Glenallachie 9 Years Old 2016 Cask #201 (The Caskhound)

This GlenAllachie was bottled by The Caskhound, a 9 year old, distilled in 2016, from cask 201, at 58.5%, one of 293 bottles. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, founded in 1967 below Ben Rinnes near Aberlour. It matures its spirit in sixteen dunnage warehouses on the distillery site at Aberlour. It was mothballed in 1985 and reopened in 1989, a modern distillery by Speyside standards. It was built by Mackinlay McPherson, the firm that supplied whisky to Shackleton's 1907 expedition.

It was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. It was matured in a Tawny Port cask, the wood working deep into the malt. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and lactones as coconut over orchard fruit and a dark sugar. The full bodied spirit takes active wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

At a natural 58.5% it is full and rich. A rich orchard sweetness and dark sugar, with a nutty, raisined red fruit from the cask. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.