Craigellachie 37 Year

Tasting Notes

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Pineapple tarte tatin, custard, banana bread, soft cereal, and a faint whisper of smoke.

Palate: Boldly complex, featuring sweet acidity, soft fruits, candied fruit, toffee, toasted oak, and almonds.

Finish: Long, indulgent, and lingering, with warm oak spices, dried fruit, and honey.

92pts Whisky Fun

"Very amusing, the tasting notes on the label start with 'tarte tatin' and 'crème anglaise', but fear not, the remainder is in English. Mind you, we suspect this is going to be very good... Colour: straw, so a surprisingly pale hue. Nose: superb right from the off, no doubt thanks to a cask that’s kept itself to itself all these years. It's chiefly floral, led by blooming honeysuckle in full swing, then come little pink plums and absolutely glorious honeyed touches. Immense elegance, all the more so as arrive dainty notes of ancient apricots from the South Tyrol, in the style of Master Vittorio Gianni Capovilla. I’m barely exaggerating. Splendid almonds too. Wow. Mouth: superlative, lifted, not tired in the slightest, the very model of great distillate aged long and slow in a cask that’s really done nothing but hold it. Gorgeous orchard fruits, still plenty of flowers, and honey from meadows across several continents, as well as, since we must, a wee slice of tarte tatin. As for the crème anglaise, we’re still looking... Finish: probably not very long, but the arrival of small citrus notes ensures this whole lovely construction stays firmly on track. In the aftertaste, a touch of vanilla rice pudding. There you are. Comments: sheer beauty, a tribute to the 'slow whiskies'. No rush! SGP:651 - 92 points."

Distillery

Originally written by Evan for a blog post related to KWM's 2020 Whisky Calendar.

Let’s start with a side note: Us Canadians are used to a different pronunciation of Craigellachie than the Scots. We also often know it more as the B.C. town where the last spike in the Canada Pacific Railway was driven into railway tie - and we pronounce it something like “Craig-a-latch-key” – if you drop the "k" in “key”. For the proper pronunciation of the Distillery name, the CH in CraigellaCHie is hardened to a “k” sound. I would love to link to the great Brian Cox saying it for our benefit on Youtube, but sadly I don’t think he recorded that one. Instead, here is some other guy saying it.

Craigellachie Distillery resides in Banffshire, Scotland in the heart of Speyside – not too far down the road from both Macallan and Aberlour distilleries, among others. Craigellachie was founded in 1891 and is currently owned by Bacardi under their John Dewar’s and Sons Scotch Whisky Branch. It is one of five Scottish Distilleries own by Bacardi, all of which are bottled under their Last Great Malts line of single malts.

Craigellachie is one of less than 20 distilleries in Scotland operating today to utilize worm tubs to condense the spirit vapours coming up off the neck of the pot stills. From the neck, the spirit vapour flows through a lyne arm that connects to a long line of copper tubing that is submerged in a large vat of cooling water. Though this piping might be lengthy, it doesn’t allow as much copper contact as a more typical spiral tubed condenser would.

The resulting spirit retains more heavy, meaty, sulphury notes that would have been stripped out with increased copper contact. This is what gives Craigellachie its rich, meaty style at such a young age. It is also what makes Craigellachie sought after for blending, just as it does with the likes of Mortlach, Benrinnes and Balmenach – other distilleries that utilize worm tubs. 

Craigellachie is primarily used by Bacardi/Dewar’s for its Dewar’s White Label and other Blended Scotch Whisky the company creates.

Craigellachie is one of only two distilleries to be bottled at a respectable 46% ABV in Bacardi’s Last Great Malts family of single malts – the other being Aultmore. What makes it unique in the line is that all official Craigellachie bottlings thus far have been released with age statements that happen to be prime numbers. There is the 13 Year Old that we will be tasting, as well as ages 17, and 23 years old in the core range. There is also a 19-year-old duty-free bottling and a few older that we haven’t seen much of yet in Alberta: these are 31, 33, 39, and 51 years old respectively.