Hi everyone,
Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas break and/or New Year! Hopefully many decent drams were consumed and shared.
Let’s start 2019 as we mean to go on, by continuing to give fair but objective reviews of whiskies.
We’ll start with a new Glenallachie and I’ll be honest, I was super excited when Billy Walker bought another distillery. Benriach, Glendronach, Glenglassaugh were all fantastic whiskies, very innovative with lots of interesting casks, single cask releases that blew our minds. It was time to see what Billy Walker would make of Glenallachie!
And yet, when it came out, the initial reviews were quite average. The first single casks were super expensive and then the age statement range came out and I realised I didn’t really care that much. I didn’t feel the need to buy a bottle straight away. ‘I’ll try it when I try it’ I thought…
Glenallachie 10 Cask Strength Batch 2 54.8%
Colour: Gold
Body: Full
Nose: Quite raw with sharp alcohol at first. Barley mash, lemon, a tiny balsamic note, orange blossom. A very natural nose that stays true to the distillery character but isn’t particularly complex.
Water: You can tame the abv with water but it remains stubbornly simple.
Taste: Sour orange citrus and barley forward spirit, quite spirity and raw but, again, true to the distillery character.
Water: Softer but still simple with barley, orange and oak.
Finish: Long length. Raw spice, oak and spirit. Quite a harsh finish. Better with balance with water.
There's something quite endearing about a whisky that’s so honest... Some dislike Mr. Walker for his WalkerizingTM of whiskies by dumping them in Sherry or wine casks, completely masking the original style of the spirit. To be fair, that really isn’t the case here but the spirit character just wasn’t that great to begin with IMO (Do remember as well that 10 years ago the distillery was making whisky for blends like Chivas). I am left thinking that the new Glenallachie isn’t necessarily the golden goose I thought it would be.
65/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Review #716
Whisky Network Review #853
Network Average: 75.1
Best Score: 94
Worst Score: 12
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 I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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