Craigellachie was built in 1891 by the experienced whisky team of Peter Mackie and Alexander Edward. They needed a Single Malt as an ingredient for White Horse Blended Scotch, so the distillery was designed to produce a very specific distillery style which the team replicate to this day.
Craigellachie features some very specific production techniques: barley from an oil fired kiln giving more weight, short stills and worm tub condensers to minimise copper contact. The team do 21 mashes per week, have 8 wash backs and 4 copper pot stills.
People always talk about 'sulphur' flavours, which can be distracting. Craigellachie has a roasted brimstone character alongside a meaty quality. Way back in the 1890s Alfred Barnard described "the chief characteristic of the Craigellachie brand is the pineapple flavour it develops with age". This tropical fruit style is what makes the brimstone and meat flavours work, achieving a balance that gets beautifully complex in older age statements.