Glenallachie 2008 Octaves Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Have you ever heard of an Octave cask?

Maybe not.

Have you ever heard of Glenallachie?

You might have, if you paid attention to whisky news circles. It was bought recently by the team that turned Glendronach and BenRiach into those hype hugging, single cask canoodling distilleries that we all love to love.

But they sold them. And now they have Glenallachie. But the whisky isn’t due out until next year. Luckily, there’s plenty of indies to try and this is one such whisky.

It was finished in a Sherry Octave cask, which is much smaller than a regular cask or barrel (around 50L).

Glenallchie 2008 Octaves 54.1%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Old school Macallan-ish, very lovely malty notes, honey, beeswax, very nice nose. Orange.

Taste: Intense, malty, honey, beeswax, some chocolate, loads of orange, rubbery Sherry and spicy ginger, black pepper.

Finish: Medium length. A little harsh, heather and lots of chocolate.

Great nose, taste and finish don't quite live up to it. Still, good stuff and a great alternative to Macallan IMO, similar style.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #469

Whisky Network Review #536

Network Average: 74.3

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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