Glenallachie Meikle Tòir 5 Years Old (Pedro Ximenez Cask)

A distillery release of GlenAllachie, a 5 year old, at 48%. GlenAllachie is a rich Speyside malt, here in peated form, a sweet, oaky smoke laid over dried fruit. Under Walker it turned to single malt, with heavy maturation in sherry and wine casks. It was mothballed in 1985 and reopened in 1989, a modern distillery by Speyside standards.

It was distilled to a full, smoky cut, 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. Maturation runs slow and even in the on site dunnage warehouses at Aberlour. 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.

At a natural 48% it is full and rich. A smoky, dark sweetness, with raisin, date and treacle from the cask. The body is full and smoky, the fruit deep and dark. The finish is rounded, dark and smoky. This is a smoky, sherried Speyside single malt.