Craigellachie 9 2007 Maltbarn

Thanks to Igor for pouring me a dram.

When I first saw this Craigellachie, I was a little apprehensive. Not because the person who picked it isn’t good at picking whisky; he’s quite good at that.

Rather the only Craigellachie’s I’ve had stood out because of the odd age statement, hipster packaging, or generally didn’t impress me much. Like that time I dressed up and sang about rocket scientists. Oh, wait, that was another Canadian, not me.

There’s so few of us, we have personality issues.

That said, I’m not one to let my past thoughts (on whisky) stop me from trying something new, thus I poured a dram of Craigellachie 9 2007 Maltbarn, and sat back with it. It’s young, sherry, and from an IB that I enjoy. Let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: Speyside

Age: 9 years

Vintage: 2007

Bottled: 2016

Cask Type: Sherry

Number of Bottles: 123

Bottling: No. 64

Abv: 48.6%

Colour: 10Y 9/6

Nose: Beef broth, mango, grassy, nectarine, white chocolate

Interesting initial nose of umami, grass, and tropical fruits. Well, somewhere between tropical and stone fruit.

Wonderful sweetness with water, this may be a little odd for some. The broth and fruit mixture didn’t work in some of the restaurants I worked at.

Taste: Ginger tea, caramel, burnt bamboo, brine, grapefruit

Tannic. If the nose was teasing something overly sweet, it was lying to you. Beyond standard caramel, this is closer to a tart, tannic drive dram.

Unique to taste. It’s nice to open up the palate, sip on, and stare off. Before the meal dram, rather than after. On the taste at least.

Finish: Lemon tea, floral honey, coconut, mineral, ash

Very clean finish, this continues with the unique aspect and before dinner ideals. Which is nice. And it’s mineral, clean aspects cuts it off, leaving you to go on.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this has a short finish. It’s a medium finish that has elements of dry, then clean tannic finish. While I love long finishes, this has it’s place too.

Conclusion: A different dram. Probably one of the most interesting Craigellachie’s I’ve ever had. Okay, so that’s not saying too much, perhaps I should start again.

I think this is a whisky we typically don’t see. One that has a somewhat muddled nose, followed by a consistent, subtle, and tannic taste and finish. Honestly if you’re a tea drinker, this is for you. It has those acidic, tannin notes throughout, some wonderful honey at the end, and while I’m not the biggest fan of mineral at the end, it doesn’t linger too much.

Really interesting, and something to try, even if you’re not normally a Craigellachie fan, like me.

83/100

Scotch review #868, Speyside review #252, Whisky Network review #1389