{"id":4812,"date":"2018-03-22T18:26:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T22:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2018-03-22T18:26:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T22:26:02","slug":"craigellachie-23-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/22\/craigellachie-23-year-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Craigellachie 23 Year Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craigellachie is a single malt whisky distillery located in the Speyside region of Scotland (actually Aberlour, near the village of Craigellachie).\u00a0 The name apparently means “rocky hill” and refers to a nearby cliff formation.<\/p>\n

Craigellachie distillery was built in 1891, and like most Scottish whisky makers has passed through many hands over the years. In 1998, it was bought by John Dewar & Sons (now controlled by drinks giant Bacardi). The distillery’s output is directed primarily into Dewar’s blended whiskies. Note that Dewar & Sons also controls Royal Brackla, Aberfeldy, Aultmore, and Macduff (whose malts likely all suffer a similar fate).<\/p>\n

Throughout its history, the distillery has released only a limited number of official bottlings. These were augmented in 2014 with several new age-stated expressions.\u00a0 The oldest of these was a 23 year old, reviewed here. Craigellachie has since released a 31 year old expression as well.<\/p>\n

Bottled at 46% ABV. Craigellachie 23 retails across a wide range, depending when you are located (i.e. I’ve seen it listed between ~$350-700 CAD).<\/p>\n

Let’s see how Craigellachie malts fare in my Meta-Critic Whisky Database, compared to other Dewar products:<\/p>\n

Aberfeldy 12yo: 8.16 \u00b1 0.33 on 19 reviews ($$$)
\nAberfeldy 16yo: 8.48 \u00b1 0.19 on 4 reviews ($$$$)
\nAberfeldy 18yo: 8.58 \u00b1 0.24 on 8 reviews ($$$$)
\nAberfeldy 21yo: 8.79 \u00b1 0.19 on 10 reviews ($$$$$)
\nAultmore 12yo: 8.49 \u00b1 0.21 on 14 reviews ($$$$)
\nAultmore 18yo: 8.57 \u00b1 0.20 on 6 reviews ($$$$$)
\nAultmore 25yo: 8.94 \u00b1 0.21 on 4 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nCraigellachie 13yo: 8.41 \u00b1 0.56 on 16 reviews ($$$)
\nCraigellachie 14yo: 8.37 \u00b1 0.28 on 6 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nCraigellachie 17yo: 8.60 \u00b1 0.19 on 11 reviews ($$$$$)
\nCraigellachie 23yo: 8.98 \u00b1 0.25 on 8 reviews ($$$$$+)<\/strong>
\nDewar’s 12yo: 7.94 \u00b1 0.35 on 14 reviews ($$)
\nDewar’s White Label: 7.51 \u00b1 0.71 on 14 reviews ($$)
\nRoyal Brackla 12yo: \u00b1 8.24 0.47 on 12 reviews ($$$$)
\nRoyal Brackla 16yo: \u00b1 8.67 0.28 on 7 reviews ($$$$$)
\nRoyal Brackla 21yo: \u00b1 8.79 0.18 on 4 reviews ($$$$$)<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the aged expressions are fairing the best in the comparisons above. That is certainly a very good score for the Craigellachie 23 – the highest of the group.<\/p>\n

My sample came from Redditor Strasse007.<\/p>\n

Nose<\/strong>: Apple juice and honey to start (like most Craigellachies), plus plums. Lemon citrus. Dried flowers and potpourri. Cinnamon. Wintergreen. Black tea. It’s a lovely light and aged nose, but with a good amount of complexity. Faint old book glue note.<\/p>\n

Palate<\/strong>: Toffee and butterscotch start off, with some honey. Candied apples. Grapes. Citrus again (more orangey now). Cinnamon and some oaky wood, plus that black tea again. Has a full mouthfeel, with a buttery texture – very nice. It makes you want to hold it in your mouth. Slight ethanol note on the swallow, which detracts for me. Also something wet cardboard-like (which similarly doesn’t appeal).<\/p>\n

Finish<\/strong>: Medium length. Nutmeg and cinnamon linger the longest, with mild oak spice. Some dried apple. Faint bitter cardboard note also persists to the end, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

Water adds some additional simple sugar, but doesn’t help with the bitterness on finish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is an interesting experience, and one that seems driven by both the distillate and the cask aging (or some combination thereof). It has a lot of character for a light malt, but some of the notes may be off-putting.<\/p>\n

Certainly above average in quality, but it is not really a standout for me. I might venture that it has been over-aged (and would probably be better a little younger). But a unique experience, and one I’m glad I got to try.<\/p>\n

It gets very high scores from Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a>, Ruben of Whisky Notes<\/a>, and Dave of Whisky Advocate<\/a>. Also positive are TOModera<\/a>, Strasse007<\/a>, Throwboats<\/a> and Unclimbability<\/a> on Reddit. I would be more moderately positive, along with Jim Murray, and cake_my_day<\/a>, Ethanized<\/a> and LetThereBeR0ck<\/a> on Reddit. Certainly no negative reviews out there from among my stable of reviewers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craigellachie is a single malt whisky distillery located in the Speyside region of Scotland (actually Aberlour, near the village of Craigellachie).\u00a0 The name apparently means “rocky hill” and refers to a nearby cliff formation. Craigellachie distillery was built in 1891, and like most Scottish whisky makers has passed through many hands over the years. In 1998, it was bought by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[161,160,141,17],"class_list":["post-4812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-23yo","tag-craigellachie","tag-scottish","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4812"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5173,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions\/5173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}