Apologies for the image, got a bit too hasty. This was bottled by Quaich Bar last year from PX hogshead #39215 at a heady 59.3% cask strength. It is incredibly dark, reflecting the heavy sherrying that has gone on. As the second photo shows, it's almost a deep ruby red in the glencairn. I have found much to like in Craigellachie distillate, and having it heavily-sherried was always something that I was curious about.

Thus, when I was brought bottle #23 of 264 at the bar, I just had to jump on it. I am having a nightcap of Craigellachie 13 as I'm writing this, and I find the coconut, pineapple and apricot notes especially easy to pick out after drinking this. The 13yo core expression holds up very well. An underrated dram that is finally getting the attention it deserves, something with made with integrity at the level of Bunnahabhain and Springbank core expressions IMHO.

Some of you might u/djax-up-beats review of bottle 36 at Elysian. This is a different bottle from the same cask.

Distillery: Craigellachie

Region: Speyside

Price: ~$18/30ml (dram from a bar)

Cask Type: Ex-PX sherry hogshead (#39215)

ABV: 59.3%

Chill-filtered: No

Color: 1.8, old oak (natural colour).

Rested ~10 minutes before drunk neat in a glencairn.

Nose: An unimaginable amount of sticky date pudding, fudge, cocoa, gratinated coconut! Let it air and you get distinct cold salted butter.

Palate: Medium texture. Heat is very tame despite the strength. Sherry bomb without being over-oaked. Raisins, dates, plums, dried cranberries, dark chocolate, earthy mushrooms. A drop of water makes it considerably more tannic, brings out the sea salt-sprinkled fudge, barley and oddly, Thai sweet chili sauce towards the end.

Finish: Tapers off after a moderate amount of time into a long tail. Malt, sea salt chocolate and cauliflower rice. With water: hint of truffle oil, preserved plums, dates, barley water, Thai stir-fried minced pork with basil and bird's eye chili. Then dates and dried cranberries re-emerge. Long tail of barley, coconut madeleine and orange juice.

Conclusion: On one level, it's a very well-executed sherry bomb that still allows tell-tale Craigellachie notes to shine through - the herbal basil, the vegetal cauliflower, the toasted coconut, the salted butter and the overall earthiness. However, dig deeper and you find some of the most unlikely flavours that just about work, like some uncanny Thai flavours. The nose is up there with the insane one I had in the Valinch and Mallet bottling I previously reviewed, just a different profile, but the palate is a whole other story. Way deeper, richer and more complex than that. If I had to nitpick, the way the fruits re-emerged after the basil and chili on the finish was a bit jarring, and I would love to see some of the forest ozone and leather nose in the other V&M bottling here. I keeping going back to the sticky date pudding nose. So fresh, so rich - you won't find musty fruitcake here. While bourbon-cask Craigellachie is the picture of restraint (in the best sense of the word), this wears the cask influence proudly without overplaying it's hand into over-oaking.

If it were named by the SMWS: Bangkok Rendezvous

Score: 90

Scotch Review #16, Whisky Network Review #18

H.Y.