Allt-a-Bhainne 23 Years Old Darkness! (Master of Malt)

Bottled by Master of Malt in 2016 under the Darkness! imprint, this is a 23 Years Old Allt-a-Bhainne at 49.7% ABV. The release was finished in Oloroso sherry casks. Master of Malt is a UK based independent bottler and retailer, and the Darkness! imprint covers heavy sherry influenced expressions from across Scotch and world whisky, typically with shorter sherry finishes on longer aged spirit.

Allt-a-Bhainne ferments malted barley for 48 to 50 hours on Mauri liquid yeast in closed stainless steel washbacks, then double distills through two copper wash stills and two copper spirit stills with steam heating and shell and tube condensers. The short Speyside ferment produces a clean malt forward spirit built as a blend filler for Chivas Regal, Passport and 100 Pipers. New make is reduced with Rowantree Burn water and tankered to Keith for cask filling and maturation, since the distillery holds no warehousing on site.

Oloroso sherry maturation drives the spirit through rancio chemistry, where slow polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during prior sherry contact generates the dried fruit, leathery and nutty register typical of long sherry contact. Against the lighter Allt-a-Bhainne distillate the sherry contribution leads. Against twenty three years of underlying maturation, the Oloroso finish layers oxidative sherry character over an already developed cask base, with rancio derived dried fruit and nutty register joining the lighter cereal forward spirit.