Cragganmore
CRAGGANMORE
12 years old
40 %
CLASSIC MALTS
The Best of Speyside
Cragganmore Distillery,
Ballindalloch
TANTALLAN
12 years old
43%
Distilled 1979
Bottled 1992
The Vintage Malt Whisky Co, Ltd,
Glasgow
CRAGGANMORE
15 years old
55,8 %
LAST BOTTLE AND EMPTY
CASK STRENGHT
Natural High Strenght
Distilled 21/7/76
Cask No. 3583 - 3584
Bottled September 1991
Proprietors: D. & J. McCallum Ltd
Gordon & Macphail, Elgin
CRAGGANMORE
12 years old
55,8%
Date Distilled Nov 81
Date Bottled Jan 94
Society Cask No. code 37.11
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
Strogeel van kleur. Afkomstig van een Bourbonvat. In de neus amandel, pasgemaaid gras, hout en vanille. Licht van body. Licht en heel comlex van smaak met peer, iets rook, iets zoet. Heerlijke complexe smaak en met een heel lange afdronk.
CRAGGANMORE
40%
THE DISTILLERS EDITION
DOUBLE MATURED
Distilled: 1984
Port-Wine-Cask-Wood
Special Release
Limited Edition
CggD - 6549
The Cragganmore Distillery, Ballindalloch, Banffshire
CRAGGANMORE
12 years old
SINGLE CASK
SCOTCH MALT WHISKY
Date distilled Feb 88
Date bottled Feb 00
Society Cask No. code 37.16
Outturn 291 bottles
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, Leith, Edinburgh
'Wet leather and pot-pouri'
CRAGGANMORE
29 years old
52,5 %
SPECIAL CLASSIC MALTS
Single Speyside Malt
Special Edition
Distilled 1973
Bottled 2003
6000 Bottles
Genummerde flessen
Cragganmore Distillery, Ballindalloch,
Banffshire
CRAGGANMORE
13 years old
43 %
1989
THE ULTIMATE SINGLE MALT
SCOTCH WHISKY SELECTION
Distilled 18/4/89
Bottled 14/1-03
Cask no. 966
Genummerde flessen
The Ultimate Whisky Company, N.L.
CRAGGANMORE
10 years old
60,1 %
CLASSIC MALTS OF SCOTLAND
SPECIAL RELEASES
FINE CASK STRENGHT
SINGLE MALT WHISKIES
Single Speyside Malt
2 nd distillery
Cask Strenght release Cragganmore
Distilled in 1993
Bottled in 2004
Natural Cask Strenght
Special Edition
Limited Edition
Numbered Bottles
15000 Bottles
Cragganmore Distillery,
Ballindalloch, Banffshire
CRAGGANMORE
17 years old
55,5%
CLASSIC MALTS SELECTION
SPECIAL RELEASES 2006
Fine Cask Strenght Single Malt Whiskies
Single Speyside Malt
Distilled in 1988
THIRD DISTILLERY RELEASE OF
CASK STRENGHT CRAGGANMORE
From American Oak Hogsheads
Only 5970 numbered bottles
bottled in 2006 worldwide
360 bottles available for the Netherlands
Special Edition
Cragganmore Distillery,
Ballindalloch, Banffshire
CRAGGANMORE
1 9 9 2
18 years old
46 %
THE ULTIMATE SINGLE
MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
Speyside Single Malt
Distilled: 08/04/92
Matured in a Bourbon Barrel
Cask no: 1473
Bottled: 07/03/11
184 Numbered Bottles
Natural Colour
Non Chillfiltered
Selected by The Ultimate Whisky Company, NL
CRAGGANMORE
Ballindalloch, Banffshire. Licentiehouder: D. & J. McCallum Ltd, Edinburgh. Onderdeel van Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd. (S.M.D.). De malt divisie van United Distillers Ltd. Eigendom van Guinness.
Gesticht in 1869 door John Smith, die ervaring had opgedaan in The Glenlivet, Wishaw, Glenfarclas en Macallan.
