CRAIGELLACHIE 1995 - DOUGLAS LAING - OLD PARTICULAR

I've previously reviewed a few Craigellachies on here and all have been very good.

During the Spirit of Speyside Festival this May, I spotted this bottle in that 'Whiskyshop (in) Dufftown' ;-) and I decided to buy it, without having a taste first. Something I only rarely do with sherry matured whiskies as I'm quite sensitive to especially the rubber style sulphury notes that some sherry casks produce.

Quite honestly, this could be a hit as well as a miss and I admit to getting carried away a bit when buying this... and at £75/€90 its still a significant cash-out on something you're not complete sure of. Now what I was sure of is the quality of spirit coming from Craigellachie Distiller and the good reputation of the bottler Douglas Laing, so I went for it...

So did I spend my hard earned money on a dud?

The washbacks at Craigellachie Distillery, May 2nd 2011 © The Malt Desk

Craigellachie 1995 17yo 48,4% sherry butt#DL10052, 348 bottles, Douglas Laing - Old Particular

Colour is amber

Nose:

Sweet and clean non-invasive sherry. A mellow cooked and overripe apple note lurks just beneath the sherry coating. Also Ginger Ale and mint in there along with some spices, nutmeg and cumin being the most noticeable ones. It also has a strange salty and slight ozone edge to the nose - quite interesting!

Taste:

Sweet arrival, turning drying and then followed by notes of orange, some chocolate and those apples again. It then goes from drying to creamy and mouthwatering and even slightly waxy at times. The apple is this turns very much to be like the ones you've stuffed and cooked your duck with in the oven for Xmas. Add to that a little sandalwood and at times hint of Irn'Bru!! How Scottish is that?!?!

Now, I've previously found resemblance to Clynelish in some Cragellachie bottling - this is another, although not as prominent in this one.

Another great Craig, this one - so good I just ordered another bottle of it to save for a rainy day!

89/100!

CRAIGELLACHIE 1999 44.49 'LAMB CHOPS, MINT SAUCE AND BLUEBERRIES' - THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY

It has been a week since my last review... If I had put a 'Forgive me, Padre' in front of that someone would think I was making a confession, but I'm not - just a review...

I've recently exchanged samples with a good whisky friend and among those were a handful of expressions from the SWMS, so I'll start out with those...

The first one, as you might have guessed from the headline, is a... Mortlach - no just kidding :-)
Its, of course, a Craigellachie and this time a sherry matured expression.

When I posted my first Craigellachie review in February this year, I mentioned that Craigellachie distillery uses wormtubs to cool their spirit. I've thought long and hard about if its the the spirit character or the sherry cask that gives the heavier character to this particular bottling. My conclusion is that it must be that cask as I don't really seriously get the heavier compounds in the spirit (only slight feinty ones) and the other ones I do get I feel is clearly sherry oak infused. Also, I sometimes see that if you get a heavier spirit profile it can balance out some of fruity notes, but not in this one.

Steam coming off the Craigellachie Distillery wormtubs, May 2nd 2011 © The Malt Desk

Craigellachie 1999 44.49 (xx.08.1999/xx.02.2011) 11yo 'Lamb chops, Mint sauce and Blueberries' 58,7%, 624 bottle, refill ex-sherry butt, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Colour is amber

Nose:
Chocolate mints (After Eights), malt, butter, yeast and baking dough, vanilla, banana turning brown, moldy/dusty and some anise

Taste:
Lovely light sherried arrival, clean as a whistle. Then mainly malt dried fruit, nuts, pineapple, strawberry and oranges and a tad bitter oak on the finish.

Maybe a slight narrow profile, but what is there works - and it works well!

I'd take a whole bottle for sure...and thanks to GNJ for the sample.

87/100!

