Craigellachie 9 Years Old 2015 Cask #166 (Brave New Spirits)

A 9 year old Craigellachie from the bottler Brave New Spirits, distilled in 2015, from cask 166, bottled at 48.1%, one of 320 bottles. Craigellachie is a Bacardi owned Speyside distillery whose worm tubs give a heavy, meaty spirit. Most of its make still goes to blending, a robust filler prized for its weight.

It was distilled for the heavy, meaty spirit Craigellachie is known for, for an oily, robust make that turns tropical with age. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, the wood adding vanilla and a waxy tropical fruit. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut over a robust, sulphurous malt. Craigellachie is one of the last Speyside malts still built on worm tubs. The robust make rewards long ageing, the meatiness giving way to tropical fruit. Worm tubs give little copper contact, so the new spirit is robust and full, mellowing to tropical fruit with age.

At 48.1%, undiluted, it is deep and fruity. Meaty malt, tropical fruit and a waxy oil, with a soft vanilla from the oak. The texture is full and oily, the fruit lifted by a meaty weight. The close is long, fruit over a meaty malt. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real character.