Craigellachie 11 Years Old 2013 Cask #752 (Riegger’s Selection)

The bottler Riegger's Selection bottled this Craigellachie, an 11 year old, distilled in 2013, from cask 752, bottled at 56.8%, one of 268 bottles. Craigellachie is a Bacardi owned Speyside distillery whose worm tubs give a heavy, meaty spirit. It sits at the village of Craigellachie, where the River Fiddich joins the Spey by Telford's iron bridge.

It was drawn off pot stills cooled by traditional worm tubs, for an oily, robust make that turns tropical with age. A Pedro Ximenez cask added raisin, date and a treacle sweetness. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin settling into vanilla as ethyl esters lend a riper, tropical fruit over the meaty malt. The oily spirit shows the cask clearly, vanilla and tropical fruit over a meaty malt. The heavy, oily make is prized by blenders for the backbone it gives White Horse. It was rebuilt in 1965, but kept its worm tubs where most distilleries dropped them.

At 56.8%, undiluted, it is deep and fruity. A heavy, oily maltiness, with raisin, date and treacle from the cask. Soft tropical fruit and a waxy malt sit behind the cask. The close is long, fruit over a meaty malt. This is one of Speyside's most robust single malts.