Xtra old particular caledonian 42 year old 1976

Has anyone ever heard of this distillery before? I had to look up the information on this distillery since I never heard of it and sadly found out it was closed in 1988. I only had a sample of this from a bottle of Douglas Laing’s XOP (Xtra Old Particular) range, a 42-year-old single grain whisky from Edinburgh’s Caledonian distillery. Distilled in 1976 and aged in a refill Hogshead (cask #12769) for 42 years until it was bottled in 2018 at cask strength of 53.3%. My only experience with single grain scotch was from North British Distillery which I found smooth but not particularly interesting, so I really didn’t expect much going in this one. Based on my experience from North British, I hastily judged this one as a closed single grain distillery that probably was just ok and was mainly just a talking point for people to try old-and-no-longer-produced whisky. I opened my sample and gave half to my friend so both of us could say we’ve tried something extinct. After pouring it and doing a cheers for our first drink of the night, I sat down and took one whiff and was immediately proven wrong. Wow, this one has a lot going on with no alcohol burn on the nose at all: honeysuckle, orange blossom, apple, peaches, lemon drop candy, macadamia nuts, vanilla ice cream, very light oak spices of cinnamon, and fallen autumn leaves. The taste is just as impressive with no alcohol burn on the palate either; very oily with a full mouthfeel and notes of honeysuckle nectar, confectioner’s sugar, apples, orange blossom, rose water, more lemon drop candy and macadamia nuts, and very light oak spices keeping everything in balance as it moves from one fruit to the next until it finishes with a medium-long honeydew melon, orange blossom, lemon and vanilla caramel that lingers for a few minutes. I was so impressed with this one, I went looking for a bottle, sadly there were no more 42 year cask #12769 from 1976 bottles left, but I managed to get a 44 year 1976 cask #13925 from The Whisky Exchange with the added benefit of no tariffs because single grain appears to be exempt from them. Hopefully the same notes will be found from the different cask.