GlenAllachie 10yo Abbey Whisky Exclusive
Independent Bottling| 66.2% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
It’s wonderfully punchy and scrummy
Hot And Delicious
GlenAllachie 10 Cask Strength is readily available from the distillery itself in a series of well-regarded batches. This independent bottling shares the same age statement and cask strength credentials, but has a rather more obscure pedigree – it comes from a single cask, from which just 150 bottles were filled.
Scottish-based online retailer Abbey Whisky is a whisky shop, not strictly an independent bottler. It sells bottlings of selected casks as ‘Abbey Whisky Exclusives’ and works with various companies including regular collaborator Berry Bros. & Rudd. Abbey Whisky bottled 13 small-scale releases in its ‘Rare Casks’ range from 2012 to 2019, covering everything from Caperdonich to Tamdhu – this GlenAllachie was the 10th Rare Cask. Abbey also bottled a ‘Secret Casks’ series a while back – whiskies of 30, 40 and 50 years old. As company director Mike Sharples admits: “I try not to look back at the prices we sold these for back then. I wish I’d kept a few to enjoy, but none remain.”
I feel a pleasing sense of circularity as I drink the last of this particular bottle: GlenAllachie 10 Cask Strength was my first sherried whisky love. It was only a few months earlier that my whisky journey began with lashings of peat. It does seem to be rather a pattern with whisky nerds that they initially get sucked in by an ultra-smoky dram, or at least something strongly flavoured and a little ‘out there’. With my whisky experience amounting to a cocktail or two as well as a few drams of Laphroaig 10 when I was too inebriated to notice much, I made a very fortuitous purchase of a Longrow Peated during the first lockdown for less than £35 upon the recommendation of my future boyfriend. That sweet but cindery, nutty smoke and almost refreshing lightness dancing above peaty depths hooked me with ease – Ardbeg 10, Springbank 10 and a Kilkerran Peat in Progress followed.
Soon after, my by then (I’m happy to say) boyfriend offered me a taste of GlenAllachie 10 year old – the cask-strength version. It was the first non-peated whisky I’d tasted that was actually interesting – a deliciously full fruitcake with almost chewy sweetness. Learning about the distillery’s story, too, introduced me to the idea of mothballed distilleries being opened again and being turned from blending donkeys into something wonderful – not that blends can’t be wonderful. I started thinking about how much difference the right people could make to a whisky, why cask selection mattered, and so on. Such romance!
Of this long-snaffled bottle, just one tiny dram remains – we saved it at the time, aiming to build up a library of sorts. Sadly, upon nosing it recently, I discovered an overwhelming smell of soap – specifically, the kind your grandmother kept in her bathroom. Alas and alack, some contamination seems to have taken place. Fairy liquid plus fruitcake equals an old lady’s soap, I guess? I shall have to make do with this indie version to take me back to my first experience of GlenAllachie.
“Glenallachie is one of the 40-odd distilleries scattered around the countryside below the imposing bulk of Ben Rinnes, the mountain that waters many of them with its countless burns and rivers. The distillery is also one of the latest and its buildings, while neat and tidy, are angular and characterless; as one writer pinpointed it, from a distance you could mistake Glenallachie for a motel.”
This independent bottling came out about a year after Batch 1 of the official Glenallachie Cask Strength in 2018 – the distillery having been recently revived by Billy Walker et al in 2017. Given the availability, un-ridiculous price, and integrity presentation of the official Glenallachie Cask Strength these days, this expression wouldn’t perhaps be the first to be bottled independently now – albeit, as has been discussed frequently on Dramface of late, batch variation can be, often is, everything. Be that as it may, as the review below reveals, I’m very glad someone saw fit to fill the niche when they did.
So, how does this independent version behave and compare to my first experience of this category of liquid? The label, which I’ve already mentioned, is in striking contrast to GlenAllachie’s normal branding. We’ve gone from a Disney film font and an autumnal jumper colour scheme to something that looks like a hipster t-shirt – the colours are even appropriately faded. I enjoy when independent bottlings enchant you visually through the unusual and unknown, contrasting with OBs’ usual reliance on instant recognition of label, typeface and, thence, brand.
This is, perhaps, a GlenAllachie to subvert expectations. Will the fierce 66.2% ABV overpower, or will it be warming and lovely and well-integrated? Will this be pure raisin juice, or will we be splitting hairs over very slightly different shades of sherry-bomb?
Review
10yo matured in sherry butts, 2008 vintage, bottled in 2019 at 66.2% ABV
£66 originally, now sold out
So the label doesn’t hurt – it’s very cool indeed. The (natural, I think) colour is what E150a wants to be when it grows up. Time to dive in!
Nose
It’s closed and hot at first, but with a creamy sweetness – like a burnt marshmallow with chilli on top… now there’s an idea. Then woody, vinous notes penetrate, reminiscent of a tannic red wine along with its cork. There’s something weirdly carroty here – I often get notes of bouillon or stock cube, of varying degrees of quality, when first nosing a whisky – I don’t know why. Raisins, dried cranberries, prunes, dates… It’s getting fruitily festive. The sweetness, which is there in spades, is unashamedly spicy and warming, like so much golden syrup. Finally, I detect a slight mushroom undertone.
Palate
Again, there’s that creaminess, which melds with the woodiness – the texture isn’t too toothsome, though. There’s something rum-like about this; I feel like a sailor whose rum ration is doing them some good. The spice feels like nutmeg. The core sweetness, maple sugar, eventually comes through. A bit of apple-like acidity follows, puckering the cheeks. On the finish, that tannic heat coats the mouth. My last impression is of flambéd figs.
The Dregs
This is hot and delicious, not unbalanced despite the ABV (I literally did not think to add water). Indeed, all the non-whisky lovers I’ve offered this to have initially baulked at the heat, and then come to love the dram. It’s a feisty sherried whisky; it demands your attention and takes you on a journey. This is a good one for sipping with friends, but not because it won’t distract you from the conversation – rather, it will create it. This was one bottle of just 150, and I’m sad to see it go – but I’m also inspired to look into Abbey Whisky’s (back) catalogue and see what other distilleries they might offer me a new spin on.
Score: 7/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. GM
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