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The Craigellachie Hotel

Completing our little trio of festival bottlings is this Spectacular Ardbeg, and the final of our whisky festivals in May is the legendary Feis Ile (The Islay Festival). If you love to feel like you are licking a bonfire at the same as sticking your head in a BBQ, the Islay Festival is for you! 🔥 It’s not all about peat, though, with some distilleries on Islay producing unpeated whisky, but for this Ardbeg release, it’s definitely about peat. For their day at Feis Ile, Ardbeg always has a theme, whether punk or the grooving 60s. This year’s theme is the circus and with that comes this year’s Ardbeg Feis Ile bottling Ardbeg Spectacular. The first whisky from the distillery to ever be aged in port gives smoky pear crumble and cooling menthol with notes of incense candles and antique leather. - Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager

Whisky Of The Week

WHISKY OF THE WEEK – 27th May
The month of May in Scotland means it’s time for the whisky festivals. This week, it’s the turn of Scotland’s smallest whisky region, Campbeltown. Campbeltown used to be the beating heart of the whisky business in the Victorian era, with 30+ active distilleries in the town. Unfortunately, overproduction and a drop in quality led to there now only being three distilleries, but there are 3 more to open in the coming years. The festival is the perfect chance to go and experience Campbeltown, with the 3 distilleries opening their doors one day at a time, allowing visitors to enjoy amazing whisky and live music and many more things. This whisky from Glen Scotia is the festival bottling for 2024, unpeated and aged in a Fino cask. It has a lot of floral and fresh notes with a lovely citrus taste. A perfect summer whisky! - Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager

Whisky Of The Week

WHISKY OF THE WEEK – 20th May
After a few days of recovering, curing hangovers and taking stock of which whisky we have left, we are back with our new whisky of the week. The festival was an amazing experience, with each of our events being fun and informative. One of the best things about the Spirit of Speyside is the distillery bottlings that come from it, and with that, I introduce @craigellachie 11 year old Spirit of Speyside Exceptional Cask. This whisky has been aged for 11 years in an Oloroso sherry barrel, which explains its amazing colour. This whisky is rich and spicy with a nut character to it. It sits at 61.8%, so not a whisky for the faint of heart, but if you can deal with the high alcohol, you are in for a really big sherry treat. - Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager #whiskyoftheweek

Whisky Of The Week

WHISKY OF THE WEEK – 13th May
The Craigellachie Hotel was described by Condé Nast Traveller as “the oldest and greatest whisky hotel in the world”. The Craigellachie has 26 bedrooms, and it’s home to the oldest pub in Speyside: the Spey Inn, an old drovers inn dating back to 1703, and to the world-renowned Quaich Bar, where guests and tourists can savour over 1,000 single-malt whiskies alongside some of the best cocktails.

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NEW WHISKIES AT THE QUAICH BAR
IT’S FESTIVAL TIME WOOO! I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival than having our whisky of the week being a distillery celebrating its 20th anniversary since it reopened (well, in 2018 it was celebrating). Even though this whisky was first released in 2018, we bought a few bottles because we knew how special the liquid in this bottle would be. Benromach, which is owned by Gordon and MacPhail, has been gaining a lot of new followers and lovers in recent years by continuing to make whisky in a very traditional manner. Mostly producing a slightly peated style that mirrors what the distillery would have originally been like. This whisky has a whisper of peat with sweet rich fruit and citrus at the forefront. - Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager

Whisky Of The Week

WHISKY OF THE WEEK – 29th April
Glenury Royal 29 Year Old 🥃 I’m a whisky nerd and a history nerd, so when both of them join together, nothing makes me happier in the world. We are lucky in the Quaich to have 9 whiskies from the lost distilleries all over Scotland, but one that has a special place in my heart is this Glenury Royal, which is from near my home city of Aberdeen in the seaside town of Stonehaven. Unfortunately, the distillery fell silent in 1983 and was later turned into flats, and some of it was demolished. It is a distillery with such a history, one too big to talk about in this post, but one I will happily share if you have some to pop into the Quaich Bar. The smell of this whisky is like dry smoke, old leather, an ancient library and citrus. There is a light freshness to the taste, followed by vanilla, herbal notes, and dry smoke again. This is a really oily whisky that brings me to a time before I was born. This whisky is just pure joy bottled up! - Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager #whiskyoftheweek

Whisky Of The Week

WHISKY OF THE WEEK – 22nd April
Daftmill is a very interesting distillery with much love in the whisky community, so much so that this is the first bottle behind the bar here at the Quaich. The distillery is a farm-to-bottle operation, meaning that the only produce is from the barley that they sow on their farm in Fife. Mid-Summer and Winter are the two times in the year that they produce whisky because farm work quiets down. Adding all this together, and considering the fact that they only produce 100 casks a year, this week is amber-gold dust! This release comes from 5 ex-bourbon casks, which give a lovely honey note, along with the typical floral note from Daftmill Distillery. - Calum Diack, Quaich Bar Manager

Whisky Of The Week

WHISKY OF THE WEEK – 15th April

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INTRODUCING THE SPEY BAR, COVENT GARDEN

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INTRODUCING THE CRAIGELLACHIE COLLECTION

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EXPERIENCE ‘SPEY SPECIALITIES’ BY QUAICH

SCOTLAND’S OLDEST
WHISKY HOTEL

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The Craigellachie Hotel,
Victoria St,
Craigellachie,
Aberlour,
AB38 9SR

t: +44 1340 881204
e: reservations@craigellachiehotel.co.uk

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