Glenallachie 9 Years Old 2011 Cask #3029859 (Duncan Taylor)

This GlenAllachie comes from Duncan Taylor, the cask house from Huntly in Aberdeenshire, a 9 year old, distilled in 2011, from cask 3029859, at 55.4%, one of 276 bottles. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt from the hills above Aberlour, below Ben Rinnes. It was designed almost entirely gravity fed, an efficient plant for its time.

It was distilled to a full, generous cut, giving a full bodied Speyside spirit. An Oloroso cask held it, drawing the rich spirit on over the years. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and lactones as coconut over orchard fruit and a dark sugar. Maturation runs slow and even in the on site dunnage warehouses at Aberlour. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register.

Bottled at a cask strength 55.4%, it is deep and concentrated. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. It is full and fruity, the spirit carrying the cask. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.