Craigellachie 5yo, 2006 / 2011, Signatory Vintage for LMdW
Google Craigellachie and you will find many matches for the famous hotel and the village. Scroll some way down and finally you’ll see a match for the whisky. Not a famous name this one. In fact, it’s own name means ‘rocky hill’ in refernce to the cliff that overlooks the river Spey, on which the village itself was built. At the top, look a little farther in the same direction and you might see that distillery that made a bit of a name for itself, the Macallan.
Also, it isn’t even old by industry standards, built in 1891 by the purposefully-named Craigellachie Distillery co. Also rather unfortunately it did not have the time to establish its malt before being sold on to (famous) Peter Mackie, then DCL and SMD by 1930. Under SMD, the distillery was rebuilt and the number of stills increased to four in 1964, though they were only converted to steam in 1972. Together the 4 stills are capable of producing 3.6 million L a year, though it is almost certain it was not run at that capacity back then.
Craigellachie was sold to the John Dewar & Sons unit of Bacardi in 1998, so now it is a major component of the Dewars brand blends – in this regard at least, Craigellechie’s malt finds a constant purpose through its history.
Ok so this whisky is 5 years old – it’s barely legal, still a 5 yo Glen Grant from the 60s at Auld Alliance showed that age is not everything:
Craigellachie 5yo, 24/04/2006 ~ 19/09/2011, Signatory Vintage for LMdW, Sherry Butt 900136, 46%
Nose: Young, but big sherry smack in the face, heavy pressed nut oil and tubs of furniture wax. But it’s a;so really spirity and malty. Big boiling orange peels in syrup and some wood spices. Aggressive on the nose. With water, a little tamer but nothing really hides it’s youth. Ok then some orange zest.
Palette: Hot and bold, but big and sweet and all these stewed marmalade and zest notes pop out. Quite heavy but rather one dimensional, and not much development takes place after the first onslaught.With water, same game, except straight to finish.
Finish: Short, some stewed fruit again, and prickly hot.
Well it IS a 5 year old, honestly it’s got a lot going for it at that * really young * age, but as a whisky – I’ve got 3 units a day, I’ll drink something else.
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