Whisky Focus - GlenAllachie 3 New Single Cask Whiskies & Spirit of Speyside Bottlings

The GlenAllachie Distillery has unveiled a trio of expressions as their eighth batch of UK-exclusive Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whiskies, alongside a distillery-exclusive single cask bottling for this year’s Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, which will run from today 26th April to 1st May 2023.

Spearheaded by Billy Walker, who boasts an impressive 50-year-long stint in the industry, the Aberlour-based Scotch whisky distillery was crowned Visitor Attraction of the Year 2022 at the Icons of Whisky Awards.

Famed for using exceptional and unusual casks thanks to Walker’s peerless wood management prowess, each GlenAllachie Single Cask was selected from an inventory spanning over 50,000 casks maturing within 16 on-site warehouses.

The four new Single Cask Single Malts released include:

• The GlenAllachie 17 Year Old Cask #11908 Ruby Port Pipe (Spirit of Speyside Festival 2023)
   
• The GlenAllachie 12 Year Old Cask #804024 Oloroso Puncheon
   
• The GlenAllachie 14 Year Old Cask #6894 Chinquapin Barrel
   
• The GlenAllachie 13 Year Old Cask #804970 Pedro Ximénez Hogshead

The 17 Year Old (55.9% ABV, UK RRSP £155) – exclusively bottled for the Spirit of Speyside Festival – was aged in a pipe that previously held premium Ruby Port: a youthful, more vibrant style.

Made from local Portuguese grape varieties, Ruby Port’s flavour profile is full-bodied and fruity, which is why the resulting whisky is “abundant in juicy oranges, sweet strawberries and maraschino cherries”.

This Single Cask is only available at The GlenAllachie’s on-site distillery shop.

GlenAllachie Cask #804024 (61.7% ABV, UK RRSP £111) is a puncheon that previously held Oloroso Sherry before hosting the GlenAllachie spirit. With Oloroso being a darker, drier style of Sherry, the wood has bestowed a mahogany hue upon the spirit, as well as a nutty, chocolatey character.

The GlenAllachie 14 Year Old Chinquapin barrel (57.2% ABV, UK RRSP £121) used oak from the Northern Ozark region of Missouri, USA. Once airdried, toasted and charred, the wood was opened up to allow for deep flavour extraction by the whisky, capturing notes of ginger biscuit, mixed nuts and sweet spice.

With a rich Pedro Ximénez Sherry heritage, the 13 Year Old hogshead (57.7% ABV, UK RRSP £115) is a smaller cask size, allowing for greater wood-to-whisky interaction. The subsequent single malt delivers “sophisticated qualities of dark chocolate, plum jam and salted caramel”.

GlenAllachie’s Single Casks are proudly presented at their natural cask strength, without added colouring or chill filtration for maximum flavour.

Commenting on the new products, Walker remarks: "Selecting Single Casks is a very special part of my role as Master Distiller; each one has displayed distinctive characteristics that have set it apart from the rest. These unique whiskies merit being presented individually so as to capture this unique DNA.

"With the hotly anticipated Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival now underway, we’re thrilled to reveal these new Single Cask expressions which we’re confident will knock the socks off the international whisky fans planning to visit us. We look forward to welcoming them and sharing a dram."

Batch 8 of The GlenAllachie UK Single Casks will be available via specialist retailers across the country, while the distillery’s on-site shop will have stock of all four products from today

While the Spirit of Speyside festival bottling is exclusive to the distillery shop you will find the 3 single cask releases available from specialist online whisky shops such as The Whisky Exchange, The Whisky Shop, Master of Malt and Hard To Find Whisky
 

• UK Shops
   
• USA Shops
   
• European Shops

Whisky Focus