Six Glenallachie on the tasting desk


April 7, 2023

Six Glenallachie on the tasting desk

Lots of adorations for Glenallachie these days, and I certainly do enjoy the new bottlings, but I'd love to try a 'natural' one, meaning a Glenallachie that wasn't boosted or finished in wine or fresh oak woods. Any ideas where I could find that? Don't tell me I should ask ChatGPT! In the meantime…

Glenallachie 13 yo 'Oloroso Wood Finish' (48%, OB, Kirsch Import, Germany exclusive, 2022)

Colour: rich reddish amber. Nose: we're reminded of Glenfarclas, don't ask me why since I don't think Glenfarclas do finishings. At least they were not last time I checked (around 2005, right…) Figs and roasted nuts, Brazil nuts, smoked sesame oil, chocolate, pipe tobacco, prunes, armagnac and the usual walnuts. No, it's not that heady and stuffy. Mouth: good, fruity, meaty, malty, peppery, with some dark rum, prunes, brown sauce and dark raisins. Fruitcake and ginger cookies, marmalade, brownies, Jaffa cakes, a little cracked pepper… Finish: medium, sweet, on fruitcakes. Earthier aftertaste. Comments: also Glendronach, of course. Technically perfect, perhaps just not extremely moving.
SGP:561 - 83 points.

Let's check a full maturation, also for Kirsch Import…

Glenallachie 10 yo 2011/2022 (59.7%, The Single Malts of Scotland, Kirsch Import, sherry butt, cask #900222, 552 bottles)

Colour: gold with copper tones. That's right. Nose: fully on praline and milk chocolate, peanut butter, roasted hazelnuts, black nougat… Nothing to not like here. With water: milk chocolate galore. Mouth (neat): Starbucks' whisky, full of nuts, fresh, roasted and torrefied. Including coffee, praline, sticky fudge, millionaire shortbread, Twix, caramel… You see, I'm sure. With water: raisins, fudge, toffee, caramel, pancake sauce, maple syrup, more milk chocolate, Toblerone (did you see that they lost the Matterhorn?)… Finish: long, with drops of plum spirit, vieille prune, armagnac once more… Coffee liqueur in the aftertaste, Kahlua… Comments: pretty equivalent, a tad heavy, it's just that I'm a sucker for chocolate.
SGP:551 - 84 points.

Glenallachie 10 yo 2011/2022 (62.5%, OB, for France, oloroso puncheon, cask #801059, 731 bottles)

It doesn't say, but I suppose it's a finishing. Colour: red amber, approaching mahogany. Nose: varnish, new-sawn wood, cedarwood, tarry greases… But let's not try too hard at 62.5%. With water: charcuterie, jamon iberico, then Marmite, then black nougat, black toffee, treacle, mentholated tar, liquorice… Getting better and better (wink, wink). Mouth (neat): heavy but neat, spicy, gingery, orangey, curry-like, this is almost masala. Glue. With water: we chill, the spicy wood remains, well, spicy and curry-and-ginger-like, but we're fine. It's not usual that we enjoy these heavy stuffs that have been fully boosted, but indeed, we do, even if this rather feels like a cabinetmaker's work. Finish: long, varnishy, chocolaty. Not sure the distillate has much to say here. Comments: I would suppose this is the best you could do with some anecdotal young distillate and some full oak boost. Feels very 'lab', but I like it.
SGP:461 - 83 points.

A gentler one please…

Glenallachie 8 yo (46%, OB, +/-2022)

From 'The valley of the Rocks'. Got to love those valleys, deer, brambles, tranquillity, now rocks… Don't they have a valley of the bagpipes too? This one's got everything as far as casks are concerned, oloroso, PX, red wine, virgin oak… Colour: rich gold. Nose: sweet, fruity easy, with pear liqueur, gooseberries, pineapples, guignolet (cherry liqueur), wine gums, coconut, marshmallows… No oak bomb this time, that's very cool. Mouth: indeed, sweet and easy, full of liqueurs and bonbons, orange drops, cream eggs, grenadine… Finish: medium, very sweet. More jellybeans. Cassis jelly, pomegranate syrup, Red Bull… Spices in the aftertaste. Comments: a very good, easy, sweet, syrupy young malt whisky.
SGP:641 - 82 points.

Love it that they wouldn't go NAS. I'm sure them too could find lousy names, concepts and stories that would bore even a recluse contemplative monk, like so many other Distilleries do. I bow before you, Glenallachie!

Glenallachie 15 yo 2006/2022 (59.5%, OB, Peated bourbon barrel, cask #806905, hand-filled at the Distillery)

More in-cask blending with a peater, I would suppose. It's true that we've already stumbled upon some lovely ones – and some utter wrecks too. Let's see… Colour: espresso. Nose: brilliant. Walnut stain, spent engine oil, tarmac, coffee and liquorice. With water: garden earth and compost, truck fumes, Maggi, hoisin, Marmite, soot… Holy Suzy! Mouth (neat): great fun. Crazy smoke, salty liquorice, pine resin, prune juice and Loch Dhu, only a thousand times better than Loch Dhu. With water: chestnut purée and tarry liquorice. More please. Finish: long, with some heavy menthol chiming in. Comments: could you please release a few thousand casks like this? Including quite a few 'For France'? Crazy unlikely stunt, I totally love it, thanks you Tim.
SGP:474 - 90 points.

Last one please, and let's make it an old one, and an IB, and a natural one… Please!

Glenallachie 32 yo 1989/2021 (43.2%, Skene, hogshead, cask #100468)

My God, a hogshead, what a coup!! My wishes are fulfilled… Colour: light gold. Nose: warm brioche, nuts, orange cordial, beeswax, dandelion, honeysuckle, soft herbal teas, chamomile, acacia honey, white asparagus… It's all soft, light, elegant, perhaps a tad fragile but just magnificent on the nose. Now careful, with such as soft nose, the palate may have gotten too light, if not simply empty… Mouth: no. Awesome citrus, cordials, waxes, old herbal liqueurs, herb wines, hay wine, rhubarb juice… This is wonderfully delicate, never weak, going on with small berries and the spirits distilled thereof, sorb, holly, elder… And some lighter, all-flower, or meadow honeys. Finish: a tad short 'of course' but some nuts keep it afloat. Pine-nuts, peanuts, pistachio syrup (another sin, really)…. Small pink bananas in the aftertaste. Comments: totally, absolutely , exactly the opposite of the peated 2006, but our score is the same.
SGP:441 - 90 points.

To be honest, Glenallachie as a distillate remains a tad mysterious to me. We'll try again later, see you.

(Thank you as ever, Tim!)

Check the index of all Glenallachie we've tasted so far