CRAIGELLACHIE 1990 44.57 'SEA SALTED CARAMEL PEBBLES' - THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY

I passed Craigellachie Distillery just 2 weeks ago, thinking it always looks the same when driving by...  but then it's not normally open to the public, so why should they spend a washback full of money to make it look pretty. It doesn't look bad, I might add - it just looks like it always does...

A funny thing is that when passing Aultmore distillery (also owned by Dewar's/Barcardi) I get the feeling I'm looking at Craigellachie, as they're somewhat similar. While I'm at it let me mention that they also own Macduff, Royal Brackla and Aberfeldy Distilleries - the latter being no where near the other industrial looking complexes, but rather more like your traditional old stone walled distillery

I came across a funny thing with 2 Craigellachie bottlings in early May this year when visiting SMWS The Vaults in Edinburgh when returning from the Spirit of Speyside festival... They tasted like... Clynelish... I even had my travelling companion who runs the DK branch of the SMWS and a member of staff at The Vaults confirm my opinion on this. It was a huge surprise for all of us! I've had this experience a couple of times before, but with very similar whiskies/distilleries (Glenfarclas/Glen Grant/Cragganmore) but this was no where near what I'd expect from a Craigellachie - as I said, a lovely surprise :-)

Have you had a similar experience? Use the comment field below - thank you!

Craigellachie stillhouse, May 2nd 2011 © The Malt Desk

So what am I talking about? this one...

Craigellachie 1990 (13.08.1990/xx.02.2013) 22yo 'Sea salted caramel pebbles' 52,9%, refill ex-bourbon hogshead, 305 bottles, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Colour is pale white wine

Nose:
Sweet shy pears and a grassy note, freshly sliced honey melon, white chocolate and a hint of farmyard, grist and cookie dough

Taste:
Fruits, mainly pears again now more evident and up front. Very fresh with a salty spicy edge - very north Highland as in malt from that producing distillery in the village of Brora, even shows a creamy/waxy edge with addition of a few drops of water. Water also brings out a very noticeable smoky and herbal edge and some soft oak...

Far more expressive on the palate then on the nose - I love this! Huge fun!
A highly educational malt... Oh, and the other similar bottling is the 44.56...

88/100!

CRAIGELLACHIE 1991 - BERRY BROS & RUDD

Craigellachie Distillery is one of those that truly lives a quiet life - although they put out around 4 million liters of spirit each year - most to go into the Dewar's blend.

It's an industrial distillery for sure, highly automatic - even more than see in other places I've seen. Located in the village of Craigellachie on the road to Dufftown, its very much one of those places you just pass and never will get to visit as its not normally open to the public - but a few of us were very luckily to visit during the 2011 Spirit of Speyside Spring Festival.

It's also one of those distilleries that uses worm tubs for cooling, and with that sometimes producing a heavier spirit note, sometimes described as 'meaty' as in i.e. Mortlach that also uses worm tubs. I wouldn't exactly describe the Craigellachie spirit as meaty or heavy - instead it has an indescribable edge to it and an ultra clean malt/grain character.

The distillery put out a 14yo that's an easy drinking dram, but I haven't seen it around for a while... so probably discontinued. Before that - and when the distillery was still owned by United Distillers (Diageo) they had a bottling in the Flora & Fauna range and a bottling in the Rare Malt series as well.

Personally I think this distillery deserves more attention than it gets, as it can really put out some good stuff - but it all seems to disappear into Dewar's blends.

Craigellachie Distillery, May 2nd 2011 © The Malt Desk

Craigellachie 1991 20yo 55,8%, ex-bourbon cask#2715, 218 bottles, Berry Bros & Rudd

Colour is white wine

Nose:
Bakery shop, fresh, sliced pineapple, spices, hint of licorice root - a bourbon cask straight as an arrow!

Taste:
Vanilla, paestry, creamy, peppery, the licorice shows itself here, also green apples, a flowery note and truckloads of medium heavy malt/barley sugar.

An easy drinking summer malt, a slow sipper on a hot day - Lovely!

87/100!