Glenallachie The Sinteis Series 9 Years Old 2015

A distillery release of GlenAllachie, a 9 year old, from 2015, at 58.2%. GlenAllachie is a Speyside single malt known for its heavy sherry and wine cask maturation. It matures its spirit in sixteen dunnage warehouses on the distillery site at Aberlour. It was founded in 1967, designed by the architect William Delme Evans, his fourth distillery after Jura and Tullibardine.

The spirit was run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. Maturation came in an Oloroso cask, layered over the full GlenAllachie make. 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. Active first fill wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At a hearty 58.2% it carries real weight. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. Dried fruit, spice and a soft oak see it out. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.