Glenallachie Wine Series – Cuvée Cask Finish 9 Years Old 2012

A distillery release of GlenAllachie, a 9 year old, from 2012, at 48%, 6800 bottles in all. This is part of the Wine Series. 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.

Run slowly off the spirit still, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. Ex-Bourbon matured, it was given a finish in a Bordeaux cask for a final sweetness. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin and toasted sugars over the full, fruity spirit. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. 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.

At its natural 48% it is rich and chewy. Date, fig and a warm cinnamon, with a dark berry and a dry tannin from the cask. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.