De distilleerderij werd gebouwd op grond van Sir George Macpherson, genaamd Ayeon Farm.
Cragganmore was gelegen vlakbij het spoorwegstation en er werd een zijlijn aangelegd tot aan de distilleerderij.
Goed water was voorhanden, dat komt van bronnen van de Craggan More Hill. Ook was er voldoende turf aanwezig.
John Smith, een enorm grote man van 140 kilogram was een liefhebber van reizen per trein, maar moest genoegen nemen vanwege zijn postuur met een plaats in de goederen-wagon .
Hij stierf op 13 Maart 1886, oud 53 jaar en zijn broer George, distillateur te van Parkmore nam de leiding over tot 1893 toen de jongste zoon van John Smith, Gordon oud genoeg was.
De alleen vertegenwoordiger van de whisky van Cragganmore was James Watson & Co, te Dundee.
De distilleerderij werd niet getroffen door de neergang in en na 1899, na het bankroet van de Pattison's.
In 1901 werd Cragganmore geheel opnieuw gebouwd onder de leiding van Charles Doig, de toen al beroemde architekt die zoveel distilleerderijen zou ontwerpen.
De weduwe van Gordon Smith, Mary Jane nam na de dood van haar man in 1912 de leiding over.
Als gevolg van tekorten aan gerst gedurende de eerste wereldoorlog was Cragganmore in 1917 gesloten.
Mary Jane vierde de heropening van de distilleerderij op 27 February 1919 met het insta-leren van electrisch licht, geleverd door een door petroleum aangedreven generator.
Zij verkocht Cragganmore op 16 Juni 1923 aan The Cragganmore Distillery Co, Ltd, dat een kapitaal had van £ 20.000.
Aandeelhouders waren Sir Peter Jeffrey Mackie, van Mackie & Co (Distillers) Ltd, het latere White Horse Distillers, Sir George Macpherson - Grant, baronet te Ballindalloch, de landeigenaar en Alexander Edward te Edinburgh, die al belangen in meerdere distilleerderij en had.
White Horse werd na de dood van Sir Peter Mackie het eigendom van The Distillers Company Ltd in 1927 en The Cragganmore Distillery Co, Ltd werd in 1965 - 66 het algehele eigendom van de D.C.L.
Cragganmore was opnieuw gesloten van 1941 - 1946.
Cragganmore werd in 1951 aangesloten op het electricteits net.
In 1964 werd het aantal ketels verdubbeld tot vier en die worden sinds 1972 verhit door stoom, kapaciteit 1,3 miljoen liter spirit per jaar.
Het proceswater komt nog steeds van de Cragganmore Hills, het koelwater van de rivier Spey.
De Mash tun van Cragganmore is 6.6 ton, de zes Wash backs hebben elk een inhoud van 30. 000 liter.
Er zijn twee Wash stills van elk 8725 liter, en twee Spirit stills van elk 6600 liter.
Guinness nam Arthur Bell & Sons Limited over in 1986 en in 1987 The Distillers Company Ltd (D.C.L.) en in 1988 werden de beide groepen van bedrijven samengevoegd en de nieuwe naam werd United Distillers Ltd. (U.D.).
Op 12 Mei 1997 wordt de fusie aangekondigd tussen Guinness en Grand Metropolitan (GranMet).
Op 16 Oktober 1997 staakt de Fransman Bernard Arnault van L M V H zijn verset tegen de fusie voor een afkoopsom van ƒ 800.000.000
De nieuwe naam van de gefuseerden zou eerst G M G Brands worden maar op 22 Oktober werd bekend gemaakt dat de naam Diageo zou worden, afgeleid van het Latijnse woord voor dag en het Griekse woord voor wereld.
Diageo wordt het grootste drankenconcern ter wereld, groter dan Seagram en Allied Domecq samen en met een omzet van 40 miljard gulden.
