Caoineag The Weeping Spirit is a small batch single malt release from The Whisky Exchange released to coincide with the spookiest day of the year, Halloween. This own-label release is a vatting of two six-year-old refill sherry butts distilled at Ben Nevis Distillery in 2019.
Named after the Caoineag, a female spirit, like a Highland banshee, in Scottish folklore, her name meaning “weeper”. Unlike typical banshees, the Caoineag is bound to specific Scottish clans and is heard near rivers. She is rumoured to be an ancient spirit hiding in the mist, the rivers, the waterfalls and the lakes. Her despairing wail foretold great tragedy, death and disaster.
Legend has it that on the eve of that dreadful massacre of Glencoe, 12 February 1692, members of Clan Donald heard that eerie warning telling of the bloodshed that would soon destroy their family. The Caoineag shared her dire warning, but Clan Donald’s gory destiny was already unfolding.
The Ben Nevis distillery is located close to the town of Fort William in the western Highlands. The distillery has a yearly capacity of two million litres and takes its name from Ben Nevis, which is the UK’s highest mountain at 1343 metres (4406 feet) above sea level. The distillery sits at the foot of the mountain in one of the most rugged and scenic settings of any distillery in Scotland. The water used in the whisky production at Ben Nevis is collected from a spring that is supplied by rain or melted snow that has fallen on the mountain.
Ben Nevis was founded in 1825 by John McDonald and remained in his family until the 1950s when Canadian businessman Joseph Hobbs took control. He revolutionised Ben Nevis by installing a Coffey still and made Ben Nevis the first distillery able to produce single malt and grain whiskies at the same location. The late 1970s and 1980s were difficult for the distillery and it was closed for varying reasons for most of this period. In 1989 the Japanese distillers Nikka (a subsidiary of the Asahi Brewery Company) bought the distillery. They restarted production in 1990 and Ben Nevis has been operating ever since.
Caoineag The Weeping Spirit is bottled at 55%. It is available exclusively for £59.95 from The Whisky Exchange online, or in its three stores (London Bridge, Covent Garden, Great Portland Street). This bottle also marks one of the first to be released by The Whisky Exchange that uses 100% recycled glass.
Our Tasting Notes
This richly burnt orange coloured whisky has a real depth and meatiness on the nose. With aromas of smoked bacon, treacle, dried orange peel, dark chocolate just as a start, this is a complex whisky. There are rich dried tropical fruits and dried red apples. The sweetness in tinged with bitterness so that the sugars meld with herbal notes. Warming spices come in the form of nutmeg and freshly ground white pepper. Finally, and most surprisingly, there a a hint funkiness that reminds us of pickled onions.
To taste the gentle but rich peat smoke comes through upfront. It is definitely a meaty barbeque style of smoke. It is matched with rich bitter sweetness of dark chocolate and burnt toffee. There is plenty of fruit that follows with both dried tropical and fresher citrus notes, albeit still in dried form. Red fruits follow like plums, dried cherries, and dried cranberries.
The finish is full of that barbeque smoke and bittersweetness along with plenty of oaky dryness and tannins. It is well balanced by the citrus characters and some big old fashioned baking spices.
What’s The Verdict?
This whisky has been released to coincide with the onset of the darker and colder autumn nights. It lives up to that. With a wonderful balance between smoke, fruit and bitter sweetness it is a bold whisky. It has a long finish that is surprising considering that it is a vatting of just two six year old casks. It offers really good ‘bang for buck’ at the higher ABV as well. It takes on water with joy and brings that fruitiness forward. And for us the step that The Whisky Exchange has taken to move to fully recycled glass (and the green hue that the glass contains) should be applauded and we wait for others to follow their example.
