Cragganmore The Distillers Edition 12 Years Old 2003

A 12 year old Cragganmore, a distillery bottling, from 2003, cask CggD-6567, at 40%. Cragganmore is the complex, savoury Speyside malt of the Classic Malts range. Its spirit stills are flat topped with a wide neck, an unusual shape that builds a complex, fragrant spirit.

It was run through the distillery's unusual flat topped wide neck stills, for a meaty, fragrant make of real depth. Double matured in Port wood, plum and dark berry meeting the meaty spirit. Integration folds eugenol (clove) and vanillin (vanilla) into the malt, the savoury body fuller and deeper. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and coconut over the meaty malt. The distillery sits at Ballindalloch on the River Spey, in the heart of Speyside. John Smith reputedly weighed over twenty stone and could not use the railway he loved, too large for the carriages.

At 40% it is clean and soft. Apple, dried fruit and a meaty edge, with plum, red berry and chocolate from the cask. The texture is full and complex, the fruit lifted by a meaty malt. The close is long, fruit over a complex malt. This is Cragganmore's fragrant, meaty Speyside style.