What they say

To craft The GlenAllachie Wine Series, we first expertly matured our spirit in American Oak Ex-Bourbon Barrels. Subsequently, the whisky underwent additional maturation for almost two years in Wine Barriques meticulously sourced by Master Distiller Billy Walker, imparting a distinctive twist onto the GlenAllachie spirit.

This golden bronze malt obtains its nutty and honeyed character from carefully sourced Rioja Barriques of Spanish Oak, with a medium level of toasting. Rioja hails from Spain’s most renowned wine region and delivers sophisticated fruit notes. These Barriques were bottled when the influences of the distillery and wood reached complete harmony.

This expression is bottled unchilfiltered for flavour with no added colouring at 48% ABV.

Official tasting notes

• COLOUR Golden Blush.
• NOSE Waves of red berries, honey, grape must, orange peel and almonds.
• TASTE Rich heather honey, sultanas, almonds and red berries, with barley sugar, grapefruit, orange peel and a hint of aniseed.

What I say

Exploring some recent Wine Cask and Wood Finish Series from The Glenallachie. Following on very much from his successes with both BenRiach and GlenDronach, here Billy Walker has taken maturing ex-Bourbon stocks at the Glenallachie and paired them with some superb cask finishes to explore their diversity. Moving on from the Super-Tuscan finished 11yo to Spanish Red Wine influence using ex-Rioja casks with an additional couple of years maturation too.

Thanks to The Glenallachie for provision of a sample of this product.

• ABV 48%
• Age 13 Years Old
• Bottler Official
• Bottling Rioja Wine Cask Finish
• Cask Rioja Wine Cask
• Category Speyside single malt whisky
• Cost £61.95
• Origin Glenallachie Distillery
• Outturn ~6000 bottles
• Region Speyside
• Released 2021
• Vintage Undisclosed

My tasting notes

• Appearance Full gold with rose hints (10/20), quick, medium tears & medium-fine legs.
• Nose Fruity, red fruits, orange zest, toffee, malty, toasted almonds – almost marzipan, soft baking spices, red berry jam, fresh root ginger, soft barley malt and flour, strawberry Danish pastries.
• Taste Medium-light bodied, Polished red apples, red berries, roast hazelnut in chocolate, toasted oak and black pepper, apple pie and cinnamon. soft gingerbread biscuits, toffee and cranberries.
• Finish Medium-long, sweet and soft fruit and spices.
• Overall Similar influences to the Super-Tuscan Grattamacco 11yo but very different bias and intensities generated something a whole lot more integrated and delicious. In particular the roasted nut and chocolate are very welcome additions to my palate which really appreciated the increased gravitas here.

Score 86/100

Don’t take my word for it:

Bloggers submit link to your review