1979 Cambus 41 Year Old "The Perfect Fifth" Ex-Bourbon Single Grain Scotch Whisky (750ml)

When The Perfect Fifth released this extraordinary 41-year-old Cambus in 2020, it carried a retail price of roughly $1,100, entirely reasonable on paper for a cask-strength whisky distilled in 1979 at a distillery that had already been closed for nearly three decades. Today we're able to offer that exact whisky for a fraction of its original price, and at this level it becomes one of the most astonishing old Scotch values we've seen in years. Cambus was one of Scotland's great grain distilleries, enormously important to the blending industry before closing permanently in 1993, and stocks of this age are becoming genuinely finite. Cask #90003 was distilled April 25, 1979 and spent 41 years in a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel before being bottled June 15, 2020 at a natural 53.2% ABV, yielding just 283 bottles. Despite the enormous age, this is not tired old grain. The nose is packed with pastry, nougat, toasted nuts, orange, vanilla and sweet oak. The palate remains remarkably fresh and energetic, with citrus, honey, sponge cake, almond, tea and gentle spice carrying through a long, polished finish. Whiskyfun's Serge Valentin scored it 88 points extremely high for the discerning Frenchman, while Jim Murray gave it 96. At $350, finding 41-year-old whisky of this pedigree, at full cask strength, from a long-closed distillery feels almost absurd.