Op 28 Maart 1998 verkoopt Diageo het whiskymerk Dewar's en het ginmerk Bombay voor £ 1,15 miljard aan Bacardi Martini. Het afstoten van de twee drankenmerken was een voorwaarde die door de Amerikaanse mededingingsautoriteiten was gesteld aan de goedkeuring van de fusie tussen Guinness en Grand Metropolitan.
Dewar's heeft een omzet van ruim één miljard gulden en een marktaandel van 10 %. Het merk is marktleider in de Verenigde Staten.
Diageo is de overkoepelende naam voor vier company's: United Distillers & Vintners, (U.D.V.) Pllsbury, Guinness en Burger King.
Onderdeel van deze verkoop houdt ook in de overname van de distilleerderijen Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie en Royal Brackla door Bacardi Martini.
Balmenach wordt in December 1997 verkocht aan Inver House-
Ballindalloch, Banffshire. Licentiehouder: D. & J. McCallum Ltd, Edinburgh. Onderdeel van Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd. (S.M.D.). De malt divisie van United Distillers Ltd. Eigendom van Guinness.
Gesticht in 1869 door John Smith, die ervaring had opgedaan in The Glenlivet, Wishaw, Glenfarclas en Macallan.
De distilleerderij werd gebouwd op grond van Sir George Macpherson, genaamd Ayeon Farm.
Cragganmore was gelegen vlakbij het spoorwegstation en er werd een zijlijn aangelegd tot aan de distilleerderij.
Goed water was voorhanden, dat komt van bronnen van de Craggan More Hill. Ook was er voldoende turf aanwezig.
John Smith, een enorm grote man van 140 kilogram was een liefhebber van reizen per trein, maar moest genoegen nemen vanwege zijn postuur met een plaats in de goederen-wagon .
Hij stierf op 13 Maart 1886, oud 53 jaar en zijn broer George, distillateur te Parkmore nam de leiding over tot 1893 toen de jongste zoon van John Smith, Gordon oud genoeg was.
De alleen vertegenwoordiger van de whisky van Cragganmore was James Watson & Co, te Dundee.
De distilleerderij werd niet getroffen door de neergang in en na 1899, na het bankroet van de Pattison's.
In 1901 werd Cragganmore geheel opnieuw gebouwd onder de leiding van Charles Doig, de toen al beroemde architekt die zoveel distilleerderijen zou ontwerpen.
De weduwe van Gordon Smith, Mary Jane nam na de dood van haar man in 1912 de leiding over. Als gevolg van tekorten aan gerst gedurende de eerste wereldoorlog was Cragganmore in 1917 gesloten.
Mary Jane vierde de heropening van de distilleerderij op 27 February 1919 met het instaleren van electrisch licht, geleverd van een door petroleum aangedreven generator. Zij verkocht Cragganmore op 16 Juni 1923 aan The Cragganmore Distillery Co, Ltd, dat een kapitaal had van £ 20.000.
Aandeelhouders waren Sir Peter Jeffrey Mackie, van Mackie & Co (Distillers) Ltd, het latere White Horse Distillers, Sir George Macpherson - Grant, baronet te Ballindalloch, de landeigenaar en Alexander Edward te Edinburgh, die al belangen in meerdere distilleerderijen had.
White Horse werd na de dood van Sir Peter Mackie het eigendom van The Distillers Company Ltd in 1927 en The Cragganmore Distillery Co, Ltd werd in 1965 - 66 het algehele eigendom van de D.C.L.
Cragganmore was opnieuw gesloten van 1941 - 1946.Cragganmore werd in 1951 aangesloten op het electricteits net.
In 1964 werd het aantal ketels verdubbeld tot vier en die worden sinds 1972 verhit door stoom, kapaciteit 1,3 miljoen liter spirit per jaar. Het proceswater komt nog steeds van de Cragganmore Hills, het koelwater van de rivier Spey. De Mash tun van Cragganmore is 6.6 ton, de zes Wash backs hebben elk een inhoud van 30. 000 liter. Er zijn twee Wash stills van elk 8725 liter, en twee Spirit stills van elk 6600 liter.
