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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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September 2, 2019 |
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Indeed I thought we could have a few more Craigellachies, now that the newish official range seems to have given ideas to many independent bottlers. We’ll focus on the latter, if you don’t mind, especially on the loads of 2008s that have appeared… |
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Craigellachie 9 yo 2008/2017 (46%, Cask Classics, bourbon, cask #900310) 
I suppose they’re small bottlers as it’s the first time we’re coming across one of their bottles. Colour: pale white wine. Nose: barley, grist, wort, chicory, instant coffee, green pears… Well, this is elementary, but not rudimentary. All natural bready/cake-y malt whisky. Mouth: there are millions of litres of these kinds, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Good maltiness, cake, roasted nuts, toasted bread, more instant coffee, chocolate, brownies… Finish: medium, even maltier. Ovaltine/Ovomaltine all over your palate. Comments: really does its job, a good bottle to show your friends who are only used to average blends ‘what is malt whisky’ (some would have said ‘what is whisky’, around 110 years ago)…
SGP:441 - 83 points. |
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Craigellachie 10 yo 2007/2017 (48.8%, Valinch and Mallet, Young Masters Edition, bourbon hogshead, cask #17-3111, 333 bottles)
Colour: pale white wine. Nose: very similar, just a tad more eau-de-vie-ish. Slivovitz and williams pear, otherwise cake, malt, Nescafé and toasted white bread. Mouth: creamy mouth feel, with some vanilla and pepper, then malt, cake, bread, peanut butter, shortbread, macaroons, and then more custard. Finish: medium, with a little more pepper. Dried pears in the aftertaste. Comments: epitomical young natural malt whisky. Now we won’t remember these babies forever…
SGP:451 - 83 points. |
Let’s check a higher voltage… |
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Craigellachie 10 yo 2008/2019 (63.3%, Signatory Vintage for Kirsch Whisky, sherry cask, cask #900618, 613 bottles) 
An homicidal strength yet again! Colour: gold. Nose: pretty much the same cake-y and malty feelings, except that someone well-intentioned has added a handful of raisins and a few bits of blond tobacco. With water: cigarette tobacco and walnut wine, that’s a winning, if a little simple, combination. Wee hints of dunnage, concrete, old barrels... Mouth (neat): extremely powerful but kind of approachable. I seem to notice some coconut liqueur (better than Malibu) and a lot of butterscotch and nougat. With water: very good! Opens up like a daisy in the morning, with Ovaltine yet again, some mushrooms, white pepper, vegetable soup, raisins, and the tiniest bit of rubber, an asset in this context. Finish: long, a tad rougher, which is rather normal at this age. Crude raw chocolate. Comments: as good as it gets given its pedigree. Reminds me of some batches of Glenfarclas 105.
SGP:561 - 85 points. |
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Craigellachie-Glenlivet 9 yo 2009/2019 (55.1%, Cadenhead, Small Batch, 570 bottles)
This baby from two hogsheads. Colour: white wine. Nose: this is more complex, with more coastal tones, as well as something chalky, or at least mineral. There’s also a little smoke and a little pepper, touches of ink, and then a rather marrowy development. It’s likely than one, if not both casks had seen some peaters in an earlier life. With water: you bet! Mud, beach sand, seawater, soot, dough, floor cloth, old jacket, rain water… And custard! Mouth (neat): peat, salt, butterscotch, vanilla and lemon fudges, then roasted peanuts and turon. Very good, I think. With water: even the citrus fruits hint at Islay. Finish: rather long, ashier, drier. Salty and malty aftertaste. Comments: a funny one to mislead the enemies. Or blind tasting special!
SGP:453 - 85 points. |
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Craigellachie 2007/2018 (57.6%, Or Sileis, sherry hogshead, cask #998, 295 bottles)
This one was bottled for Taiwan. Colour: white wine. Nose: very different, not only from CAD’s peater, but also from the caky ones we had before. Something clearly metallic, with also a lot of paraffin and graphite, soot, damp plaster, then white and green fruits rhubarb, white cherries… This one’s pretty intriguing. With water: it’s a little wild now, with touches of horse saddle on top of this metallic feeling. You could believe the cask was heavily patched, but the colour is perfectly transparent and light, and not greenish or blackish or brownish at all. A lot of porridge too, oats… Mouth (neat): the cakes and the butterscotch are back. Milk chocolate, cappuccino, custard, Ovaltine yet again… no ‘dirty’ touches anymore. With water: very good! Grapefruit, star fruit, gooseberries… It’s really two whiskies in one. Finish: medium, cakier, with citrus in the aftertaste. Comments: it’s easy to imagine that some careful blenders would have rejected this wee deviant cask, but as a single, it really works. Same score again.
