Allt-a-Bhainne 8 Years Old 2013 (Whisky Import Nederland BNC)

Distilled in 2013 and bottled by Whisky Import Nederland in 2021 under the BNC malt selection imprint, this is an 8 Years Old Allt-a-Bhainne at 60.2% ABV from Oloroso sherry maturation. The release is one of 150 bottles. Whisky Import Nederland is one of the longer running Dutch import and bottling operations, with the BNC line focused on cask strength single cask selections.

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. At eight years the Oloroso interaction is in its primary phase, with the sherry foreground prominent and the underlying spirit character carrying clearly alongside.