.
Guinness nam Arthur Bell & Sons Limited over in 1986 en in 1987 The Distillers Company Ltd (D.C.L.) en in 1988 werden de beide groepen van bedrijven samengevoegd en de nieuwe naam werd United Distillers Ltd. (U.D.).
Op 12 Mei 1997 wordt de fusie aangekondigd tussen Guinness en Grand Metropolitan (GranMet).
Op 16 Oktober 1997 staakt de Fransman Bernard Arnault van L M V H zijn verset tegen de fusie voor een afkoopsom van ƒ 800.000.000
De nieuwe naam van de gefuseerden zou eerst G M G Brands worden maar op 22 Oktober werd bekend gemaakt dat de naam Diageo zou worden, afgeleid van het Latijnse woord voor dag en het Griekse woord voor wereld.
Diageo wordt het grootste drankenconcern ter wereld, groter dan Seagram en Allied Domecq samen en met een omzet van 40 miljard gulden. Op 28 Maart 1998 verkoopt Diageo het whiskymerk Dewar's en het ginmerk
Bombay voor £ 1,15 miljard aan Bacardi Martini. Het afstoten van de twee drankenmerken was een voorwaarde die door de Amerikaanse mededingingsautoriteiten was gesteld aan de goedkeuring van de fusie tussen Guinness en Grand Metropolitan.Onderdeel van deze verkoop houdt ook in de overname van de distilleerderijen Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie en Royal Brackla door Bacardi Martini.
Dewar's heeft een omzet van ruim één miljard gulden en een marktaandel van 10 %. Het merk is marktleider in de Verenigde Staten. Diageo is de overkoepelende naam voor vier company's: United Distillers & Vintners, (U.D.V.) Pllsbury, Guinness en Burger King.
Balmenach wordt in December 1997 verkocht aan Inver House.
CLASSIC MALTS OF SCOTLAND
October 2005
De Classic Malts of Scotland serie, bestaande uit:
Glenkinchie 10 years old,
Dalwhinnie 15 years old,
Cragganmore 12 years old,
Oban 14 years old,
Talisker 10 years old,
Lagavulin 16 years old
verandert van samenstelling
Oban 14 year old wordt vervangen door
CLASSIC MALT SELECTION
tegelijkertijd wordt onder de naam
Glen Elgin 12 years old,
Talisker 10 years old,
Caol Ila 12 years old
Glen Elgin
Speyside
12 years old
FRUITY
Natuur geuren 15 %
Fruitigheid 60 %
Turf 10 %
Houttonen 15 %
deze malt kenmerkt zich door zijn volle
Talisker
Skye
10 years old
POWERFUL
Natuur geuren
Fruitigheid 30 %
Turf 70 %
Houttonen
een aromatische, explosieve en prikkelende
CAOL ILA
Islay
12 years old
SMOKY
Natuur geuren 50 %
Fruitigheid
Turf 50 %
Houttonen
een malt met een duidelijk karakter, krachtig
John Smith, the founder of Cragganmore, is said to have been the most experienced practical distiller of his time. He had managed Macallan Distillery in the 1850's, started up the new Glenlivet Distillery in 1858, went south to run Wishaw Distillery and returned to Speyside in 1865 as lessee of Glenfarclas at Ballindalloch. Four years later, he persuaded his landlord, Sir George Macpherson Grant, to let him build a new distillery on Ayeon Farm, about half a mile from Ballindalloch Station on the Strathspey Railway.
Cragganmore was the first Speyside distillery to be sited to take advantage of railway transport. About 300 yards from the station, where a burn crossed the line, a private siding was laid down to take distillery traffic, and a road made alongside the burn to the "new and large distillery" described by the Elgin Courant in June 1870. This report stated that the buildings were laid out in the form of an unenclosed square, with the makings in the south block, themash-house and still-house in the east, the spirit store, excise office and packing-house in the north, and the warehouse in the west, a plan that remains basically unchanged today. Greenstone, a very hard, dark-coloured rock, quarried from the hill of Craggan More, was used for the lintels and larger stones. One lintel, not yet inserted, had been engraved by a master mason in Elgin with the heraldic device of the Scottish lion rampant, the words "I fear nae foe", the date "1869", and the words "John Smith, Distiller".
