Cragganmore 12 Year Old
Delicate, Juicy, Oak, Vanilla2022-08-30
The Cragganmore 12 belongs to the Classic Malts of Scotland. The distillery regularly bottles a Distillers Edition of the same. Unless a special release or a rare 25-year-old bottling is released, we have to be satisfied with the first two.
Smell
We get a strong smell of honey and butterscotch in the nose. After a while, we notice malty cereal notes in the middle part, while floral notes opening up a little further back.
Taste
Our first impression here is semolina pudding with pear puree - very intense. The Scotch is malty sweet with a good portion of vanilla. Characterised by pleasant oak, we have a discreet wood smoke, which is rounded off by cereal notes.
Finish
We would describe the sweet-bitter, slightly woody-spicy finish as a short trip rather than a long journey.
Thoughts
The standard bottling from the Speysider distillery is surprisingly intense without being heavy. We like the combination of sweet-ish aromas with spicy and grainy notes very much. This applies to the smell as well as the taste. All in all, a good entry-level malt. We would love for the distillery to add one or two more bottlings to its portfolio and would definitely want to taste them.
Rating: 72/100 - Very Good (Marcel: 68 | Sascha: 74)
Value for Money: 4/5 - Good
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