Glenallachie 11 Years Old 2008 Cask #3024969 (Duncan Taylor)

This GlenAllachie was bottled by Duncan Taylor, an 11 year old, distilled in 2008, from cask 3024969, at 54.2%, bottled for a whisky festival. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, long a blending malt and now a sherry led name in its own right. It matures its spirit in sixteen dunnage warehouses on the distillery site at Aberlour. It was designed almost entirely gravity fed, an efficient plant for its time. Its water is the Lochnagar Burn, drawn down from the slopes of Ben Rinnes. It was built by Mackinlay McPherson, the firm that supplied whisky to Shackleton's 1907 expedition.

It was taken gently through wash and spirit stills, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. An Oloroso cask held it, drawing the rich spirit on over the years. By the integrating teens the raw notes fade and esters build, the rich spirit growing rounder and darker. The casks are picked closely, the wood matched to the rich GlenAllachie make.

At 54.2%, undiluted, it is dark and full. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a dark, fruity Speyside single malt.