A burn, fed entirely by springs, most of which rose on the hill of Craggan More, supplied process water, which Smith had previously analysed, and found to be excellent for distilling purposes. The same burn drove an overshot water-wheel, fourteen feet in diameter, which provided power. A smaller burn was diverted to bring in water for cooling. There was an abundance of peat for malting.
The landlord built a new house, and a new steading, for Ayeon Farm, which John Smith leased from 1871. The Elgin Courant noted plans for conveying, by gravitation, "fattening drinks from the distillery, which pigs, as well as oxen, delight to imbibe, and on which they become so stout as to be unseemly, but not less adapted for the London market".
It is said that John Smith himself was a man of large stature, with a weight of about 22 stone (140 kg), and that he travelled everywhere by rail, always in the guard's van, because he was unable to enter the door of a passenger carriage. He died, at the age of 53, on 13 March 1886. The business was carried on by trustees, under the guidance of a brother, George Smith of Park-more Distillery, Dufftown, until 1893, when John Smith's youngest son, Gordon, came of age. This young man had worked as a distiller in the Transvaal.
Gordon Smith took over a prosperous business. Ever since 1870, James Watson & Co., wholesale spirit merchants, of Dundee, had been sole agents for the sale of Cragganmore whisky, and had no difficulty in disposing of its entire output. They established another record for the distillery in 1887, when the first-ever "whisky special" train left Ballindalloch with a load of 10 gallons (41,500 litres).
The steady demand for Cragganmore's make was not affected by the recession in the whisky industry that began in 1898. The distillery never closed for more than a fortnight in any year between starting up in 1870 and the summer of 1901 when reconstruction began. Gordon Smith, in the words of a local newspaper, had decided that "the building was too antiquated to do with further patching up" and that "there was nothing for it but to build a practically new distillery". Under the supervision of
Charles Doig of Elgin, a distillery engineer, "the latest appliances of a labour-saving nature" were introduced, but the techniques of production were unaltered, and there was no increase in capacity. The buildings were illuminated throughout by acetylene gas.
Gordon Smith's widow, Mary Jane, took over the distillery in 1912. It closed, owing to Government restrictions on the supply of barley to distillers, in 1917. Mrs. Smith celebrated its reopening on 27 Febuary 1919 by installing electric light supplied by a Kohier petrol-driven generator.
She sold the business to The Cragganmore Distillery Co. Ltd., incorporated on 16 June 1923 with a capital of £0. The subscribers to its articles of association were Sir Peter Jeffrey Mackie, chairman of Mackie & Co. (Distillers) Ltd., of Glasgow, Sir George Macpherson-Grant, baronet, of Ballindalloch, who granted the feu for the land, and Alexander Edward, of Edinburgh, who had interests in other distillery companies. White Horse Distillers Ltd. (the successors to Mackie & Co.) joined The Distillers Company Limited, of Edinburgh, in 1927, and the Cragganmore Distillery Co. Ltd. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of DCL in 1965-66.
A trade journalist reported in 1925 that Cragganmore had an "old-fashioned appearance", with solidly constructed buildings.He noted that power for driving the malt mill, the mashing machinery and the tunroom switchers was supplied by a portable engine developing 12 h.p.
Cragganmore closed again from 1941 to 1946. The Kohier generator continued in use until 1949: there may have been a second generator, because Cragganmore was not linked to the national electric grid until about 1951. New buckets for the water-wheel were ordered from Newmill Ironworks in 1950, and a Blackstone steam engine was still working: so the conversion to all-electric power may have been gradual.
The furnaces of the two stills were converted to a mechanical coal-stoking system in 1961 and the number of stills increased to four in 1964. The tunroom was rebuilt in 1968. All four stills were converted to steam heating from an oil-fired boiler in 1972. The spirit stills here have T-shaped lye pipes in contrast to the normal swan-neck.
