Remarkable malt: Glencraig made at Glenburgie
Glencraig sounds like a distillery but it actually is not one. This single malt was a variant that was produced with Lomond stills at the Glenburgie Distillery. Those were installed in 1958, to be able to produce more variants for the (Ballentine’s) blends. Lomond stills famously utilize rectifying plates which gives you more options. Only very few are left in today’s production landscape; of course at Loch Lomond but also somewhere else, as we will explain below. Glencraig was actually named after then manager Willy Craig, which is nice since there are not many single malts in Scotland named after a person. Glen Grant comes to mind. The Lomond still at Glenburgie was decommissioned in 1981.
Glencraig was not the only Lomond still whisky produced; at Miltonduff a variant was made under the name Mosstowie. The Lomond stills were active there between 1964 and 1981. In that year they were decommissioned and replaced by regular stills, putting Miltonduff then at six stills. In recent years there were very solid plans to increase Miltonduff towards a capacity of 16 million litres, but the question is if this plan will not be put on hold for a while.
In my early days of whisky enthusiasm, you could easily come across a Mosstowie or Glencraig in the wild. Stocks are now probably as rare as Killyloch and Kinclaith these days. There has not been a new bottling of Glencraig for a few years now, the latest possibly being in 2020. In total I found 73 entries in the Whiskybase.
For other historical references to the use of Lomond stills, we have to look to the old Inverleven / Dumbarton site, where actually the first Lomond still was used. Scapa Distillery also worked with this type of still, and continues to do so till this day. According to the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2027 this still was sourced from Glenburgie, and is probably the same still that produced the whisky we are going to taste today. Scapa does however use the still as a wash still and the plates have been removed. In any case, in a way Glencraig lives on in the early distillation process at Scapa!
Glencraig 1976, 36 years old, bottled at 43,7 % abv by La Maison du Whisky
First things first: Bourbon barrel # 4257 produced 194 bottles in the Artist # 3 series of La Maison du Whisky. Bottled in 2013.
Upon Sipping: Oh, but this is a marvellous nose! At first sniff I thought this would be a straight forward vanilla experience, but then all kinds of tropical fruits come out the woodworks (quite literally, the oak is present too). You would almost immediately think of an Inchmurrin, with this happy go lucky aroma, lots of lychees and papaya, balanced by a dose of mint. With some breathing the nose changes. I can’t escape the imagery of a wood carpenter turning bananas into sawdust. An amazing nose, and with some imagination we can also see hints of an Irish coastline in this. Beautiful! But then a sip! The arrival is incredibly sweet, but you could say there is a slight hint of cardboard. It does not really bother but we make note of it. The fruit explosion is there, but a bit muffled by a strong oak signature. After all, we are drinking a light single malt well in its thirties. I put in a very little pipet size drop of water, not to dilute but to refresh the liquid. It does not elevate this Glencraig 1976 from La Maison du Whisky to a higher platform, but remains fragile and delicate. The intention of the Lomond still was to produce a light spirit; this Glencraig underlines that. The nice touch of grapefruit at the end gives it a nice signature.
Word to the Wise: Always a pleasure to taste something truly unique, and this Glencraig 1976 does not disappoint one bit. The nose is something of exuberant beauty, the taste cannot really keep up with that, but in total a wonderful experience.
Score: 87 points.