Too hot, too cold, just right: Craigellachie 13 year old review

Specs 

Price paid: 44.90€

Lot/bottled date: L21307ZA8011551(7/3/2021 bottling)

ABV: 46%

Natural colour:  Yes (according to their website)

Non-chill filtered: Yes

Casks Used: Aged in an undisclosed mix of ex-bourbon and ex-Sherry casks (refill), then 50% of the blend is finished in first-fill ex-bourbon and 50% in first-fill ex-Sherry

Tasting Notes

Colour: Rich gold with a slight coppery tinge

Nose:  From the first sniff, I know I will spend a fair amount of time nosing this. It is immediately rich, but it needs a gradual approach in order to peel the various layers. It starts with both sweet and refreshing notes. I smell caramel, citrus peel and pith, more grapefruit than lemon and vanilla. Following these initial notes, there is a big hit of tropical fruit, most noticeably grilled and candied pineapple.  Then the funk comes in almost by surprise, a unique funk at that: there is a freshly washed wool sweater note, something slightly lactic and a hint of oil paint.

Suddeny it takes a left turn with a slight umami beef stock cube note, a whiff of smoke and then a refreshing persistent menthol tingle. Some of the sensations come and go, like an aroma rollercoaster, others persist. Most noticeably the pineapple, the wooly sensation, caramel, citrus and a slight menthol freshness. These dominant notes would be almost sickly sweet in some whiskies. Somehow the Craigellachie 13 manages to hit a balance between sweet, refreshing, funk and even a hint of savouriness.

Taste and finish: The mouthfeel is rich and mouthcoating but not oily. Fuller than what I would have expected from the nose. Is it thanks to Craigellachie’s much taunted worm tubs? The first hit is spicy, but not hot, with white pepper, ginger and even a hint of cloves. Then it opens up with a core of malt flavours, caramel and a fresh mildly lactic note. The lovely fruitiness of the nose is there, but playing hide and seek. If it stopped here, this would be a nice dram if a bit too smooth. It’s a little hit of bitterness at the end that rounds things up nicely, balancing the more malt-driven and ex-bourbon notes. That slightly bitter, closing note is grapefruit pith rather than oaky tannins. Just enough to keep things interesting.

Once my dram is gone I am left with a pretty long finishing taste of caramel, grilled pineapple, a touch of smoke, that freshly washed wool jumper note and again that slight bitter citrus pith. But most of all I am left satisfied, in an almost zen-like way.

Vote and closing thoughts

7, very good stuff. I am definitely more on the side of the People’s Choice than the OSWA nominations on the Craigellachie 13. It hits just right in that space of sweet but not sickly, complex but not complicated, rich but not overbearing. A Goldilocks dram.

Sure it is still an entry-level whisky. And yet it is one of the drams I reach for if I want a comforting dram that works both as an everyday dram to sip at the end of the day to relax and as one to spend some time concentrating on how it evolves in the glass. And going back to the question that runs across this series of reviews, is it funky? It is, in its own way. Some reviewers describe Craigellachie 13 as meaty in their reviews. I don’t find that at all, but there is a woolly note, a lactic tinge and a slight aroma of oil paint that creates a very unique funky fingerprint.

*Votes are based on the scoring scale used by Dramface, slightly modified to allow half-points

Would I buy it again? 

Since I have two bottles in my my whisky cabinet, the answer is obvious. As far as everyday sippers goes this is definitely a permashelf item for me.

Would I offer this to a new whisky drinker?

The question opens a more conceptual question. What is the best way for new drinkers to approach single malt? Is it with simple, often sweet-leaning whiskies that gently take you in? The usual suggestion is to ease people into new flavours. I get where that comes from. My cynicism would argue that this is just to lull people into a false sense of security, but that probably says more about my thinking process than anything else. In this context, the Craigellachie 13 might be best left for a second or third step into a whisky journey.

There is a case to be made for another approach. That is, treating potential new drinkers as individuals with mature palates who appreciate being challenged rather than mollycoddled. There are quite a few of us who started on heavily peated drams, and Sherry bombs without batting an eyelid. If you are in that group the usual entry level “Glens” will probably bore the heck out of you. The Creigellachie 13 might be a better starting point than some of the “usual” suggestions.

In the end,  if you are new to single malt make your own journey in the way that you enjoy most, there is no right or wrong. And if you need some tips, here are 6 of my own to help you.