Springs on Craggan More Hill are the source of process water, as in John Smith's time, but cooling water now comes from the River Spey.
Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd., a subsidiary of The Distillers Company, owns and operates Cragganmore. It also owns 9 houses for occupation by employees, described in 1925 as "comfortable cottages of the kind that invariably grow up round a distillery and gradually form a compact little community".
The licensed distillers are D. & J. McCallum Ltd., of Edinburgh, blenders of McCallum's Per-fection Scotch Whisky. They export Cragganmore malt whisky to Australia and New Zealand.
Cragganmore, founded by the legendary John Smith in 1869, is for many the definitive Speyside malt. For malt whisky writer Michael Jackson, it has 'the most complex aroma of any malt.... astonishingly fresh and delicate'.
Back in the 1920s this was voted the finest of all Scottish Malt DistillerS' malts by their blenders, being titled 'A 1 ' for blending.
On tasting it, it's not hard to see what those blenders saw. Mature and well balanced, with an sastonishingly fragant aroma, the slight fruitiness on the palate is overlaid with sweet, smoky noted with hints of sandalwood.
A long finish packed with hints of smoky sweetness brings this delightful, refined experience -so accessible, yet so rewarding, gently to a close.
Complexity married to such refinement is not easily found. This is truly a Classic Malt - still the leading Speyside that John Smith set out to create.
Cragganmore is the distinguished Speyside destination on a journey around Scotland's six malt whisky making regions.
The other Classic Malts are: Glenkinchie, Dalwhinnie, Talisker, Oban, Lagavulin. An elegant, sophisticated Speyside with the most complex aroma of any malt. Astonishingly fragrant with sweetish noted and a smoky maltiness on the finish.
October 2005
Diageo has announced that its 2005 Annual Rare Malts Selection will be the last.
The collection will consist of four cask strenght single malts from closed distilleries; Glen Mhor 28 years old, Millburn 35 years old, Glendullan 26 years old and Linkwood 30 years old.
Dr. Nicholas Morgan, global malts marketing director commented: 'As the Special Releases are now well established, it makes less sence to continue selecting and promoting a parallel series of Rare Malts with his own separate indentity'.
In future, all premium and rare whiskies will be made available in the annual Special Re-leases series.
April 2013
Diageo has named Teaninich near Alness as the location for its plans to build a new 50 million pound new malt whisky distillery and will be adjacent the existing Teaninich distillerybut will have its own name and indentity and will have thecapacity to produce 13 million litres of spirit p[er annum from its 16 stills. Diageo also invest 12 million pound in expanding the Teaninich distillery to almost doubless capacity.
The site will also feature a bio - energy plant.The work will begin in 2014.
Diageo also will invest in Mortlach distillery in building a new still house and an other invest-ment will be at Glendullan distillery to process co products in an anaerobic digestion process, producing bio - gas which will
be used to power the Glendullan distillery.
There are also expansion and upgrade developments for more then 40 million pound in Linkwood, Mannochmore, Glendullan, Dailuaine, Benrinnes, Inchgower, Cragganmore ,Glen Elgin, Glen Ord and in a new bio - energie plants in Glenlossie and Dailuaine.
Also new warehouse are build at Cluny near Kirkcaldy.
And at Talisker a new visitor centre is build for a 1 million pound.
John Smith, the founder of Cragganmore, is said to have been the most experienced practical distiller of his time. He had managed Macallan Distillery in the 1850's, started up the new Glenlivet Distillery in 1858, went south to run Wishaw Distillery and returned to Speyside in 1865 as lessee of Glenfarclas at Ballindalloch. Four years later, he persuaded his landlord, Sir George Macpherson Grant, to let him build a new distillery on Ayeon Farm, about half a mile from Ballindalloch Station on the Strathspey Railway.
