Glenallachie Meikle Tòir 2019 Cask #8723

A 6 year old GlenAllachie, a distillery bottling, from 2019, cask 8723, at 60.3%, 357 bottles in all. GlenAllachie is the Speyside home of Billy Walker, this from his peated Meikle Toir campaign. Its stills were doubled from two to four within months of opening, the lyne arms angled down for a fuller spirit. It was designed almost entirely gravity fed, an efficient plant for its time.

The spirit was distilled to a full, smoky cut, building a peated malt of dark fruit and sweet smoke. It was matured in an Oloroso cask, the wood working deep into the malt. 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. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At 60.3%, undiluted, it is dark and full. Sweet smoke, orange and a dark treacle, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A dark chocolate and a peaty oak give it weight. The close is rich and smoky, fruit over a warm spice. This is a smoky, fruity Speyside single malt.