Scotland, Speyside: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes
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Craigellachie

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The distillery

Craigellachie distilleire
Craigellachie Distillery
Craigellachie, Aberlour
Banffshire AB38 9ST
+44 1340 881 212
Owner: Bacardi Ltd
Creation date1888

The Craigellachie distillery has been founded in 1888 by Peter J.Mackie, whose nickname was "Restless Peter", and who created the famous White Horse blend.
Mackie was also the founder of Lagavulin on Islay. Peter Mackie founded the distillery together with another famous figure in the whisky world in those times: Alexander Edwards who owned amongst others the Benrinnes distillery. Alexander retired in 1900, leaving Mackie the only owner of the company.
The place where the distillery has been built was partially chosen because of the quality of the water there, but the main reason was the proximity of the railway.
Mackie's company (Macky & Co) has been absorbed by D.C.L in 1924. D.C.L. will become UDV later, after merging with Guinness.
Electricity was installed in the distillery in 1948 and the water mill is not used anymore since the alteration works which took place in 1964. The number of stills was doubled at the same moment.
When D.C.L merged with Guinness, the company was obliged to sell Craigellachie because of the anti-trust law. The distillery became property of the current owner, together with 4 other.
Only 2% of the production is marketed as single malt, the remaining part being used in blends, in particular in Dewar's White Label.
The only official version has been released in the series Fauna & Flora, but since the distillery is not owned by UDV anymore, the only bottlings on the market are those of some independent bottlers.

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The whisky

The sites below offer tasting notes for this distillery. Please click on the logo to access this notes.

France whisky-distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.info
Passionnés du malt passionnesdumalt.free.fr
Comaw Club o. mosellan des amateurs de whisky
Single Malt Passion Single Malt Passion by Laphroaig43
English whisky-distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.info
Whiskyfun www.whisky-fun.com
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Geography

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Speyside

Speyside Map

The Speyside area is situated at the North of the Cairngorm mountain and goes to the Moray firth. It is delimited by two rivers: the Findhorn at the West side and the Deveron on the East side.
The area is named after the river Spey. Most of the distilleries take their water in one of its affluents; the Fiddich, the Livet or the Avon.
About sixty distilleries from Speyside are described on this site.

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Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
about the Speyside area, and if you want to make an "alphabetical journey" through the area, please
click on one of the pagode roofs, according to the direction you want to follow

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Photos of the distillery

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