Craigellachie Distillery is located in the centre of the Speyside region, just up the road from Speyside Cooperage in the small village of Craigellachie. In fact the distillery sits right on the region's main road, with the still house and even the stills themselves easily visible from said road through the retractable glass doors, which are often left open. But visitors are not permitted inside the distillery and there's no visitor's centre, so that's as close as most of us will get. Although the village is home to both The Craigellachie Hotel and the famous Highlander Inn, so there's no shortage of whisky tastings in the vicinity. The name Craigellachie (pronounced "Cray-Gell-ack-ee") means "rocky hill", referring to the rocky bluff that the distillery & the namesake village sits on. It's a medium-sized distillery overall, with an annual production capacity of over four million litres of spirit, but that's actually quite small by Speyside standards, through two pairs of copper stills. Like many of the less-famous distilleries the majority of their production goes into blended whiskies, particularly the Dewars and White Horse brands. Originally founded in 1891, Craigellachie is owned by John Dewar & Sons, which itself is owned by Bacardi, having purchased Craigellachie and four other distilleries (Aberfeldy, Aultmore, MacDuff and Brackla) from United Distillers,a precursor to Diageo, in 1998.
Those four stills are quite large, with capacities of just over 28,000 litres a piece, and the wash & spirit stills are the same size, which is slightly unusual. You won't find any boil bulbs, onions or purifiers here, and you won't find any modern & efficient shell & tube condensers attached to their horizontal lyne arms. Craigellachie is one of the few modern distilleries to retain worm tub condensers! These large plain stills and their old-fashioned worm tub condensers have been designed to give minimal reflux and little copper contact, resulting in a weighty and (intentionally) sulphurous spirit. The un-peated barley is sourced from Glenesk maltings on the east coast, and is dried using an oil-fired heater, which is claimed to add sulphurous notes to the malt itself, to the point where Craigellachie is sometimes referred to as "the bad boy of Speyside". But we can expect those notes to diminish with time in casks, which could be why the youngest official bottling is 13-years old. Speaking of which, the vast majority of Craigellachie spirit is sent to Glasgow for maturation & bottling, partly since like many distilleries situated in the centres of villages or towns, physical space is at a premium.
The expression I'm looking at today is the entry-level Craigellachie, but unusually for an entry-level it's a 13-year old whisky which is bottled at 46% and is non-chill filtered, although I suspect there may be a little E150a artificial colouring involved. With those things considered it's quite reasonably priced, hovering around the $110-130 AUD mark. There's no information out there on the type of casks that were used for this one, so I'd assume it's mostly been matured in refill ex-bourbon casks. But what I don't particularly like is that Bacardi have been referring to their range of single malts, with Craigellachie among them, as "The Last Great Malts". Which is a huge steaming pile of you know what, particularly when it's being used for what were (and largely still are) almost completely unknown distilleries. Maybe I'm being a little sensitive here, but surely they could've found a better tagline to use in their marketing, because that one doesn't leave a pleasant taste in the mouth. How about "the last undiscovered malts" or "the hidden / forgotten gems of Speyside"? And I don't even work in marketing! That said however, I do like the classy and decidedly retro packaging that they've used on the Craigellachie range. Anyway, let's shake all that off and give this one a go...
Presumed matured in refill ex-bourbon casks. Non-chill filtered, suspected light added colouring.
Colour: Yellow gold.
Nose: There's definitely a vegetal "twang" to it, and it's more dry and savoury than I was expecting, but there's still the typical Speyside notes of honey & apple, and a subtle malty-ness. Some dry wood spices (sandalwood?) and dusty oatmeal, and a little dried spearmint. A hint of tea tree oil with more time in the glass.
Texture: Medium weight, lightly oily. And more than just a vegetal "twang" here! A touch of heat as well.
Taste: That vegetal note straight off, like a newly opened bag of lightly salted potato chips (crisps) that have gone stale. That may not sound particularly appetizing, but it's enjoyable! Some savoury dry honey and a couple of beef stock cubes (meaty). Hint of that dried spearmint around the edges, lightly nutty oak as well.
Finish: Medium length. More spearmint, some green apple, a little white pepper and bitter burnt toffee. More dry wood spices again, and a little salted butter, but it's that vegetal sulphur note that carries on the longest.
Score: 3 out of 5.
Notes: An interesting dram! The nose was quite deceptive in that it gives a prediction of what you can expect to find on the palate, but that prediction falls way short! It's definitely more dry, meaty and savoury than I expected, but that's not a complaint, just a little surprising. In fact it's quite refreshing. There may not be a huge amount of depth to this expression, but let's not forget that this is the entry-level Craigellachie, so we can definitely forgive that. That sulphurous vegetal note may put off some newcomers, and I've found that it increased as the bottle breathed and oxidised, which is also interesting as it's the opposite of what I'd expect to happen. I'd probably put the overall level of sulphur on par with some ex-bourbon cask Mortlachs that I've tried, but the actual effect of that sulphur is quite different and perhaps less pungent in the Craigellachie. Which makes me want to try a sherry cask-matured expression!
There's definitely a sulphurous and lightly rough edge to this 13-year old Speysider, and it's definitely not what you'd typically expect from the region, which is great to see. Those regional flavours are certainly becoming less and less relevant as more distilleries branch out and/or come to light. And this one is certainly worth a try if you'd like a bit more of a challenge in your dram.
Cheers!
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