Glenallachie Cuvée Cask Finish 12 Years Old 2009 (Oloroso Finish)

GlenAllachie from the distillery, a 12 year old, from 2009, at 55.9%, 3000 bottles in all. It is one of GlenAllachie's Cuvee Cask Finish bottlings. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, the home distillery of master distiller Billy Walker. 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 designed almost entirely gravity fed, an efficient plant for its time.

It was taken gently through wash and spirit stills, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It was matured in ex-Bourbon oak and finished in an Oloroso cask, a layer of Oloroso over the bourbon vanilla. By the integrating teens the raw notes fade and esters build, the rich spirit growing rounder and darker. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At a natural 55.9% it is full and rich. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.