The Last Great Malts from Bacardi were announced as heaven for whisky nerds: non-chill filtered, no colouring and bottled at 46 percent at the least. Now they didn’t completely live up to their promise, as The Deveron (MacDuff) is bottled at 40 percent for instance. But for the most part Bacardi kept their word.
The new Craigellachie range was the first to be released back in 2014. I reviewed the 19 year old, a travel retail exclusive, a while ago. Now it’s time for the entry level expression of the Craigellachie family.
Craigellachie 13yo (46%, OB, 2014)
Nose: Candied bananas and toffee, with fresher notes of green apple. Some light citrus behind that, mainly lemon and orange zest. A touch of ginger and a bit of menthol.
Taste: A soft banana flavour at first, but otherwise a spicy arrival with ginger root and cardamom taking center stage. There’s also some notes of watered down apple juice and pine needles.
Finish: Spicy (pepper) with pine wood and bitter lemon.
Rating: 83
Better than your average entry level whisky. Fairly complex and interesting flavours. It has character, which I find a big compliment.
Hi there,
it lasted till the relaunch of Aberfeldy to be precise. Only the Craigellachie and the Aultmore expressions were 46%, natural colour and most probably non chill-filtered – no statement on that.
The last three great malts Aberfeldy, Royal Brackla and the newly named The Deveron were 40% and most probably chill-filtered at this strength. Not sure about the natural colour.
They kept their promise and did not release NAS-ty versions of the malts.
Greetings
kallaskander