Craigellachie 17 Year

Sweet toffee scent. Fruity vanilla taste that finishes complex with a dryer finish.

I had a pour of this last night during a tasting hosted by Craigellechie. This was part of the lottery for the 51 yr old tasting, which 150 people around the world got a chance to try. Fortunately @Scott_E was one of them, and I’m thankful I was his guest for the event. So...at the time I really liked this one. It was a more refined smoother version of the 13. Sort of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond as opposed to Daniel Craig’s rough and rugged one. In retrospect though, I prefer the 13 for that rough edge. To me, it’s always commonplace to find smooth balanced single malts, but so much harder to find rough, and really well balanced, ones. That being said...this was damn good. The meaty notes were less pronounced vs the 13, the sulfurous edges smoothed out a bit. I’m glad I tasted this, but I’ll be a buyer of the 13, just for that ruggedness.

Distiller gave this expression one more point than the 23. So did a few people in the comment section on MofM. Well, i'm afraid i have to differ here. Ok, this 17yo is good, special, different from other malts around and in this case a great bottle to reach for when looking for an easy sipper, but in no way could i compare it to the powerful 23 where everything is fruitier, juicier, more complex, well, better...much better imho. still i give this one a solid 4

Quick hit: Local whisky tasting in Glen Cairn. Soft Sweet fruity nose. Plumbs, blueberry or black cherry, Butterscotch , caramel. Gentle sweet arrival that immediately turns cinnamon spicy. A flash of red hots that settles down to ground cinnamon. Then turns sweet with vanilla, apples, pears and honey. Tingly long but the sweet flavors fade fast. Vanilla, oak spice. [Tasted: 3/6/19]