Color : old gold with a hint of orange

Nose : delicate, deep. Smells of ripe fruits (apricot, peach), citrus fruits (candied lemon) and scents of undergrowth (chestnut, leaf). Its rare sweetness (almost oily) makes you want to walk in the forest in autumn. After the smell of fruit, the smoke gradually develops and one will taste a hint of leather and ash.

Palate : creamy, silky. Its fruity taste is enhanced by its exoticism (mango, passion fruit). It refers to a ripe plum. Like the nose, the peat (to be precise, the smoke) gradually develop. Taste of a cigar that has already been lit. It has a chocolate flavour and has a light earthy taste.

Finish : oily, it takes us to a recently cut field of peat. Nice liquorice.

I mark this whisky 92/100. It is divided up in the following way : 48 for the nose and 44 for the palate. The ageing in sherry cask of first fill is particularly successful, but not pervasive. Although Craigduff is unique in itself, due to it sweetness, when sherry is added, it reminds me of a Mosstowie produced by the distillery Miltonduff, always made with lomond stills. This vintage 1976 was bottled by Signatory Vintage for La Maison du Whisky a few years ago.

Texte original : Jean-Marc Bellier, traduction : Corinne Pénisson