Glenallachie Ralfy.com 10th Anniversary 13 Years Old 2006

This official GlenAllachie, a 13 year old, from 2006, cask 866, at 59.9%, a festival bottling. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt known for its heavy sherry and wine cask maturation. It was designed almost entirely gravity fed, an efficient plant for its time. It runs unusually long fermentations, up to a hundred and sixty hours, for a thick, ester rich and fruity spirit. It was built by Mackinlay McPherson, the firm that supplied whisky to Shackleton's 1907 expedition.

It was run slowly off the spirit still, giving a full bodied Speyside spirit. It was fully matured in a Port cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. By the integrating teens the raw notes fade and esters build, the rich spirit growing rounder and darker. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At 59.9%, undiluted, it is dark and full. A rich, sherried sweetness, with red berry, plum and a dry spice from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is the sherry led malt of Aberlour.