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10th February 2022 |
Crabbie Chain
Pier is a virgin oak matured single cask
single malt and the first single malt to
be produced in Edinburgh for almost 100
years, and it is stunning for such a
young whisky.
 Innovative
Scotch whisky brand, John Crabbie & Co,
has unveiled the first Single Malt to be
produced in Edinburgh for almost 100
years, Chain Pier Lowland Single Malt,
which is the inaugural release from John
Crabbie & Co's experimental/research
micro-distillery, Chain Pier, which was located
near Granton seafront in Edinburgh and
went into production in December 2018
and only operated for one year.
The distillery was set up by Crabbie's
owners, Halewood Artisanal Spirits, as
an experimental pilot distillery whilst
the larger Bonnington distillery in
Edinburgh for Crabbie Whisky was still
under construction.
During its 12 months of operation the
distillery filled only 39 Casks, it
operated with one single 500 litre still
which operated as both wash still and
spirit still, and with the production of
each cask they filled they experimented
with different yeast strains, types of
barley, speed of distillation, always
only taking the middlecut (potable
spirit) to fill to cask, the foreshots
and feints were disregarded and not
returned to the process and redistilled.
They also experimented with different
types of casks and this inaugural
Chain Pier release from the distillery which was
distilled on the 9th January 2019 and
was matured in a single heavily charred
(3 Char) American Virgin Oak cask. The
cask produced only 234 bottles that were
bottled on 13th January 2022 at a cask
strength of 57% ABV, naturally coloured
and non chill-filtered, the whisky has
only been passed through a course filter
to remove any large pieces of char.
As I said, Chain Pier distillery was only in
operation for 1 year and Crabbie tells
me that they have no plans at present to go
into production again making this quite
a unique, rare whisky, but is it any
good? Well I was lucky enough to have a
taste of it last night at a tasting lead
by Master Blender Dr Kirstie McCallum
and I can say, yes it is, you can read
my thoughts on it below.
James Stocker, Marketing Director at
Halewood Artisanal Spirits commented;
"The Chain Pier distillery was
operational for just a year (between
2018 and 19), yet it gave our team a
great opportunity to continue John
Crabbie’s legacy of innovation –
handcrafting unique distillations and
trialling everything from malt types to
custom casks.
"The launch of the Chain Pier Single
Malt is an incredibly exciting step in
the John Crabbie & Co journey, as the
Malt Whisky that we have crafted from
start to finish at a site of our own.
The quality of the liquid is really
testament our distilling team and Master
Blender Dr Kirstie McCallum, and a great
preview of what’s to come from the
Crabbie whisky brand".
This is the first release from Chain
Pier and there wont be many with only 39
casks having been filled over the
distillery's one year of operation
making it one of the scarcest original
distillery bottling's we are ever likely
to see come to the market and it has a
reasonable price tag for such a release
in today's marketplace, it has a RRP of
£65 and I am told it will be available
from specialist online whisky retailer
Master of
Malt but I doubt something this scarce
and this good will be around long when they list it on
the site.
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Crabbie Chain Pier Inaugural Release Review
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Distilled 9th January 2019, matured in a
single heavily charred (3 Char) American
Virgin Oak cask. The cask produced only
234 bottles that were bottled on 13th
January 2022 at a cask strength of 57%
ABV, naturally coloured and non
chill-filtered.
William
Morrison's Tasting Notes:
Nose:
Creamy vanilla sweetened toffee with a
lovely gentle orange citrus edge, malty,
a touch waxy, an enticing sweet, fresh
oak spice.
Taste:
Delicious big barley sugared oak spices
lead, a little ginger and black pepper,
vanilla, an almost candied sweetness
develops, zesty oranges and lemon, then
more waves of sweet oak spice.
Finish:
Sweet, vanilla'd toffee infused with oak spice lingers for
an age before bowing out to leave some
long lingering oak spice and some late
coffee.
Comment: One of the best 3 year Scotch single malt whiskies I
have tasted, delicious from nose to
finish, very little sign of its very
young age, and so easy to drink at its
cask strength which simply added to the
flavour pleasure. A big well done to
Kirstie McCallum, if she can reproduce
this in the larger Bonnington distillery in
Edinburgh for Crabbie they are onto a
winner. I am sure this will prove to be
very collectable but it is also very
drinkable, at £65 a bottle and only 234
bottles I am sure it wont be around
long.
SMW Score 86/100
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