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Introducing
the prime new single malts from
Craigellachie, the 13, 17, 19 and 23
year old.
Both the Craigellachie village and
distillery takes their name from the
craggy rock on which they sit above the
confluence of two great Speyside rivers,
the rivers Fiddich and Spey. Although
the distillery was established back in 1891 it has
remained a relatively unknown single
malt whisky even amongst whisky connoisseurs. The reason for this is
simple like many whisky distilleries almost all of the single malt
whisky production from the distillery
has gone into blended whiskies, a few
casks have found there way into the
hands of independent bottlers over the
years but there has been very few official
distillery bottlings, such as the
Craigellachie 14 year old which was
bottled between 2004 and 2007, that is until now!
Craigellachie owners, John Dewar & Sons
have released not one but a whole new range of
Craigellachie single malt whiskies, the
first four expressions in the new
range are
Craigellachie 13 Year Old,
Craigellachie 17 Year Old
and
at the top of the range for the time
being is the
Craigellachie 23 Year Old.
They have also launched the
Craigellachie 19 Year Old which
is exclusive to travel retail and
if that is not enough the four whiskies
will be joined next year by the
Craigellachie 31 year old.
Craigellachie's taste has always
provoked opinion with its it’s sulphury
and meaty style. Sulphur gets a lot of
bad press, often because of duff sherry
casks but in the case of Craigellachie
the sulphur comes from the production
method and not the maturation. The distillery uses malted
barley from a particular kiln in Glenesk.
It is, unusually, produced using an oil
fire, giving them the specific level of
sulphur desired and leading to a spirit
with a noticeably heavier character than
most.
 Of course this sulphur is usually
removed during the distillation process
when the spirit is cooled using
condensers but like in a bygone era of
whisky production Craigellachie still
cool their spirit in worm tubs. Unlike
modern condensers, worm tubs contain no
copper which would otherwise reduce the
distillate’s sulphur content.
Craigellachie has stuck by this now rare
and traditional method, despite worm
tubs being much more expensive to
maintain than modern condensers, as it
produces a far heavier spirit and
imparts unusually strong, sulphury
flavours. The worm tubs bestow the
spirit with extra flavour, creating a
dram with a distinctive meaty taste that
they say rivals whisky twice its age.
 The distillery makes no apology for the
challenging sulphury dram it produces
and now single malt whisky drinkers can
judge for themselves. Even the ages of
the new range doesn't conform to the
what we would expect, the new
expressions have been bottled at 13, 17,
19, 23 with the 31 year old to follow
next year, all prime numbers.
The new range appropriately is presented
with rather old style packaging perhaps
in recognition of Craigellachies
traditional distillation methods, you could even say old
fashioned production method which gives
us whisky drinkers a taste of a style of
Scotch malt whisky that is rarely seen
today.
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