The GlenAllachie Distillery Unveils Its Core Scotch Whisky Range

The GlenAllachie Distillery, located in the Speyside region of Scotland, is a younger whisky distillery that once was under Chivas Brothers/Pernod Ricard ownership. It was acquired by a team which included Billy Walker, the driving force at one time behind the BenRiach distillery and its siblings before that was sold to Brown-Forman. Walker has been readying a new core range of whiskies from GlenAllachie, and those have now been officially unveiled.

The new releases from the distillery, according to those behind them, all feature age statements ranging from 10-year-old cask strength, the flagship 12-year-old alongside 18 and 25-year-old bottlings. Here are more specifics on each as spelled out by GlenAllachie:

• The 10-year-old expression reflects Walker’s desire to showcase a taste of The GlenAllachie Distillery bottled straight from the cask at natural strength. The 57.1% whisky was matured in American oak, Pedro Ximinez, Oloroso and virgin oak casks, and is described as tasting of honey, vanilla, toffee, marmalade with a layer of rose hip and Caribbean spices.
• The 12-year-old single malt is described by Walker as “the heart of our range.” Matured in Pedro Ximinez, Oloroso and virgin oak casks, the whisky imparts sweet Butterscotch notes on the nose, and a taste of honey, marzipan and bananas, plus further lashings of Butterscotch.
• The Glenallachie 18-year-old exemplifies the signature style of GlenAllachie – a combination of rich and robust spirit with heather and butterscotch notes, along with subtle hints of dark chocolate.
• The pinnacle of the range, the 25-year-old, is a beautiful beaten copper colour following its quarter of a century maturing in Pedro Ximinez, Oloroso and American oak casks. This regally rich single malt whisky delivers lashings of sultanas, pineapples and dark chocolate, followed by layers of Christmas cake, marmalade and sweet spices.

“The first release of our GlenAllachie core range has been a culmination of months of hard work and a passion to turn GlenAllachie into a very popular and much sought after single malt whisky,” said Walker, GlenAllachie Managing Director and Master Distiller, in a prepared statement. “It is an honour to be its custodian and to develop this range of single malts. The range of casks we have warehoused is tremendous with nearly 50,000 maturing at our distillery, some of which date back to the 1970’s. Our aim is to nurture this tremendous spirit and for these single malts to be admired both home and abroad.”

Plans call for the whiskies to price as follows:

• The GlenAllachie 10 YO 57.1% cask strength – £57.00
• The GlenAllachie 12 YO 46% – £43.00
• The GlenAllachie 18 YO 46% – £92.00
• The GlenAllachie 25 YO 48% – £232.00

They should gradually trickle out to the more than 28 countries GlenAllachie is distributed in, including the UK, USA, Germany, Taiwan, China and France. These bottlings follow on the heels of some recent single cask expressions.