Craigellachie 15 yo

This scotch is from the venerable independent bottler Gordon and McPhail, which has been around since 1885. Craigellachie has only seen one official distillery bottling, a 14 year old released in 2004. Otherwise, most of the 3.6 million liters of production goes into blends, primarily Dewar's White Label. The independent releases of recent years have garnered high marks from many reviewers. This is my first time trying Craigellachie (I bought it the same time I purchased the disappointing Miltonduff, which has grown on me a bit, but not enough to change anything I said about it) and I was quite impressed. It has a golden-copper look to it and is full of bright, complex scents, such as caramel, roasted pecans, some sherry, deep port with an undertone of coconut or maybe pineapple. And that's all before adding any water to the glass. The nose is not astringent at all, though you will definitely do injury to your nose if you inhale too deeply before adding water.

Once I added water I got some fireplace, a little bit of plastic (but a pleasant plastic if you can imagine what that might be), some sweet sherry, and toffee. It has a mild oilyness on the tongue and a pleasingly long finish. Quite a good drink. If you are interested, you can find Gordon and McPhail's tasting notes here.