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What’s in a name #4

CADENHEADS

Although I was born and raised in Edinburgh I had never heard of Cadenhead's until i came to New
Zealand. My oldest sister used to send me miniatures which was quite big of her as she was teetotal
and the only thing she knew of alcohol was the effect it had on my dad and myself. However she did
knew about Cadenhead's as the family lived just off the Royal Mile before I was born.

Cadenhead's was established in Aberdeen in 1842 and are now based in Campbeltown with shops in
London and Edinburgh. They are Scotland's oldest independent bottlers though for the last fifty years
they have shared the same ownership as Springbank Distillery. They purchase casks of whisky, age
them and then bottle them under their own label. They have issued a huge number of whiskies but in
small quantities.
At first it seemed a bit unusual to keep receiving
bottles that all had similar labels. They were green
bottles with white writing on black labels. Then I
realised it was the only way I would find examples
of long closed distilleries such as St. Magdalene
and Glen Lochy. The manager had taken pity on
my sister and sold her some of the less common
examples. The label designers did lighten up a bit
as shown on the Strathisla-Glenlivet bottle.

Now and again they burst into colour (too much
sampling) and produced bottles such as
Hielenman which is a classic Scottish image. As
mentioned above Cadenhead's originated in
Aberdeen. The Putachieside bottle
commemorates the suburb in which they started.
For the early examples of this bottle the label
stretched almost completely round the bottle. A
fire in the distillery damaged the plates for the label and so later bottlings have the standard sized label.

As well as a couple of examples mentioned above the company did
produce a few of their own whiskies. Moidart came out in the late
1970's but is no longer produced. Their own
bottlings seem to have nicer labels. The latest
bottlings of their aged whiskies are the
opposite of the earlier ones in that they have
black writing on white labels.

I had hoped to write a more in depth article
but I received no help from the company. In
mid-August 2014 I sent them an e-mail asking
four questions. Two weeks later I received no
reply so I rang the shop in Campbeltown to
whom I had sent the e-mail. They said the
person who dealt with e-mails was not
available and they could not answer my
queries. They did give me the name of
someone at Springbank distillery who could help so I sent him an e-mail. Two
weeks later no reply so I rang the distillery to find out the man was on maternity
leave (I wish they had that when our six children were born). In early October still

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