A Seven Year Old Craigelleachie – Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2015 Bottling

There’s some real history being made here. In the summer there were a couple of travel retail exclusive bottlings for Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (and you can see my review of the controversial Aultmore XO, and there was also a Craigellechie 18 I didn’t get to taste), but those are limited to people flying out of the country. The two single cask bottlings for Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2015 (you can find the recap here) are the first ever special single casks aimed at the Israeli consumer inside Israel. There were two bottles available: This 7 year old Craigellachie and the other is a fascinating Tormore 19, to be reviewed in this space. As with the show itself, these exclusive bottlings are the brainchild and doing of Tomer Goren (@WhiskyIL), a fellow Malt Monger and the owner of one of Israel’s leading liquor stores, as well as Milk and Honey Distillery’s distiller.

Thank you, Tomer, for all you’re doing to make Israel a whisky empire!

Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2015 Exclusives…

Craigellachie 7 Year Old – Whisky Live Tel Aviv 2015 Bottling, Butt 900771, Distilled 2007, Bottled 2015, 654 Bottles (66% ABV, NCF, NC)

Appearance: Gold, quick legs but a ring of residue remains in glass.

Nose: Young sherry, very fruity, warm spices, malt, a baking cake, cinnamon bun with glaze, toasted wood. With time in glass, a somewhat sour note develops.

Palate: At first there’s a sweet wave, then some spice and they dissipate into hints of fruit. Water brings out more fruitiness and moves the spice to the top of the palate (interesting sensation there).

Linger: Without water you get concentrated sweetness (almost like artificial sweetener) and notes of cinnamon. Water makes the linger on this shine with some dryness, a warm sweetness, cinnamon and light clove. The finish lingers for a long time on the palate, and the spices in the throat. The finish on this one is really good.

Conclusion

This is young, but very enjoyable with the sherry in the background, but is by no means a sherry bomb. It was also very reasonably priced at €48 pre VAT (250 ILS including VAT, or €57).

I bought a bottle (well, I bought one, but didn’t take delivery of it yet), and look forward to seeing how it develops with some breathing 🙂