SGP:462 - 85 points. |
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Craigellachie 12 yo 2006/2019 (54%, Liquid Treasures, 10th Anniversary, sherry hogshead, 180 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: this one’s bone dry, acetic and acidic, rather all on mineral riesling, cider vinegar (touches) and grapefruits, lemons and lime. I’m a fan already. With water: whiffs of sulphur, then mushrooms and the blackest black chocolate. The sherry coming out. Mouth (neat): absolutely excellent, mineral, extremely rieslingesque, and really shock full of the tartest citrus. With water: once again, the sherry comes out only when water’s added. What’s this magic? Walnuts, leather, truffles… Finish: rather long, with a little smoke, otherwise chalk and lemon. Touches of rapeseed and linseed oils, a hint of pastis in the aftertaste. Comments: a lot of fun to be had with this one. Something must have been going on, but we’re not the police, are we.
SGP:362 - 87 points. |
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Craigellachie 2006/2019 (59.2%, Archives, barrel, cask #8101271, 214 bottles)
Colour: straw. Nose: this one’s rawer, rougher, more spirity, and simply younger, but that may be the very high strength, let’s see… With water: typical active barrel, with more vanilla this time, sawdust, coconut, marshmallows, and then these muddy/earthy touches that we always enjoy (yeah, go figure). Mouth (neat): raw barley eau-de-vie, with quite a lot of tangerine and coconut from the oak. Bottled candyfloss, or coconut snowballs… This is almost Glen Haribo. Not unpleasant at all, this almost rejuvenates us. With water: malt, apples and citron. We’re going home. Finish: medium, tenser, more lemony. Grassier aftertaste and hurray, no coconut in sight! Comments: it’s always bad news when we spot coconut in any whisky, but it happens that it would go away. Which is exactly what happened here.
SGP:551 - 84 points. |
I know, they are all good, but this may get a little boring. Not sure we could expect much better from some young middle-range Speysiders, but let’s see… |
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Craigellachie 2002/2016 ‘Spiced Apple Strudel’ (46%, Wemyss Malts, 362 bottles) 
This one’s been teasing me from the shelves for months and months. But hey, Apple Strudel, is that the same as Apfelstrudel, Herr Wemyss? Colour: straw. Nose: the butterscotch is back! Also kougelhopf, fig cake (big time), heavy honeys (I always quote chestnut), molasses, corn syrup, maple syrup… You could almost pour this over pancakes. Mouth: very good. More maple syrup, savagnin (wine), roasted pecans, sugarcane syrup, butterscotch again and again, then spice cake, cloves, pepper, cinnamon cake, orange peels… There’s even a wee feeling of proper old moscatel. Where are the pancakes? Finish: medium, pretty fantastic, on all sugary syrups. Mars bar, maple syrup… And a very honeyed aftertaste. Comments: irresistible. We could have this for breakfast, instead of GMO cereals.
SGP:641 - 88 points. |
As always, time seems to help. Remember time, so age, is consubstantial to whisky, and what’s too easy is too easy. |
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Craigellachie 25 yo 1994/2019 (56.1%, The Single Malts of Scotland, cask #1063, 195 bottles) 
Colour: gold. Nose: there’s what wasn’t in any of the others, tertiary elements. Smaller aromas, herbs, teas, oils, ointments… Marzipan, for example, or beeswax, old rum, honeysuckle, lime blossom, peonies, heather honey, old Champagne, pollen… etc. Another league, clearly. With water: fantastic woods, herbs, needles, leaves, mosses, and grasses. This must cure something. Whisky melancholy? Mouth (neat): bang! Astounding and unexpected. Beeswax, marzipan, macaroons, earl grey tea, tobacco, Turkish delights, orange blossom water, Demerara sugar, tangerine liqueur (Mandarine Impériale), heavy ale… A lot going on in there, really, I wasn’t expecting this. With water: a cigar. Now it does not need any water. Finish: long, extraordinarily ‘oaky’. It’s rare that oak would complement a distillate this brilliantly, in my book. Malt whisky that behaves like the best Cognacs, I would say. Only the aftertaste is a little dry, a little too oaky for me. Quibbling for nothing again. Comments: the best of Craigellachie. I mean, of the town. Beats their neighbours, even the pushiest ones. No, no names. PS: Elixir, you should have warned us. PPS: how is it that the owners did not put their paws on this cask?
SGP:561 - 92 points. |
Good, we have our winner, but perhaps a last one for the autobahn?… |
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Craigellachie 26 yo 1991/2018 (56.5%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice, refill American hogshead, cask #9465, 172 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: more fresh oak in this one, so more croissants, grist, vanilla, sawdust, oatcakes, shortbread, baguettes… We’re nosing fresh bread, really, which cannot be bad. Oh and fresh oak. With water: grass, branches, fresh oak, fresh almonds, banana skins, various peels… Mouth (neat): very good, and rather on cider. I mean, proper cider, not pub or supermarket cider. Or perhaps some kind of complex mead? But the oak’s never too far away, let’s be careful. With water: not quite, it doesn’t take water too well. An unnecessary tannicity appears, it’s better when unreduced, in my opinion. Finish: medium, rather on sweet oak, vanilla, apple juice, cider… Comments: really excellent, but the oak’s a little too much on the centre stage, and the spirit a little too shy. Active oak is hard to resist and to cope with, just ask all these new NAS malts around. Oh dear, I keep drivelling on…
SGP:461 - 85 points. |
Ten, I think that’s a good number. See ya… |
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