In several of these reviews, I may have said something along the lines of "not the most complex malt, but well balanced". Complexity and balance are not opposites, nor are they mutually exclusive. International espionage is complex. A proper BLT sandwich is balanced. Supportive undergarments can be both. It just so happens that with most of the entry level whiskys we've been tasting, well-balanced malts are plentiful, but complexity is a rare bird.
The name 'Cragganmore' is derived from the Gaelic for 'prog rock'. Well, sort of. Technically it's 'great rock', but I wanted to talk about The Police. Driving to work this morning, the iPod picked out "Murder By Numbers", the bonus track (sorry, vinyl fans) from 1983's Synchronicity (it was also the B-side to "Every Breath You Take"). To illustrate my point, you may have to listen to this song three times back to back. Pour yourself a Cragganmore and let's get started...
You should be hearing Stewart Copeland's intro drum riffs by now. Just focus on the drums for now, although you may have to have a knowledgeable drummer nearby to explain how ridiculously complicated this song is - changing time signatures, offbeat rhythms, impossible high hat fills. It is unlikely he ever plays two bars the same way throughout the whole song. Nobody else sounds like this.
Take a big whiff of the whisky. Vanilla, honey, almonds, and cream. All very rich notes. Now let the malt breathe and open up a bit. Take a few cleansing breathes yourself, and try another deep pull off its aromas. This time, floral and herbal notes fill the air. It's like a Bavarian windowbox garden in there. A third try on the nose reveals a touch of hay, light peppery spice, and a healthy lunch of orchard fruits. Alright, maybe I didn't get all these in this exact order, but every time there was something new and different. Never the same nose twice.
Sting (the musician, not the wrestler) is the next to show up on the track, just the vocals at first. Scariest. Lyrics. Ever. Never mind that for now, we'll get back to this later. Just follow the melody for a while, its range and cadence, its understated mood given the theme of the song. You could play the vocals as a sax solo. Starting with the second verse, Sting comes in softly on a fretless upright bass, pure beatnik coffeehouse jazz. I can't imagine too many people could do this song justice on karaoke night if they had to take that bass line for a walk at the same time.
Now that you're wondering if somebody could've slipped a tablet into your drink, it's time to take a sip. Maybe a small one just to be safe. Malty richness and sweet honey first and foremost, giving way to any number of fruits - honeycrisp apple, red pear, maybe pluots. Later, I changed my mind toward the berry end of the spectrum. Same goes for the nutty notes - almonds one sip, walnuts the next. Sometimes I get a light smoky char flavor, others more of a fresh cut firewood oak flavor. One sip is not enough to pick up everything going on in there, so you must try a twosome or a threesome.
Anyone who has ever picked up a guitar and attempted to play a Police song knows that Andy Summers must have seven fingers on each hand. "Murder By Numbers" started as his ridiculously sophisticated chord progression (Bbmaj7b5, anyone?) to which everything else was added. His fretwork playing around within this already difficult arrangement makes the interplay with the rhythm section sound effortless and smooth.
Cragganmore 12 has an effortlessly smooth finish as well (that segueway not so much). Light smoke, mildly sweet, and one last peppery spice note to sustain you until come back for another. Start to finish, there's no single 'wow' aroma or flavor that stands out above the others. The hallmark of this whisky is its ever-changing kaleidoscope of subtle notes one might experience on any given day, even shifting over the course of a single whiff or sip, the development and depth of those flavors within its relatively short, single cask aging period, and its harmonious intermingling of these characteristics. Oh no, forgive me, its... 'synchronicity'.
The ostensibly disturbing lyrics to "Murder By Numbers", written by Sting while sitting on the brim of a sulfuric Montserrat volcano, were intended as a metaphor for the nefarious dealings of politicians (guess that sailed way over my head). Later, the three musicians were sitting around in their hotel suite, Copeland began improvising different rhythms on a kit set up in the dining room, Sting starts in with the vocals, and almost timidly the guitar and bass sneak in later. The song as you hear it was recorded in their hotel suite on this single take. Simple and efficient production, elegantly complex music. A rare bird indeed.
Might as well spell out my point with all this... Barley, water, and yeast - three basic elements transformed with a minimal amount of manipulation to create a whisky as elegant and complex as Cragganmore 12? It's whisky like this that makes me appreciate the unspoken magical synergy inherent in the process of crafting a single malt scotch. Just thinking about it makes me wanna pour a tall dram and kick back with the stereo headphones. Why couldn't my iPod have inspired me like this during my drive home instead?
Overall Grade: 92/100, A-
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