Cragganmore 1985 - 22 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 1229

Cragganmore was founded in 1869 by John Smith, and became part-owned by Diageo forerunner DCL in 1927 when the latter bought White Horse Distillers, which had taken a 50% share of Cragganmore in 1923. DCL obtained full control of Cragganmore in 1965, the year after the distillery was expanded to four stills. In 1987 Cragganmore 12-year-old became the Speyside representative of DCL successor United Distillers’ Classic Malts series of single malt whiskies.

Cragganmore’s official bottling history is uneventful. Prior to its elevation to the Classic Malts, a 12-year-old Cragganmore was bottled by DCL subsidiary D&J McCallum Ltd, which held the distillery’s licence; subsequent official bottlings included a superb 17-year-old Manager’s Dram sherry cask released in 1992 and regular outings in Diageo’s Special Releases. Independent Cragganmore is relatively rare, although the SMWS, Duncan Taylor and Gordon & MacPhail have all bottled fine examples from earlier vintages.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.