Glenallachie Single Cask 12 Years Old 2011 (Cask 804997)

A 12 year old GlenAllachie, a distillery bottling, from 2011, cask 804997, at 62.1%, 339 bottles in all. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, the home distillery of master distiller Billy Walker. It was built for the 1960s blend boom, its make long destined for the blender's vat. It runs unusually long fermentations, up to a hundred and sixty hours, for a thick, ester rich and fruity spirit.

Distilled in copper pot stills, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. Maturation came in an Oloroso cask, layered over the full GlenAllachie make. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend riper orchard fruit and a chocolate depth. The full bodied spirit takes active wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

Bottled at a cask strength 62.1%, it is deep and concentrated. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A dark chocolate and a soft oak give it weight. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.