunate possessor”. Yet like many great names of the Victorian era, it did not survive into the 21st Century.

Last bottled in the 1940s, the components of the blend were unknown until Rupert Patrick, James Eadie’s great-great-grandson, made the chance discovery of his 19th-century ledgers. These records laid bare the spirits that were used to make his family’s celebrated Scotch. Pieced together, they revealed a forgotten blend from a distant era, in which the diverse flavours of every whisky-producing region of Scotland were expertly combined.

Two centuries on, using only whiskies from distilleries which James Eadie himself had purchased from, Norman Mathison, one of Scotland’s finest Master Blenders, was entrusted to revive this ancient Scotch. And so, after a lengthy slumber, James Eadie’s whisky was brought back to life.