Glenallachie Meikle Tòir 2019 Cask #8729

GlenAllachie from the distillery, a 6 year old, from 2019, cask 8729, at 60.5%, 357 bottles in all. GlenAllachie is a rich Speyside malt, here in peated form, a sweet, oaky smoke laid over dried fruit. It was bought in 2017 by Billy Walker and two partners, fresh from selling BenRiach, GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh.

It was worked unhurried through the stillhouse from peated malt, building a peated malt of dark fruit and sweet smoke. It was matured in an Oloroso 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. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. The casks are picked closely, the wood matched to the rich GlenAllachie make. Maturation runs slow and even in the on site dunnage warehouses at Aberlour.

At its natural 60.5% it is rich and chewy. Soft smoke, honey and a dark chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The body is full and smoky, the fruit deep and dark. Soft smoke, spice and a dark fruit see it out. This is a rich, smoky Speyside malt of dark fruit.