Glenallachie Tasting with Whisky Expert - Johny Ralph of Vanguard Luxury Brands
Join us for another Glenallachie tasting, brought to you in collaboration with Vanguard Luxury Brands (distributors of Glenallachie in Australia). 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.
The Glenallachie brand has grown from strength to strength in the last 4 years, and it is getting harder to get any of the older age statements. Last year saw the first release of the Glenallachie 30yo. This year, they are back with Batch 2 and because allocations for Australia were so small, only bars had access to them. Therefore do not miss this chance to taste this very special bottle. We will also be comparing two different batches of the 10yo Cask Strength and 3 bottlings from the Virgin Oak Series. To top things up, Johny has brought out from his personal stash, a very rare bottling of Adelphi Glenallachie that was released in 2017.
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.
The Glenallachie brand has grown from strength to strength in the last 4 years, and it is getting harder to get any of the older age statements. Last year saw the first release of the Glenallachie 30yo. This year, they are back with Batch 2 and because allocations for Australia were so small, only bars had access to them. Therefore do not miss this chance to taste this very special bottle. We will also be comparing two different batches of the 10yo Cask Strength and 3 bottlings from the Virgin Oak Series. To top things up, Johny has brought out from his personal stash, a very rare bottling of Adelphi Glenallachie that was released in 2017.