Glenallachie 7 Years Old 2008 Cask #DL 10956 (Provenance)

Chosen by Douglas Laing, the Glasgow family bottler, this a 7 year old GlenAllachie, distilled in 2008, from cask DL 10956, at 46%. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, revived in 2017 by the team of Billy Walker. It was built by Mackinlay McPherson, the firm that supplied whisky to Shackleton's 1907 expedition. It was mothballed in 1985 and reopened in 1989, a modern distillery by Speyside standards. It was designed almost entirely gravity fed, an efficient plant for its time.

It was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. It was matured in an Oloroso cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin and toasted sugars over the full, fruity spirit. Maturation runs slow and even in the on site dunnage warehouses at Aberlour. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit.

At 46% it is smooth and rich. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.