Glenallachie 10-Year-Old Virgin Oak Series: French Oak Single Malt Scotch Whisky

A 10-year-old single malt from GlenAllachie released as part of their virgin oak series. This series is dedicated to exploring the subtle flavour differences that can be reached by utilising different Oak species, amount of air drying, toasting, charring and cooperage.

Matured for most of its life in Ex-Bourbon American oak, before receiving 18-months additional maturation in virgin French Oak (Quercus Robur) sourced from the Haute-Garonne region, near the Pyrenees. The French Oak was selected for its silky tannins, sweet spice and fruit notes: it was air dried for 15 months.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Waves of orange peel, heather honey and soft spice, followed by caramel, orchard fruits and mocha.

Palate: Layers of heather honey, mocha and brittle toffee, with grapefruit, cinnamon, earthy tannins and notes of ginger on the finish.

Founded in 1967, GlenAllachie is part of that flurry of new distillery builds that highlighted the period of great optimism for the Scotch whisky industry. Fuelled by an American market hungry for whisky, the distilleries of this time were designed to accommodate the lighter, drier style that the Americans seemed to prefer. That was certainly true of GlenAllachie, who’s style has always been regarded as light and certainly barley-forward.

GlenAllachie has, up until now, been best known as a blending ingredient of the Chivas Brothers stable. They bought the distillery in 1989, re-opening the Speyside site after it was decommissioned in 1987. Rarely seen as a single malt outside from the odd independent bottling and Chivas limited edition, the house style saw it being used as a vital – though usually anonymous – in a number of blends.

The distillery has taken on a new purpose in the Scotch spectrum following the 2017 purchase by Billy Walker. Walker had sold the BenRiach distillery and its sister sites GlenDronach and GlenAllachie to Brown-Forman for a healthy sum, meaning he was not only on the lookout for a new distillery to play with, but also one that had plenty of stock maturing in warehouses to create new expressions. Launched in 2018, GlenAllachie’s name is taking – for the first time in its history – pride and place on the front of its bottles.