
July 1, 2016

Little duets, today Craigellachie

Not much to say about Craigellachie, I’m afraid. Mind you, I’ve only tasted forty-seven of them so far, and I needed almost fifteen years to achieve that.

Craigellachie 14 yo 2000/2015 (50%, Hunter Laing, Old Malt Cask, sherry, cask #2439)

Colour: gold. Nose: typical raisiny and chocolaty refill sherry, with some fudge and some brioche, plus quite a lot of roasted malt, Ovaltine, cappuccino, Mars bar (not deep fried this time)… With water: as usual, a little more hay, raw barley, grains… Mouth (neat): creamy, malty, with everything it needs, including maple syrup, honey, roasted peanuts, fudge, butterscotch, cake, café latte… You know that song. With water: a tad more orangey. Orange cake, orange blossom tea, earl grey… Finish: medium, firm, malty and pastry-like. More orange cake in the aftertaste. Comments: very good. There might be millions of casks like this one lying over there, but yeah, it’s very good, no doubt, even if the distillate isn’t exactly characterful. Average in the best sense of that word. SGP:541 - 85 points.

Craigellachie 12 yo 2003/2015 (59.9%, Ceder & Tjeder, Dram Good Whisky, refill bourbon hogshead, cask # 124/2003, 299 bottles)

In theory, with refill BB hogsheads, distillery character should shine through. Colour: white wine (hurray). Nose: you bet! You’ve got all grains in there, from wheat to barley and rye, and even quasi-grains, buckwheat and such. Plus baker’s yeast, leaven, porridge, artisan ale, a little chalk… After all, this is distilled malted barley! With water: it is pure ale! Love these whiffs of raw wool, sour dough, porridge… Mouth (neat): excellently close to the raw materials. No oak pollution, totally barley, plus white cherries and lime. In fact, it is totally ‘craft’, as if this was distilled by some ex-hippies (now lawyers or plastic surgeons) somewhere near Boulder or Ithaca. With water: even more of all that. And it is mature. Finish: long, quite mineral, cerealy, porridgy, greatly yeasty… Comments: some craft industrial malt, what’s the trick? It’s not often that you can feel the barley this much. As you feel pears in pear eau-de-vie. Totally love it. SGP:451 - 88 points.

(Thank you Tom)

Pete McPeat and Jack Washback