Member Exclusive Bottles
A core benefit of membership to the Cambridge Whisky Club is access to some specially selected bottles on the bar at Thirsty at a ‘bottle share’ price per dram. Those bottles are chosen to give members the opportunity to try something that they wouldn’t normally be able to try a dram of, without buying the whole bottle. Often, that means the bottles will be higher in value or limited in release. Importantly though, measures from these bottles will be priced to make it feel more like a bottle share, with Thirsty agreeing to be at their break-even point. Hopefully, as many members as possible get a chance to try these delicious whiskies!
Current Bottle
(Click a bottle to hear about it from the source)
Fragrant Drops – 15 yo Ardmore
Single Cask, Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Peated
15 years old – 58.6% ABV (cask strength)
Fully matured in a refill ex-bourbon cask
(Click for bottler info)
Selector: Elliott_Drinks_Whisky
Why?
I didn’t want to overthink this one. I knew I was due a smokey whisky. I knew that I wanted a single malt. And I knew I wanted to dip the price a little compared to the last couple. After the last tasting (our double blind smokey flight) we had a clear vote winner, which isn’t always the case. It was an Ardmore, which is a smokey single malt, so I set out to find another Ardmore release for this next member’s bottle.
I’ve met George & Rachel, the married duo behind Keeble Cask Co. and the Fragrant Drops brand, at a whisky festival last year, and they were lovely; very clearly knowledgeable and excited by this industry they’ve chosen to wade into. The Fragrant Drops bottles are gorgeous, before you even get onto the label artwork – always eye-catching on the shelf. And the couple’s eye/nose/mouth for a delicious whisky seems faultless, from what I’ve tried so far of their expressions.
Ardmore can be a bit of an overlooked distillery: Suntory-owned, primarily used for their Teacher’s blend, with only a few own-bottlings that don’t exactly leap out at the more discerning of whisky consumers. But, there’s a lot that makes it into bottles from independent releasers, and it really can be tasty! This spirit in this bottle has spent its life inside one ex-bourbon refill barrel, so I was expecting a good balance of floral peat smoke, and sweetness from the bourbon wood, and (as I can reliably expect from Frangrant Drops) this delivers.
Compared to the vote winner at the blind tasting, this dials down the fruit, but there’s a definite similar thread. The refill cask lets the smoke and floral shine. I found water killed the nose a little, but opened up some of the cereal and cask (vanilla sweetness and oak pepper) on the tongue. It’s a delicious dram and definitely ticks the boxes I was looking to tick.
Notes
👃🏻: Butterscotch tyre fire, parma violets and cointreau. Honey-glazed ham, Yorkshire puddings, chlorine-tinged smoke. Jamaica ginger cake, smoked grapefruit.
👄: Ash, rubber glove, honey & coal. Bitter vanilla malt, bonfire smoke, charred bacon or pork belly. Sticky and oily. Smokey quince jam. Dense floral hedge cuttings, almost herbaceous, smoke. Some wood or alcohol pepper, even with a bit of water.
Past Bottles
(Click a bottle to hear about it from the source)
James Eadie – 31 yo Cambus (Cask 48088)
Single Cask, Single Grain Scotch Whisky
Unpeated
31 years old – 50.9% ABV (cask strength)
Matured in a single sherry butt since 1993
(Click for bottler info)
Selector: Elliott_Drinks_Whisky
Why?
There was one small mention of Cambus distillery in the justification for the last club bottle, but there’s much more to this bottle than continuity. This is exactly the sort of bottle I was imagining I’d be able to provide for people with this member-exclusive, bottle-share-pricing deal that Thirsty agreed to.
Cambus is a lost distillery, meaning it is no longer active and producing spirit – only the last sleeping casks remain, steadily going up in price as they become rarer. One of those casks was a sherry butt, of undisclosed style, which had been maturing since May 1993. It was cracked open earlier this year (2025) by independent bottler James Eadie, and this bottle is one of the 349 that were released from it. So this is unadulterated, sherried Cambus, no extra finish, just well-aged mature single grain whisky.
Cambus was a grain distillery (for most of its life) in Alloa, the Lowlands, and ultimately ended up in the hands of Diageo, who used it as a blending component (not uncommon for grain whiskies). They currently use the site as a cooperage, cask filling plant and warehouse space. Occasionally, Diageo will use one slot in their yearly Special Releases to showcase a Cambus, or bring out another limited edition release, but mostly it’s only available via independent bottlers.
When I was first starting out presenting whiskies, as a member of the Cambridge University Whisky Appreciation Society’s committee, I picked a Cambus as my bottle for a ‘Premium’ whisky lineup. I can’t quite remember the specifics, but I know it was a sherry cask (like this), and I know it was a similar (but slightly younger) age to this whisky. As we’re talking 7 or so years ago that that was bottled, and with it being distilled earlier too, I remember the age of the whisky was around my age, if not older, which is always a fun trophy to claim and one that is now getting harder to achieve again – for some of you reading this, this bottle might be your chance!
I always love it when I have the chance to try a Cambus. And, to share that chance with my members feels like a no-brainer! My findings from my first tasting of this bottle show a good balance between the sherry notes of the cask and the soft cereal nature of the spirit. It’s bottled at cask strength, though time has lowered that to a manageable 50.9%, which only gives a little of that alcohol pepper. Initially, the sticky sherry was what hit me, but with time and returning to the glass, more of the light honey, savoury wood and diverse fruits presented themselves.
