Glenallachie 13 Years Old Ben Nevis Club (Cadenhead’s)

Chosen by Cadenhead, Scotland's oldest independent bottler, Aberdeen born in 1842 and now in Campbeltown, this a 13 year old GlenAllachie, at 60.8%, one of 138 bottles. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt known for its heavy sherry and wine cask maturation. It was built for the 1960s blend boom, its make long destined for the blender's vat. It matures its spirit in sixteen dunnage warehouses on the distillery site at Aberlour.

It was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, oak lactones lending a creamy vanilla. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend riper orchard fruit and a chocolate depth. The full bodied spirit takes active wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. The casks are picked closely, the wood matched to the rich GlenAllachie make. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

Bottled at a cask strength 60.8%, it is deep and concentrated. A rich, sherried sweetness, lifted by a sweet oak. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is the sherry led malt of Aberlour.