Cragganmore 12 Year Old 20cl
CragganBORE: NEAT Challenge Part II
0 660
Review by @YakLord
- Nose16
- Taste15
- Finish14
- Balance15
- Overall60
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: Cragganmore
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 40%
I received this bottle from my wife as a 13th anniversary present...she picked it up because it was on clearance at the LCBO (they are trying to liquidate all their remaining 20cl bottles), so it was just under $20 CAD. Prior to cracking it open, I'd never tried anything from Cragganmore, apart from what found its way into the recently deceased JW Green Label (which I greatly prefer).
On Friday, March 8, 2013, I sat down with my friend Jeff to do a second evaluation of the NEAT glasses that I'd received from @Arsilica. As with the previous test (see my review of the Penderyn: NEAT Challenge - Part I), we also employed a square shot glass, a Speyside glass, and a Glencairn Canadian. The scoring has been broken down below. Please note that for the final score, I averaged each of our top three scores (rounded up; this effectively eliminated the scores from the square shot glasses).
YakLord:
NEAT - N 18, T 17, F 16, B 15 - T 66
Shot - N 8, T 11, F 11, B 12 - T 42
Spey - N 15, T 15, F 13, B 12 - T 55
Glen - N 17, T 16, F 15, B 15 - T 63
Jeff:
NEAT - N 17, T 16, F 15, B 15 - T 63
Shot - N 10, T 12, F 11, B 11 - T 44
Spey - N 12, T 13, F 13, B 13 - T 51
Glen - N 15, T 14, F 14, B 14 - T 56
I was certainly disappointed with the Cragganmore, which we dubbed 'CragganBORE' or 'CragganSNORE'. While the box touts it as having a very sophisticated and complex nose, with sweetish notes and smoky maltiness on the finish, we didn't get any of that...what we found was just the opposite: a closed, uninspired nose with some vanilla and floral notes with a hint of butter (using the NEAT we were also able to pick out some grass and a very faint whiff of smoke).
On the palate we got more butter (sort of dry, stale pastry), a tiny bit of fruity malt, and day-old pound cake...not at all what we expected for such a highly vaunted 12 year-old Speysider.
The finish was short and malty, with the tiniest hint of smoke, but mostly there was the overpowering buttery-ness.
I'm tempted to say that the bottle was off, since outside of my experience with a few NAS Canadian whiskies, I've never had something so bland and sub-par, and even the NEAT, which performed as advertised and eliminated the alcohol burn from the nose was unable to tease much out more of it.
Would I buy a full bottle? I'm not sure, as the a 75cl bottle at the LCBO is currently $84.95 CAD...I've had far better 12 year-old or younger whiskies for much less (Highland Park, Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, Aberlour 10, JW Black Label, Taketsuru 12, Talisker 10...even the Clynelish 14 is cheaper...).
Find where to buy Cragganmore whisky
One additional note, my personal rating on this would be around 65/100 (a straight C for those academics in the crowd), which is reflected in my cabinet history...the 60/100 represents the average score provided by both testers, as noted above.