Cragganmore was the first Speyside distillery to be sited to take advantage of railway transport. About 300 yards from the station, where a burn crossed the line, a private siding was laid down to take distillery traffic, and a road made alongside the burn to the "new and large distillery" described by the Elgin Courant in June 1870. This report stated that the buildings were laid out in the form of an unenclosed square, with the makings in the south block, themash-house and still-house in the east, the spirit store, excise office and packing-house in the north, and the warehouse in the west, a plan that remains basically unchanged today. Greenstone, a very hard, dark-coloured rock, quarried from the hill of Craggan More, was used for the lintels and larger stones. One lintel, not yet inserted, had been engraved by a master mason in Elgin with the heraldic device of the Scottish lion rampant, the words "I fear nae foe", the date "1869", and the words "John Smith, Distiller".
A burn, fed entirely by springs, most of which rose on the hill of Craggan More, supplied process water, which Smith had previously analysed, and found to be excellent for distilling purposes. The same burn drove an overshot water-wheel, fourteen feet in diameter, which provided power. A smaller burn was diverted to bring in water for cooling. There was an abundance of peat for malting.
The landlord built a new house, and a new steading, for Ayeon Farm, which John Smith leased from 1871. The Elgin Courant noted plans for conveying, by gravitation, "fattening drinks from the distillery, which pigs, as well as oxen, delight to imbibe, and on which they become so stout as to be unseemly, but not less adapted for the London market".
It is said that John Smith himself was a man of large stature, with a weight of about 22 stone (140 kg), and that he travelled everywhere by rail, always in the guard's van, because he was unable to enter the door of a passenger carriage. He died, at the age of 53, on 13 March 1886. The business was carried on by trustees, under the guidance of a brother, George Smith of Park-more Distillery, Dufftown, until 1893, when John Smith's youngest son, Gordon, came of age. This young man had worked as a distiller in the Transvaal.
Gordon Smith took over a prosperous business. Ever since 1870, James Watson & Co., wholesale spirit merchants, of Dundee, had been sole agents for the sale of Cragganmore whisky, and had no difficulty in disposing of its entire output. They established another record for the distillery in 1887, when the first-ever "whisky special" train left Ballindalloch with a load of 10 gallons (41,500 litres).
The steady demand for Cragganmore's make was not affected by the recession in the whisky industry that began in 1898. The distillery never closed for more than a fortnight in any year between starting up in 1870 and the summer of 1901 when reconstruction began. Gordon Smith, in the words of a local newspaper, had decided that "the building was too antiquated to do with further patching up" and that "there was nothing for it but to build a practically new distillery". Under the supervision of
Charles Doig of Elgin, a distillery engineer, "the latest appliances of a labour-saving nature" were introduced, but the techniques of production were unaltered, and there was no increase in capacity. The buildings were illuminated throughout by acetylene gas.
Gordon Smith's widow, Mary Jane, took over the distillery in 1912. It closed, owing to Government restrictions on the supply of barley to distillers, in 1917. Mrs. Smith celebrated its reopening on 27 Febuary 1919 by installing electric light supplied by a Kohier petrol-driven generator.
She sold the business to The Cragganmore Distillery Co. Ltd., incorporated on 16 June 1923 with a capital of £0. The subscribers to its articles of association were Sir Peter Jeffrey Mackie, chairman of Mackie & Co. (Distillers) Ltd., of Glasgow, Sir George Macpherson-Grant, baronet, of Ballindalloch, who granted the feu for the land, and Alexander Edward, of Edinburgh, who had interests in other distillery companies. White Horse Distillers Ltd. (the successors to Mackie & Co.) joined The Distillers Company Limited, of Edinburgh, in 1927, and the Cragganmore Distillery Co. Ltd. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of DCL in 1965-66.
A trade journalist reported in 1925 that Cragganmore had an "old-fashioned appearance", with solidly constructed buildings.He noted that power for driving the malt mill, the mashing machinery and the tunroom switchers was supplied by a portable engine developing 12 h.p.
