GlenAllachie released a series of eight single casks for the UK market yesterday. The release ranges from three older releases: two 1989 casks (sherry and bourbon, the sherry is reviewed below), and a 1990 ex bourbon cask, to five tweens. There’s a 2005 ex bourbon barrel, an ex bourbon cask from 2006 (reviewed below) as well as a 2006 virgin oak barrel that I must admit has caught my interest. The collection is rounded out by a port pipe matured whisky from 2007 and a bourbon barrel from 2008.
This follows my review of the core range (except the 10 year old and the 25 year old, which will follow shortly). You can find those reviews here: 12, 18.
Photo Credit: GlenAllachie Distillery
GlenAllachie 2006, Ex Bourbon Cask 27979 (62.6% ABV, NCF, NC)
Appearance: Gold, slow legs with a lot of residue.
Nose: Almonds and minerals, stone fruit, some dry minerals, maybe stone dust, with a hint of acetone.
Palate: Citrus peels with some orange juice sweetness, pepper and hard sweet candy.
Linger: Pepper and sweetness, with fresh nectarine. Most of the linger is in the mouth rather than the gullet.
Conclusion
The cask sample I had was 62.6%, and the official bottling is 62.4%.
GlenAllachie 1989, Sherry Butt 10073 (60.3% ABV, NCF, NC)
Appearance: Bronze, slow and evenly spaced legs with droplets releasing slowly.
Nose: Leather and a hint of balsamic, dried fruit, dryness, wood spices and some oak tannins. Limestone dryness and a hint of leather, with green grapes.
Palate: Dried fruit sweetness, cinnamon and clove, dried orange peel, chocolate and coffee with milk. It has a dryness and a lot of character.
Linger: Spice down the gullet, some coffee and sweetness on the tongue. The linger is long and very pleasant.
Conclusion
This is a beautiful single cask. The GlenAllachie spirit takes on the sherry quite well, and has aged nicely. This is a beautiful dram. The limestone or minerality that’s the GlenAllachie signature works beautifully with the sherry cask. Here too, the bottling is 0.2% less, and clocks in at 60.1%, which I mention only to explain the discrepancy in the ABV.