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I held on to this bottle for a long time because I just wasn't excited about reviewing it. I didn't even have enough interest or curiosity to open it and might have forgotten about it if I hadn't been doing the Port Cask Finished Whiskies 'Shootout'. I brought the whisky out to show it as another of the many Port finished whiskies today because of the shortage of good Sherry butts and the abundance of decent Port Pipes. I didn't include it in the tastings 'Shootout' because I thought it was too weak at 40% ABV to compete with the other whiskies at 46% and cask strength. I do like Port Finished Whiskies so inevitably I was going to at some point open the bottle and review it. Well I did a lot of research and put together a Cragganmore short video history to piggy back on to the review. It got more interesting each hour as I did my research on the distillery history and that triggered a pile more research than I had originally intended. The story of the distilleries founder John Smith or "Big John" as he was known was fascinating enough. He was one of the most experienced Whisky Distillers of his time of the middle to late 1800's having worked or managed Macallan, Glenlivet, Glenfarclas, Dailuaine and Wishaw distilleries. It wasn't just his knowledge of whisky distilling but his love and knowledge of the railways that was the key to where his distillery was going to be built. It was his love for riding on those those classic trains that first chugged on the Scottish and British rail lines that fueled his vision of being the first distillery to ship whisky by rail. It also showed his smarts as a businessman because rail could bring in the supplies much easier to run his distillery. He could now easily ship his whisky to the blenders and they were all seeking out his 'Class A' rated whisky. John Smith was a man ahead of his time and got the opportunity to ride on the 'Whisky Train'; the very first shipment of whisky by rail in Scotland. When United Distillers eventually took control of Cragganmore, and in 1988 the distillery beat out many of the other UDL distilleries to be chosen as one of their 'Classic Malts' presentation for the Speyside region. Even though it is a sought after whisky by blenders with it's Class A rating, it is little known in the North American single malt market other than being hidden in blends like Johnnie Walker or White Horse Scotch. There are many interesting stories and tragedies including John's daughter in law, Gordon's wife, Mary Jane, that had to take over managing the distillery because of Gordon's premature death, while still a young man. I could only briefly cover the history otherwise it would have been hours of video.
So I went from trying to motivate myself to put this review together to being inspired and even excited about doing the video. If it wasn't for all that extra research I did, I would have not been that inspired and probably would have finished it a day earlier. My previous experiences with a lot of the 40% ABV whiskies is 'luke warm' at best so its hard for me to get excited about a whisky that I knew little about and most Scotch drinkers in North America have never heard of of. And yet this whisky is labelled by the Scottish Whisky community, the blenders and the distillery for being the "Most complex whisky of the Speyside". IS THAT TRUE? Let's get into the review and see. Enjoy.
Slàinte Mhath
Please note that the contents of this video are my own personal opinions and perspectives and not intended to insult other people's views.