Cragganmore closed again from 1941 to 1946. The Kohier generator continued in use until 1949: there may have been a second generator, because Cragganmore was not linked to the national electric grid until about 1951. New buckets for the water-wheel were ordered from Newmill Ironworks in 1950, and a Blackstone steam engine was still working: so the conversion to all-electric power may have been gradual.
The furnaces of the two stills were converted to a mechanical coal-stoking system in 1961 and the number of stills increased to four in 1964. The tunroom was rebuilt in 1968. All four stills were converted to steam heating from an oil-fired boiler in 1972. The spirit stills here have T-shaped lye pipes in contrast to the normal swan-neck.
Springs on Craggan More Hill are the source of process water, as in John Smith's time, but cooling water now comes from the River Spey.
Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd., a subsidiary of The Distillers Company, owns and operates Cragganmore. It also owns 9 houses for occupation by employees, described in 1925 as "comfortable cottages of the kind that invariably grow up round a distillery and gradually form a compact little community".
The licensed distillers are D. & J. McCallum Ltd., of Edinburgh, blenders of McCallum's Per-fection Scotch Whisky. They export Cragganmore malt whisky to Australia and New Zealand.
Cragganmore, founded by the legendary John Smith in 1869, is for many the definitive Speyside malt. For malt whisky writer Michael Jackson, it has 'the most complex aroma of any malt.... astonishingly fresh and delicate'.
Back in the 1920s this was voted the finest of all Scottish Malt DistillerS' malts by their blenders, being titled 'A 1 ' for blending.
On tasting it, it's not hard to see what those blenders saw. Mature and well balanced, with an sastonishingly fragant aroma, the slight fruitiness on the palate is overlaid with sweet, smoky noted with hints of sandalwood.
A long finish packed with hints of smoky sweetness brings this delightful, refined experience -so accessible, yet so rewarding, gently to a close.
Complexity married to such refinement is not easily found. This is truly a Classic Malt - still the leading Speyside that John Smith set out to create.
Cragganmore is the distinguished Speyside destination on a journey around Scotland's six malt whisky making regions.
The other Classic Malts are: Glenkinchie, Dalwhinnie, Talisker, Oban, Lagavulin. An elegant, sophisticated Speyside with the most complex aroma of any malt. Astonishingly fragrant with sweetish noted and a smoky maltiness on the finish.
October 2005
Diageo has announced that its 2005 Annual Rare Malts Selection will be the last.
The collection will consist of four cask strenght single malts from closed distilleries; Glen Mhor 28 years old, Millburn 35 years old, Glendullan 26 years old and Linkwood 30 years old.
Dr. Nicholas Morgan, global malts marketing director commented: 'As the Special Releases are now well established, it makes less sence to continue selecting and promoting a parallel series of Rare Malts with his own separate indentity'.
In future, all premium and rare whiskies will be made available in the annual Special Re-leases series.
April 2013
Diageo has named Teaninich near Alness as the location for its plans to build a new 50 million pound new malt whisky distillery and will be adjacent the existing Teaninich distillery
but will have its own name and indentity and will have the capacity to produce 13 million
litres of spirit p[er annum from its 16 stills.
Diageo also invest 12 million pound in expanding the Teaninich distillery to almost doubless capacity.
The site will also feature a bio - energy plant.
The work will begin in 2014.
Diageo also will invest in Mortlach distillery in building a new still house and an other invest-
ment will be at Glendullan distillery to process co products in an anaerobic digestion process, producing bio - gas which will be used to power the Glendullan distillery.
There are also expansion and upgrade developments for more then 40 million pound in
Linkwood, Mannochmore, Glendullan, Dailuaine, Benrinnes, Inchgower, Cragganmore,
Glen Elgin, Glen Ord and in a new bio - energie plants in Glenlossie and Dailuaine.
Also new warehouse are build at Cluny near Kirkcaldy.
And at Talisker a new visitor centre is build for a 1 million pound.
In its 141 – years history, Cragganmore Single Malt Scotch Whisky has been carefully