Last Night's Tipple

Cragganmore's tag line is that it has the most complex aroma of any malt. I don't know about that, but I do know that it provides an interesting counterpoint to the pours of Glenrothes Sepcial Reserve and Tamdhu 10 year old that I've had the past couple of days. It's silky smooth and very grainy. Not much (if any) peat, not much (if any) citrus, not as sharp either in flavor or aroma as Glenrothes or Tamdhu. I won't claim that there is as much difference between Cragganmore on the one hand and Glenrothes and Tamdhu on the other as there would be between, say, Cragganmore and Laphroaig, but anybody who thinks that all Speyside malts are the same should try these three back to back.

Cragganmore is one of Diageo's Classic Malts (which, of course, is more a marketing ploy by Diageo than some sort of historic designation; it's not that the Classic Malts aren't good, just that they have not traditionally been regarded as superior to their competitors), and one of the marketing ideas that has come out of that program over the past couple of years is to bottle and sell a Distiller's Edition of each of the distilleries in the group. Cragganmore's Distiller's Edition was distilled in 1992 and probably bottled in 2005 or 2006. It was finished in port casks; and by all accounts, it's really, really good. At the very least, it should be an interesting experience.