Glenallachie 40 yo 1971 / 2011, The Exclusive Malts, Cask 739
Another big blending distillery. Seems to be quite common on Whiskyrific eh?
All distilleries can produce both good and bad whisky, but Glenallachie, according to online sources, I paraphrase as ‘less notable’ as a producer of excellent whisky. Ouch.
Not that there’s much available as a Single Malt anyway, so who knows, maybe Chivas saves all the good casks for their low-mid range blends and let the indies escape with casks they didn’t want anyway? Ok, an improbable theory.
Glenallachie is actually a really young distillery, built in 1965, and shares some kinship with Isle of Jura and Tullibardine in that one William Delme Evans built all 3, though in the case of Glenallachie, it was actually designed by someone else. Went silent in 1987, bought by Pernod Ricard in 1989, refurbished and doubled in capacity to 2 spirit 2 wash stills, capable of 3.2 million litres a year but run at a lower volume.
Glenallachie uses a lightly peated malt, no information on the peating level though.
Also interesting in that a 16 yo and 18 yo OB is available, and it is a cask strength expression, but only at the Chivas visitor centre at Strathisla, because well, Glenallachie is an industrial workhorse, and it isn’t much to look at:
Glenallachie 40 yo 1971/2011, Creative Whisky Company, The Exclusive Malts, Cask 739, 162 bottles, 47.7%
Nose: Green fruit, lime peel and super ‘dry’. or something really tannic rather. Expressive and complex, yet the opposite of a cloying OTT first fill sherry cask. Tiger balm and charred wood.Wonderful nose! Flinty but aromatic with aniseed bitters/barely ripe scents. Walnuts. Reminds me somewhat of a ‘fino’ Macallan I had previously. With water: Soft fruits emerge, still drily aromatic, and sappy resinous wood. Whiff of farmyard.
Palette: Medium weight. Immediately dry and puckering. Zesty and full absolutely full of grip on the tongue. Then after a while the soft aromatics of white fruit appear and the whole actually becomes sweeter and more soothing. This nice fruitiness develops into the finish.
Finish: Long, bitters and mentholated. Excellent.
Excellent whisky, starts so grippy and aromatic and yet develops on soft fruit and gets sweeter. If I could find a whole bottle, I would buy it for sure.
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