A sherried 12 year old single malt from Diageo's Classic Malts range, this bottling from the Cragganmore distillery represents Speyside and proffers a rich, slightly floral whisky with barley notes.
Aromatic, floral. Heather, fruit salad, creamy texture. Smoked almonds, stemmy hay.
Rich, honey, stone fruits, chestnuts, walnuts, almonds. Berries.
Smoky, good length, delicate peppery spice.
I like a good dram of Crag 12 once in a while. It's different than my usual heavy peated scotch. There's a very nice fruity and oky touch on the palate that I like to have say I'm sitting next to a bonefire. That being said, I don't personaly taste the uniqueness and deepness of other more complex scotches. Still, pretty good value.
I studied abroad in Scotland this past year and my mission was to choose two malts to bring back to the US with me. For the price, this is the best whiskey I had in Scotland. Noted, I am a poor student and a lot of the whiskeys I tasted were not a whole lot more expensive than this and I am relatively new to whisky.However, this whiskey is a solid choice for anybody who is not absolutely rolling in dough. It is extremely well priced for the flavor complexities. It is great choice to pull out when you have guests. It is smooth enough, complex enough, and cheap enough to be a pretty bad-ass part of anyone's entertaining repertoire. It's also a good representation of a spayside malt. My favorite thing by far though is it's musical progression(nose-palate-finish). I think the different stages of tasting flow exceptionally well in a dram of this. A lot of whiskys are jarring in their progression, which can be exciting like a mosh pit, but Cragganmore 12 is like watching koyaanisqatsi for the first time, musically elegant, and simple, but slowly developing this sublime complexity as it unfolds.
quite a dull dram. not bad but nothing good to say about it either. at this price and whisky level, would stick to a balvenie
cragganmore 12 yr scotch is one the best whisky's i have ever tasted.i wish it had more backbone e.g.43% abv.and no dam'n chill filtering.but all this nit picking aside,it's still a great dram do yourself a favor get some!!!!
As an Islay lover I find this too subtle and smooth. If that's what you're looking for in a whisky, go for it. But I don't recommend Cragganmore for folks seeking more powerful flavors. That being said, this is an excellent example of Speyside character and worthy of a try. If only they would cut down on the chill-castration - sorry, I meant filtration...
