Distillery: Craigellachie

Region: Speyside

Price: $65 + shipping (1L travel retail bottle on sale)

Cask Type: Ex-bourbon (refill)

ABV: 46%

Chill-filtered: No

Color: 0.7, amber (E150 not disclosed, but there doesn't seem to be any added).

Rested ~15 minutes before drunk neat in a glencairn.

Nose: Books in a musty library, candle wax, clay. Smoked pineapple. Petrichor, especially ozone. Just a hint of very dark chocolate.

Palate: Salted plum lemonade, pickle juice, some meaty savoury-sweet demi-glace. Lemon sherbet. Light clean smoke - I always say cardboard box. Toast. Salted caramel. Pandan. Fresh batter. Cola as it goes down. Vastly more savoury than the 17. Closer in profile to the 12-year cask strength Craigellachie IB I had. Mouthfeel is thinner than both though, but definitely still thicker than many.

Finish: Moderate-to-long, gentle and warming with anise. Salted plum lemonade and pickle juice lingers. Raspberry juice pops up just a bit. Characteristic Craigellachie herbality - basil, cucumber and lime zest. It's the sort of pleasant, palate-cleansing bitterness that I get from refined, herb-forward gins like Elephant. Minerality. Then mushrooms. A hint of tart green apple. Pickle juice again. Really sweet smoked meat. Toasted cereal.

Conclusion: My experiences with younger Craigellachie have led me to believe the distillate is very akin to an unpeated Springbank, and just as refined. Where I find petrol aromatics with Springbank, I get clean-burning woody smoke with Craigellachie. Where I get ripe sweet apples with Springbank, I get tart green apples here. Otherwise, the emphasis on savoury notes, quality, balance and mouthfeel is quite uncanny. It is very hard not to think of this as the missing link between Campbeltown and Speyside. My experience with the 17 indicates more years in the cask mellows it to become much more butterscotch/salted caramel/honey/syrup forward than outright savoury as we find here. Several reviews also claim the 17 is more herbal than the 13, but I find it quite the opposite. The 13 is substantially more savoury and herbal. It is a Speysider of much character, made with integrity and priced very fairly.

I'm glad it is finally getting some attention here on Reddit. It is definitely not the liquid fruitcake that Speyside is known for. That said, it could stand to have a richer mouthfeel and more sweetness. I also don't like how much the pickle juice and salty lemonade linger on the finish. I think that it distracts from the other layers of alternating sweetness, minerality, herbality and tartness.

If it were named by the SMWS: Burning the Midnight Oil

Score: 84 (For context, I gave the 17 an 86 and then upgraded it to a 90. I gave SB 12 CS an 88.)

Scotch Review #7, Whisky Network Review #8

H.Y.