Craigellachie 12 Years Old 1971 (Connoisseurs Choice)

The Elgin house Gordon and MacPhail bottled this Craigellachie, a 12 year old, distilled in 1971, bottled at 40%. Craigellachie is a robust, oily Speyside single malt made on worm tub condensers. It was rebuilt in 1965, but kept its worm tubs where most distilleries dropped them.

It was drawn off pot stills cooled by traditional worm tubs, for the muscular, meaty make Craigellachie is known for. Ex-Bourbon casks held it, the oak letting the oily, robust character lead. By the integrating teens the sulphur fades and esters build, pineapple and wax growing over the oily spirit. The cool Speyside air gives a slow, even maturation, the young sulphur fading to fruit. The meaty, oily spirit takes cask flavour well while keeping its robust, worm tub weight. The oily spirit shows the cask clearly, vanilla and tropical fruit over a meaty malt. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and coconut over the meaty malt.

Bottled at 40%, it is rounded. A robust, oily fruitiness, with a soft vanilla from the oak. The texture is full and oily, the fruit lifted by a meaty weight. Tropical fruit, malt and a savoury oak see out the finish. This is a meaty, tropical Speyside single malt.