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Meikle Tòir 5 Year Old The Sherry One Review

Can a Speyside distillery do peat? GlenAllachie's Meikle Tòir The Sherry One pairs sweet mainland smoke with PX and Oloroso casks. Does it punch above its five years?

OVERALL RATING

7
$65
  • Genevieve is a South African whisky enthusiast with a PhD in Philosophy and founder of Kenton on Whisky, a coastal tasting venture.
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Tasting Notes

About:

Meikle Tòir (pronounced mee-kuhl tor) means “big pursuit”. It is the peated whisky range from Speyside distillery GlenAllachie. GlenAllachie wasn’t traditionally a peated whisky producer, so the name reflects the distillery’s ambition to create its own range of peated whiskies.

With Meikle Tòir, GlenAllachie has deliberately set out to do something a little different from what we might traditionally expect of a Speyside distillery. It also serves as a reminder that regional whisky identities, while useful guides, are increasingly unreliable descriptions of what a distillery can produce.

Peated spirit was produced at GlenAllachie for the very first time in 2018, and the resulting range was officially launched in 2023 under the Meikle Tòir name.

Meikle Tòir uses mainland peat sourced from St Fergus in northeast Scotland. This is interesting because peat isn’t necessarily the same wherever you find it, as its composition is influenced by the vegetation from which it formed. The distillery describes this mainland peat as producing a sweeter, more oaky style of smoke.

The Sherry One is a five-year-old expression, initially matured in American oak ex-bourbon barrels before further maturation in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry puncheons. It’s bottled at 48% ABV, is non-chill filtered, and has no added colouring.
Appearance:
Rich amber.
Nose:
Aromatic cherry-flavoured tobacco accompanied by some gentle woodsmoke. A hint of something tart, like dried apricots. A honeyed sweetness develops, alongside some fresh cherries. A spot of vanilla also emerges. There’s a touch of cinnamon in the background, and also something that reminds me of the inside of an old wooden kist.
Palate:
A touch of honey at the forefront, quickly followed by smoke. Cocoa and dark chocolate notes develop, accompanied by a slightly tannic, drying quality. There’s perhaps a touch of marmalade, too. Quite smooth and buttery in texture.
Finish:
Dark chocolate notes linger, accompanied by a faint fruity note – perhaps orange-flavoured chocolate.
Comments:
I found this an enjoyable dram that offers a little more complexity than its five years of maturation might suggest. There’s a lovely interplay between the sweetness and smoke, with enough different aromas and flavours to keep things interesting.

Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Genevieve Jacot-Guillarmod

Genevieve is a whisky enthusiast from South Africa with a PhD in Philosophy, so she enjoys both drinking and thinking about whisky. She loves tasting new whiskies whenever she gets the chance - so much so that a few years ago she set up a small whisky tasting business, "Kenton on Whisky", in the tiny coastal town where she lives (this also serves as an excellent excuse to grow her selection of whiskies beyond reasonable limits).

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