K&L Exclusive: 15 Year Old Speyside Single Malt for Under $100 – Scotch Whisky News
Stunning Quality and Value from a K&L Speyside Favorite
2006 Craigellachie 15 Year Old “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Cask Strength Single Sherry Butt Speyside
Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) ($99.99)
“These sherried Craigellachies are an absolute delight … when they keep dropping these on us and the price goes DOWN, we just can’t say no.”
— David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer
The bounty of new K&L Exclusive casks coming through our doors is seemingly without end. The latest edition is from Craigellachie, a K&L-favorite Speyside distillery that has provided us with some of our most popular single casks over the years. This time they’ve not only brought their signature style in spades, but they’ve also trimmed the price to make this a surefire contender for the single malt deal of the year. Bottled at cask strength from a first-fill sherry butt, this is a spectacular expression of the style, as the distillery’s singular profile is a perfect match for the barrel’s influence. As spirits buyer David Othenin-Girard notes, “This is an absolutely wild whisky and definitely one for the lovers of a bit of funk.” It’s also one for lovers of unbeatable quality for price. Last year’s 16-year-old cask wowed our sherried Scotch fanatics, and this year’s 15-year-old iteration offers arguably higher quality and an absolutely more distinctive profile for a significant discount. Whether you’re a fan of Craigellachie, Speyside, or sherried single malts in general, this gem is an unequivocal must-have in any well-curated collection.
K&L Notes: Another stupendous sherried Craigellachie from Old Particular. Like last year’s 16 Year Old, this butt retains significant distillery character while not forgetting that it aged in a sherry butt for a decade and a half. The fabulous distillery just across the river from the famous Macallan distillery was once one of Speyside’s most undervalued. Now, due to repositioning and tariffs, even the entry-level distillery offerings seem out of reach in value terms, let alone their extremely well regarded “Exceptional Cask” bottlings, which have gone up in price 30-40% over the last year. We’ve managed, on the other hand, to lower the price of this exceptional malt by over $20 for something of equal or greater quality and just one year younger than the former offering. The bold, sometimes funky malt character of Craighellachie does wonders when married with sherry, and the resulting malt won’t disappoint sherry lovers, although it’s not the sweet, raisiny style some drinkers have come to associate with modern, sherry-matured single malts. Instead, it’s a deeply complex and slightly esoteric style that will appeal to drinkers looking for something more classical and contemplative.
David Othenin-Girard | K&L Spirits Buyer | Review Date: June 08, 2022
These sherried Craigellachies are an absolute delight. We don’t like to do the same thing year in and year out, but when they keep dropping these on us and the price goes down, we just can’t say no. This new one is a classic funky Craigie, which reminds us that this is one of Speyside’s most flavorful malts and loves to play against a great sherry butt. The color is deep gold. The nose offers that great Craigellachie funk, industrial and old school, which few modern malts offer. The sherry is there, but it doesn’t feel artificially vinous like some modern bottlings can. We get almond butter, roast pecans, bright red fruit, slight camphor smoke, wisps of engine oil, black olive, kirsch, and golden raisins. On the palate, it’s sweeter than expected, now offering some gorgeous dark chocolate, Figgie pudding, sweet candied plums, and a slight minty note on the finish. With water we add some nutty notes on the nose, but it stays pretty much in line. On the palate, there’s now a wonderfully rich, velvety texture and more tropical fruit. This is an absolutely wild whisky and definitely one for the lovers of a bit of funk, although I waffle on whether to add water or not. It’s not sulphuous though, so if you’re sensitive to that, I don’t think it will be a problem. I feel like this is a very underrepresented style that I wish we saw more of—even last year’s excellent 16-year was much more straightforward, and this one offers much more nuance.
