Craigellachie 11 Years Old AtB Darkness (Atom Brands)

From the bottler Atom Brands, an 11 year old Craigellachie, bottled at 55.5%. Craigellachie is an old fashioned Speyside malt, full bodied and sulphurous in youth, tropical with age. It sits at the village of Craigellachie, where the River Fiddich joins the Spey by Telford's iron bridge.

The spirit was distilled in copper stills with worm tub condensers on Blue Hill spring water, giving the heavy, oily spirit at its heart. Ex-Sherry wood added a dried fruit richness to the heavy, meaty malt. By the integrating teens the sulphur fades and esters build, pineapple and wax growing over the oily spirit. The oily spirit shows the cask clearly, vanilla and tropical fruit over a meaty malt. Craigellachie is one of the last Speyside malts still built on worm tubs. Water comes from a local spring in the Blue Hill area above the village. Worm tubs give little copper contact, so the new spirit is robust and full, mellowing to tropical fruit with age.

At its natural 55.5% it is concentrated. A muscular, waxy sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The mouthfeel is heavy and oily, the fruit carried on a meaty body. The finish is deep, oily and savoury. This is Craigellachie's robust, oily Speyside style.