Craigellachie 17 Year
Craigellachie was founded in 1891 at the confluence of the rivers Spey and Fiddich. Despite being owned by international spirits conglomerate Bacardi, it is operated by scotch giant Dewar & Sons, along with Royal Brackla, Aberfeldy, Aultmore, and Macduff. Craigellachie has predominantly used for blends throughout its life, but the distillery began offering a line of age statements in 2014, albeit not what might be considered industry norm for years. That diverting from the norms is something Craigellachie does not shy away from. The Craighellachie 17 Year offers no flashy story or gimmicks, it is simply a whisky aged a minimum of 17 years from a proudly unapologetic distillery, unafraid to embrace who they are.
GlenAllachie 12 Year
Located in the heart of Speyside, a few thousand feet from the River Spey at the foot of Ben Rinnes, GlenAllachie was founded in 1967 by Mackinlay McPherson. It has changed ownership several times but is now independently owned and managed, one of the last remaining distilleries in Scotland to be so. While having much greater capacity, the current output of the distillery is around 500,000 liters of alcohol per year. They have 16 warehouses on site holding some 50,000 barrels. Despite this history, they have rebranded and are only relatively new on American shelves. Unlike many distilleries today, their line is dominated by a great number of age statement offerings across a few named ranges. The GlenAllachie 12 Year is the keystone of their core range and is a pure introduction, offering no cask finishes or proof hikes.
Berkshire Mountain 10 Year Oktoberfest
Berkshire Mountain Distillers (BMD) was founded in 2007 in Massachusetts by Chris Weld. Chris tried making a still in the 8th grade, which feels qualified as a good start. The distillery sits on an old apple farm and a working spring. In the proceeding years, the distillery has made a variety of vodkas, gins, rums, and bourbon, along with corn and single malt whiskies. BMD seems to love experimenting, as they have developed multiple kinds of each spirit by making use of their small batch production. The distillery is also into collaboration with local breweries and farms, as shown by their recent Craft Brewers Whiskey Project. The Berkshire Mountain 10 Year Oktoberfest is another entry in collaboration, as this single malt is aged for ten years and was distilled from an Oktoberfest beer by nearby brewery Berkshire Brewing.