Hepburn's Choice Craigellachie 2011 9-Year-Old Single Malt

The Hepburn’s Choice range comprises whiskies bottled either from specially-selected single casks or from small batches of two to three casks. Always bottled at 46% alcohol, and naturally without artificial colouring or chill-filtration.

Each bottling is chosen to showcase the specific characteristics of one of Scotland’s whisky producing regions, or those of a distillery in particular. This range is named in honour of our directors’ late maternal grandfather, William Hepburn, who travelled the globe with his job in the Diplomatic Service.

With a fine judgement honed at many embassy functions, Mr Hepburn was a connoisseur of his homeland’s whiskies: with this in mind we believe these bottlings would indeed have been "Hepburn's Choice"

Tasting Notes:

You will find notes of chocolate, red berries, vanilla and rich toffee stemming from this exquisite single red wine cask. 

Hunter Laing is an independent bottler that was founded in 1949 by Fred Hunter Laing. In it's near 80 year history it has remained family owned; now into their 3rd generation. Due to the relationships that have been built up over generations, Hunter Laing are one of the few bottlers with longstanding filling contracts with many of Scotland's finest distilleries. Alongside their cask regime and Glasgow maturation warehouses, this allows allows near-complete control over the maturation of whisky that they bottle.  They have recently constructed the newest distillery on Islay, Ardnahoe. A stunningly beautiful distillery that was designed for the family by industry legend, Jim McEwan. They have also begun to expand into the world of rum bottling with their Kill Devil range.   

Craigellachie famously uses worm tubs to condense its spirits during distillation, meaning the spirit pases through a copper pipe spiral in a vat filled with water. This traditional method creates a heavy, meaty spirit that showcases great texture and complexity with age. At the same time, however, long fermentation runs impart fruity and floral elements to the whisky. It is this dichotomy that resulted in whisky writer, Dave Broom, describing Craigellachie as a paradox.