Glenallachie Meikle Tòir 2018 Cask #11565

A distillery release of GlenAllachie, a 7 year old, from 2018, cask 11565, at 60.2%, 364 bottles in all. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, its Meikle Toir peated range a rare Speyside smoke. It matures its spirit in sixteen dunnage warehouses on the distillery site at Aberlour.

The spirit was drawn from a thick, peated, full bodied wash, for a thick, ester laden spirit carrying an oaky peat. A Pedro Ximenez 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. The casks are picked closely, the wood matched to the rich GlenAllachie make. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At a natural 60.2% it is full and rich. Peat, raisin and a bittersweet chocolate, with raisin, date and treacle from the cask. A baked apple and an oak smoked sugar lift the middle. A long finish carries peat, chocolate and a treacle. This is a rich, smoky Speyside malt of dark fruit.