Craigellachie 10 Years Old Dark Friday Germany 2018 #1 (Battlehill Scotch Whisky Co.)

A 10 year old Craigellachie from the bottler Battlehill Scotch Whisky Co, bottled at 52.8%, one of 400 bottles. Craigellachie is an old fashioned Speyside malt, full bodied and sulphurous in youth, tropical with age. The official range runs a thirteen, seventeen and twenty three year old, with rare older bottlings.

The spirit was worked through stills and worm tubs for a muscular, oily spirit, building the old fashioned Craigellachie style. Ex-Sherry wood added a dried fruit richness to the heavy, meaty malt. Integration folds eugenol (clove) and vanillin (vanilla) into the malt, the robust body turning fruitier. The cool Speyside air gives a slow, even maturation, the young sulphur fading to fruit. The robust make rewards long ageing, the meatiness giving way to tropical fruit. Bacardi's John Dewar and Sons bought it in 1998, alongside Aberfeldy, Aultmore and Royal Brackla.

At 52.8%, undiluted, it is deep and fruity. Tropical fruit, malt and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The texture is full and oily, the fruit lifted by a meaty weight. A robust, malty finish ends on tropical fruit and a warm spice. This is an oily, tropical Speyside single malt.