Cragganmore 12 Year Single Malt Scotch

The Speyside representative in Diageo's Classic Malts range, from a distillery founded in 1869 by John Smith—former manager of both Macallan and Glenlivet. What makes Cragganmore distinctive is its unusual still design: flat-topped spirit stills with boil balls that restrict vapor flow, acting as a natural filter that only lets the lightest, most volatile compounds through. Combined with traditional worm tub condensers (rather than modern shell-and-tube), this produces a whisky with an unusually complex, slightly meaty character beneath its honeyed exterior. A thinking person's Speyside.