Crabbie 25

About This Competition

John Crabbie was one of the great pioneers of blended whisky like John Walker and Arthur Bell. Crabbie, who lived from 1806 to 1891, owned a grocery and tea-blending business in Edinburgh, but moved into the whisky trade when phylloxera devastated the vineyards of Cognac leading to demand for an alternative from English drinkers. He acquired casks and started bottling whiskys from more than 70 distilleries around Scotland. With his friend Andrew Usher, he began blending whisky to create a consistent product. This led to him purchasing a brewery in Leith where he set up his own distillery producing not just whisky but also gin and liqueurs including a famous ginger wine. Later the two of them, along with William Sanderson (of VAT 69 fame), would set up the mighty North British grain distillery.

The North British is still going strong but until very recently the Crabbie name was only known for ginger wine, all that whisky heritage was largely forgotten. In 2007, Halewood acquired Crabbie & resurrected the brand to raise some much need revenue to fund the opening of their Bonnington distillery in Edinburgh.

This Crabbie 25-year-old has been matured in sherry casks for 25 years and bottled at 46.6% with 988 bottles produced. Although the distillery remains officially undisclosed, the company revealed many clues as to its origin. Indeed it is from the mighty Macallan. An official 25 yr old Macallan will set you back a handsome four figure sum. Instead, this one retailed at £400 & is far more limited in nature – putting this firmly in the “take my money” territory for Macallan fans.

You can also boost your odds by nabbing one of the 25 instant win bonus entries.

Total Entries for this comp = 100 Paid tickets + 25 instant win tickets