Craigellachie 19 Years Old Cask #Batch 04-6140

Craigellachie from the distillery, a 19 year old, cask Batch 04-6140, at 46%. Craigellachie was built in 1891 and is one of the few distilleries still using worm tubs. Worm tubs give little copper contact, so the new spirit is robust and full, mellowing to tropical fruit with age.

Distilled for the heavy, meaty spirit Craigellachie is known for, for a bold, meaty Speyside spirit. Ex-Sherry wood added a dried fruit richness to the heavy, meaty malt. Through oxidative maturity esters concentrate, the worm tub weight turning to mango and a waxy depth. A big sherry cask suits the muscular spirit, dried fruit meeting the meaty weight. It was rebuilt in 1965, but kept its worm tubs where most distilleries dropped them. The official range runs a thirteen, seventeen and twenty three year old, with rare older bottlings. It was launched as a single malt brand in 2014, with a bare knuckle, old fashioned image.

At 46% it is clean and soft. A robust, oily fruitiness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Pineapple, malt and a savoury wax fill the middle. It finishes robust, waxy and warm. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real character.