Review by: The Muskox
I was lucky enough to participate in an online tasting of some cracking whiskies from the Glenallachie distillery, featuring their legendary master distiller Billy Walker. With a nearly 50-year career in the whisky industry, Mr. Walker is perhaps best-known nowadays for his revitalization of GlenDronach and Benriach, where he was part-owner and master distiller and blender between 2004 and 2016.
One participant asked a great question about this 10-year-old cask strength release: Why ditch consistency in favour of intentional variation between batches? Billy responded that, due to Glenallachie’s relative anonymity before he purchased it, they felt they had a blank slate to really do whatever they wanted, and what he wanted was to celebrate differences between batches rather than try to blend them out. Looking forward, Billy was adamant that the forthcoming Batch 6 would be the best one yet, but today, we had batch 5 to sample.
Distillery: Glenallachie.
Bottler: Official bottling.
Region: Speyside.
ABV: 55.9%. Cask strength.
Age: 10 years.
Cask type: A combination of Oloroso sherry, PX sherry, and virgin American oak casks, as well as “one or two” (according to Billy) Rioja red wine casks.
Price: N/A, tasting sample.
Color: Rich amber. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: Rich thick sherry, but also bright and citrusy. Honey-soaked raisin challah, cherries in syrup, and sun-kissed orange wedges. Rich caramel fudge, amber maple syrup, and waxy nuts (heh). Gentle spice notes of powdered ginger, cinnamon, and a dusting of nutmeg. A hint of shoe polish and old wooden furniture. As it sits in the glass, nougat and peaches emerge.
Palate: Medium-thick texture. Gooey oloroso sherry and tart citrus notes up front. Things get quite rich and sweet as the whisky develops, with tobacco, worn oak, and dark chocolate joining heaps of toffee. Chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, candied ginger, cherry jam on pumpernickel toast, and English Breakfast with milk and sugar (maybe with a cookie or two dunked in).
Finish: Medium-long and rich. Glides into bergamot truffles, marmalade on toast, toasted pralines, maraschino, and black coffee. I’m really trying not to say it, but the finish is pretty… smooth.
Alternative SMWS bottling name: “Dessert at Uncle Bob’s”
Conclusion: This is an elegant sherry-forward young whisky, punching way above its years. Comparing to my notes on Batch 3, there seems to be a bit more sherry here, but otherwise it’s quite similar. I don’t think I could really pick between the two.
Final Score: 85.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 