Craigellachie distillery

Craigellachie Whisky

In the middle of the beautiful Speyside, at the intersection of three whisky streets, between Dufftown, Aberlour and Rothes you will find the Craigellachie whisky distillery. Craigellachie, pronounced like ‘kreg-elláchie’ which means ‘rocky hill’. Craigellachie Single Malt Whisky is sweet and malty, it likes to show nutty as well as fruity notes and sometimes light smoke.

House Style

What does Craigellachie’s single malt taste like?Craigellachie Single Malt Whisky is sweet and malty, he likes to show nutty notes, as well as fruity and sometimes light smoke.

Recommendations

With the Craigellachie 13 years and the Craigellachie 17 years, two old-school single malts have been brought onto the market. If you are interested in this exciting distillery, you should also look out for bottlings from the independant bottlers, Signatory or Gordon and MacPhail.

Manufacturing

How is Craigellachie whisky produced?Craigellachie produces in four stills - two spirit and two wash stills. The mash tun is made of stainless steel and there are eight fermentation tanks, each with a capacity of 45,000 liters. The water for the Craigellachie Whisky comes from the Blue Hill. The malt is obtained from central malting plants. Most of the production is blended for blended Scotch whisky, for example the White Horse.

History

Craigellachie was founded in 1891 by the Craigellachie-Glenlivet Distillery Company in the late 19th century. The construction of the distillery dragged on for a few years, so that the first alcohol was not distilled until 1898. In the middle of World War I, in 1916, Mackell & Company Distillers Ltd. took over Craigellachies. The new owners were taken over by Distillers Compant Limited (DCL) in 1927 and in 1930 the distillery was transered to their malt arm Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD).

Around 30 years later - in 1964 - the distillery underwent extensive renovation and expansion, in which one also upgraded from two to four stills. In 1987 Craigellachie went to UDV, which held the distillery until 1998. The period under Diageo was not a good time for Craigellachie, the distillery received little attention. Fortunately, the tide has turned under the new owner Dewar & Sons.

Craigellachie factsheet

Can I tour Craigellachie?

Yes Craigellachie distillery is tourable. On Trip Advisor the distillery has been rated as excellent by 19 of 20 tours to date. This gives Craigellachie an overall rating of 5.0