Name: Craigellachie 20 Year Old 2002 SMWS Single Cask 44.168 Oloroso Finish A Warlock with Elbow Patches (2022) 70cl
Brand: Craigellachie
SKU: 000335
Price: 189.0 GBP
Availability: InStock

Craigellachie 20 Year Old 2002 SMWS Single Cask 44.168 Oloroso Finish A Warlock with Elbow Patches (2022) 70cl

£189.00

In stock: 1 available

Product Details

Brand: Craigellachie

Region: Speyside

Age: 20

Country: Scotland

Craigellachie 20 Year Old 2002 SMWS Single Cask 44.168 Oloroso Finish A Warlock with Elbow Patches (2022) 70cl

1 of 270 bottles produced

Craigellachie is a speyside whisky with a more woody feel to it. Like most it was used in blends and since the 80s and 90s a lot of brands started single malting their whiskies and Craigellachie have made quite an impression with their Exceptional Cask series although, here you have the same thing without the higher price tag.

Craigellachie’s heavy spirit is known for aging well in sherry casks, and this single cask is no exception. It features notes of dried meat, spent fireworks, and stewed fruit that mingle with peach and walnut.

TASTING NOTES

At first nosing we found heather honey, menthol tobaccos, aged sweet wines and old leather, plus mineral oil, sultanas, rancio and dark honey. Water evolved things nicely towards polished shoe leather, hickory smoke, game meats, herbal cough syrups and spiced honey cake; rich, robust and complex. The palate evoked damp, earthen-floored wine cellars, leaf mulch, aged black tea, pipe tobacco and beef stock, with a tang of camphor and crushed peanuts in the background. Water brought out exotic hardwood resins, long-aged sweet chenin blanc, white mushrooms, overripe oranges and lanolin. After maturing for 17 years in a bourbon hogshead, this was transferred to a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.

About Craigellachie:

Sulphur has become an emotive subject in recent years, but it is one which is also misunderstood. There are two ways in which you can get sulphurous notes in whisky. One is through the burning of sulphur candles in casks to stop bacterial infection. Although this was once standard in Jerez with the rise of bespoke casks for the whisky industry the practice has now been outlawed.

The second form of sulphur comes from barley and is naturally produced during the whisky-making process. If you cut down the amount of copper available to spirit vapour the higher the sulphur levels in the new make will be. What appears to not have been understood is that this sulphur disappears in time. It acts as a marker; an indication that once its cloak has been lifted a spirit will emerge either as meaty (Cragganmore, Mortlach, Benrinnes) or fragrant (Glenkinchie, Speyburn, Balblair, AnCnoc, and Craigellachie) In other words, sulphur can be desirable.

Craigellachie revels in its sulphurous nature. The first thing you smell as you enter the distillery is the notes of cabbage and beef stock. This is rising from the worm tubs which sit at the back of the distillery. It is the small amount of copper contained within them that helps to promote this character. They also add weight to the palate of the mature spirit.

Long fermentation has however fixed fruitiness within the spirit and this tropical/floral note emerges in the mature spirit. It’s this character: full, yet aromatic which has made Craigellachie a prized malt for blending: it has been a major contributor to White Horse since the late 19th century – with the result that it had to wait until 2014 to receive its promotion to the rank of front-line malts.

58.1% ABV

70cl

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