Craigellachie 15 Years Old (Original Collection)

Scotland's oldest independent bottler Cadenhead's bottled this Craigellachie, a 15 year old, bottled at 46%. Craigellachie is the bold, oily Speyside malt that anchors the White Horse blend. The official range runs a thirteen, seventeen and twenty three year old, with rare older bottlings.

The spirit was made in copper stills whose worm tubs build a robust make, for an oily, robust make that turns tropical with age. A Bordeaux or red wine cask gave red berry and a dry spice. In the oxidative middle years oxidation draws out a deeper tropical fruit, vanillin and lactones fully expressed. A big sherry cask suits the muscular spirit, dried fruit meeting the meaty weight. It sits at the village of Craigellachie, where the River Fiddich joins the Spey by Telford's iron bridge. Worm tubs give little copper contact, so the new spirit is heavy and full, mellowing with time.

Bottled at 46%, it is rounded. Tropical fruit, malt and a warm spice, with plum, red berry and chocolate from the cask. The mouthfeel is heavy and oily, the fruit carried on a meaty body. It finishes robust, waxy and warm. This is one of Speyside's most robust single malts.