Every time I enjoy a Cambus, I find myself aware that it could be my last. If that was the case here, I’d be very happy, especially at our club members’ only price of £6 a dram! But, we are now at more members than drams in the bottle, so you’d best be quick if this is something you want to try.
Notes
👃🏻: Heavy PX, but softened with rusk biscuits. Red strawberry laces and tobacco. Room temp Bloody Mary. Crunchy nut cornflakes and frosted shredded wheat in the background. Fig rolls, apricot, dark sweet plums, but also spent match.
👄: Light pepper and sticky grape jam. Honey. Golden syrup sponge. Woody fruit funk. Thicker PX or Port mouthfeel and taste. Oak char, and a little savoury roast beef.
⌛: Touch of tropical caramel. Persistent sherry and crunchy cereals. Peppery vanilla.
Living Souls – 40 yo Blended Scotch Whisky #2
Blended Scotch Whisky
Lightly/ex-peated
40 years old – 45.1% ABV
Marrying since 1998 in an ex-Islay sherry casks
(Click for bottler info)
Selector: Elliott_Drinks_Whisky
Why?
There are a few reasons why this felt like a good choice for club bottle number 3.
Firstly, I have enjoyed all of the Living Souls expressions that I’ve tried, and having spent time at their stand at a couple of festivals now, they’re lovely to chat to. They are releasing genuinely interesting things, a skill which has, I’m sure, been honed from the founders’ many combined years across the industry.
The remaining reasons are best explained together. We have a blend, which is 40 years old, and been left to marry in an ex-Islay (ex-sherry) cask. This pick, then, naturally follows on from our most recent (September) flight tasting theme of Second Hand Smoke – a fourth in the trilogy on display there.
Yes, it’s a blend, but, (say it with me) blends aren’t bad! They might vilified or given the stink eye by ‘proper’ whisky drinkers, but just like grain whiskies (and, well, all whiskies), they deserve your time. Of course, as with any category or style of whisky, we won’t like them all, but there’s no such thing as an objectively bad whisky, only subjectively bad experiences.
With the youngest component of the blend being 40 years old, that puts us in the realms of whisky we can scarcely find anymore, let alone afford. The rumours are that 60% of this bottle is grain whisky (with the other 40% comprised of single malts from multiple distilleries), and a large portion of that coming from the now lost Cambus Distillery.
The official notes seem to be weighted more towards the tropical side, compared to the first dalliance that produced my notes below, so as always, don’t take what I or they have written as any sort of fact. This is from batch 2 of 3 that are currently available, and after trying this I am definitely encouraged to seek out the other batches. To say this is rare whisky feels a bit understated, but what should not be understated is the opportunity we have now to try this gem at our bottle share dram price!
Notes
👃🏻: Dirty rubber rum funk. Creamy ginger beer. Icing sugar, mango, unripe banana. Bitter almond, like a pineapple bakewell tart. Distant tobacco & hospital cleaner from the Islay cask.
👄: So much more ash & charred meat than the nose suggests. Chocolatey malt. Tropical fruit jus. Coconut spiced rum.
⌛: That rubbery funk like I’m blowing up a balloon, and burnt toast or chargrilled beef burger. Some sticky toffee richness. But the final, lasting, lingering impression is of earth.
Dà Mhìle – Tokaji Cask Special Edition
Organic Welsh Single Malt Whisky
Unpeated
NAS (Distilled 2019, released 2024) – 46% ABV
1st-fill Tokaji cask – 180 bottles
(Click for distillery info)
Selector: Elliott_Drinks_Whisky
Why?
I was fortunate enough to try some of this at Croydon Whisky Festival 2025 at the Welsh Whisky Society stall. The first Dà Mhìle (pronounced da-vee-lay) I tried was during a virtual lockdown tasting in 2021, and I remember it blew me away; a complex sample with a distinct transition of flavours between 3 stages. I’ve tried a second in the intervening years, but a bottle always feels like a rare sight from this family-run farm distillery, so it was exciting to see it at that festival. It was another satisfying experience, so when I noticed it online knowing the limited availability of bottles, and wanting something without smoke to contrast the last member’s bottle, this felt like an easy pick!
Notes
👃🏻: Red boiled sweets, roast ham, charred pineapple, fragrant forest, popcorn.
👄: Bitter vegetal toffee, spicy sherried grapes, fruit leather, touch of coffee.
⌛: Toffee, sticky, cask char.
Glen Scotia – Campbeltown Malts Festival 2025 Limited Edition
Single Malt Scotch whisky
Heavily peated
9 years old – 54.3% ABV
1st-fill bourbon barrel matured with 5-month red wine finish
(Click for distillery info)
Selector: Elliott_Drinks_Whisky
Why?
I received an email from Glen Scotia announcing the pre-sale of their 2025 Campbeltown festival bottling around the same time I was founding the club. I’m a fan of Glen Scotia, but felt like I hadn’t seen a really smokey release from them for a while. And I’m always a sucker a fruity finishing cask. So, the whisky itself, plus the early access to it, convinced me it would be a great start to this member’s tradition.
Notes
👃🏻: Chocolate, strawberry liqueur/cream. Potato peel, jam tart.
👄: Lemsip, smokey jam, pate, bready baking spice. Leather, charcoal, chalk.
⌛: Dusty caramel. Fragrant, weird wood.