Glenallachie Single Cask #4614 14 Years Old 2010 (Ex-Bourbon)

A 14 year old GlenAllachie, a distillery bottling, from 2010, cask 4614, at 60.9%, 288 bottles in all. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt, long a blending malt and now a sherry led name in its own right. Its water is the Lochnagar Burn, drawn down from the slopes of Ben Rinnes. It was mothballed in 1985 and reopened in 1989, a modern distillery by Speyside standards.

The spirit was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, for a thick, ester rich spirit the casks then deepen. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, a soft vanilla beneath the fruit. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend riper orchard fruit and a chocolate depth. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full bodied spirit takes active wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

Bottled at a cask strength 60.9%, it is deep and concentrated. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. Dried fruit, spice and a soft oak see it out. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.