Glenallachie is Gaelic for the "Valley of the Rocks". It is a relatively modern distillery, having only being built in 1967. Glenallachie was founded by Mackinlay-Macpherson (then a subsidiary of Scottish & Newscastle Breweries), primarily to contribute Speyside fillings to the Mackinlay blend, which at that time the Top 5 best seller in the UK. In its short history, Glenallachie has already changed ownership quite a few times. Mackinlay's was sold on to Invergordon Distillers in 1985, and by 1987, the distillery was mothballed. In 1989, Campbell Distillers (Chivas Brothers) buys Glenallachie and production starts again. During the time which Chivas Brothers owned it though, there were not many official bottlings of this single malt released. The first was in 2005 when a cask strength 1989 malt was released.
In 2017, Billy Walker (of the Glendronach, BenRiach & Glenglassaugh fame) and his associates bought Glenallachie from Chivas Brothers, and created The Glenallachie Consortium. Included in the sale were 50,000 casks of maturing whiskies, with stocks dating back to the 1970's. In just a matter of over a year, the change in ownership already started to show. Production has been decreased from 4M litres per annum to 800,000 litres, in order to focus on quality and not just volume. The new Glenallachie has also started to do some peated runs and fermentation time has been increased to an ultra long 160 hours, to encourage flavour development.
In this tasting, our friends at Glenallachie have brought some very special bottles with them. We are starting off with some bottles from their core range, and then moving into some single cask expressions, a lot of these are from their museum collection.
In 2017, Billy Walker (of the Glendronach, BenRiach & Glenglassaugh fame) and his associates bought Glenallachie from Chivas Brothers, and created The Glenallachie Consortium. Included in the sale were 50,000 casks of maturing whiskies, with stocks dating back to the 1970's. In just a matter of over a year, the change in ownership already started to show. Production has been decreased from 4M litres per annum to 800,000 litres, in order to focus on quality and not just volume. The new Glenallachie has also started to do some peated runs and fermentation time has been increased to an ultra long 160 hours, to encourage flavour development.
In this tasting, our friends at Glenallachie have brought some very special bottles with them. We are starting off with some bottles from their core range, and then moving into some single cask expressions, a lot of these are from their museum collection.