The Glenallachie Virtual Whisky Festival Review

It’s Wednesday once again, and I am back today for another exciting whisky post on a tremendous Virtual Whisky Festival, I took part in two weeks ago.

As a lot of my followers will already know, I have a huge passion for whisky and this really started when me and Isobel got together, her father passed all the knowledge and passion onto me!

I know you can buy your standard whiskies from supermarkets such as Jack Daniels, The Famous Grouse and Bell’s!

But, I love proper whisky, those whiskies which provide enormous amounts of flavour and character, its those type of whiskies which are matured in many different oak barrels and finally its the type of whiskies which are distilled at some of the finest distilleries around the UK!

I am so excited to bring you this post on a Virtual Whisky Festival Review, which was proudly presented by The GlenAllachie Distillery!

Throughout this post, I will be rating each whisky out of ten, one being the worst and ten being the best!

History

In 1967, The GlenAllachie Distillery was the fourth distillery which was designed by William-Delme Evans and was built by Mackinlay McPherson!

Then, in February 1968, GlenAllachie began its first production run with a capacity of producing approximately three million litres of alcohol, this at the time was only using two stills, however, after six months the stills increased to four.

In 1985, sadly the business mothballed, but in 1989 Campbell Distillers acquired The GlenAllachie Distillery and production recommenced on April 24th.

Then, in 2017, three well-knowledged whisky connoisseurs rebranded the distillery and acquired the building and formed The GlenAllachie Distillers Company Limited, and still to this very day the business has been under the same ownership and the distillery continues to produce some of the most amazing whiskies that are around to date.

Whisky Unboxing

In all honestly, I’ve had my Glenallachie whisky samples in my house for quite a few months and because of work, I just couldn’t find the time to try them, but due to the lockdown, I thought it was only right to crack them all open.

Just before lockdown, I managed to acquire my parcel from Isobel’s house, the excitement was kicking inside me because I didn’t know what to expect, it just made me think what was actually going to be in the box.

Below, you can take in my pure excitement as I started unboxing my GlenAllachie Whisky. 

I will have to apologise for the video being in portrait mode, but I do really hope you enjoyed it, as you can probably imagine I seriously couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

GlenAllachie Whisky Samples

Listed below is what came inside my GlenAllachie Tasting Pack, and I will have to admit from reading about them on their website, they all sound absolutely amazing!

• GlenAllachie Rye Wood Finish Aged 9 Years – 48% ABV
• GlenAllachie 12 Years Old – 46% ABV
• GlenAllachie 15 Years Old – 46% ABV
• GlenAllachie 10 Years Old Batch 3 – 58.2% ABV
• 2008 Cask #508 PX Puncheon – 51.8% ABV

Well, what do you think?

Do you like the sound of them? Believe it or not, out of all the whiskies which are produced by the distillery, the five that you can see here are the most popular and customer favourites.

It’s not just the whisky that was packaged, along with the parcel you are provided with a whisky glass which had GlenAllachie imprinted on the side, I mean that’s a total bargain in my eyes, especially for £40.00s

After opening up my whisky collection, I sent out a poll on Instagram for my followers to vote on which whisky they wanted me to try first, and by a huge margin the GlenAllachie 2008 Cask #508 was a winner, but just to keep you all hanging on, I will share you my own personal thoughts at the end of this blog post.

Setting Up

One thing I adore about virtual events is that you can enjoy it in the comfort of your own home, so with it being a quiet Saturday night, I took over our dining room table and got myself ready for the festival to begin.

It’s quite simple to set-up because all you need is a laptop, some water to wash out your glass after each sample and finally most importantly the whisky itself.

The easier you make the setting up, the more you can enjoy the event itself!

Anyway, I think its time for tasting some whisky!

Sample one – GlenAllachie Aged 9 Years – Ryewood Finish

The first whisky to commence the start of the event was the 9-Year-Old Rye Wood finish!

During the distilling process, the whisky is first matured in premium American Oak Wood Barrels and then is re-racked into bold and punchy Kentucky Rye Wood Casks.

A point that I will make is that Ryewood, is rarely used by any distilleries now, it has become so uncommon lately.

Due to the combination of barrels and casks being used, this provides a rich and spicy twist to the classic GlenAllachie style!

The aromas of this whisky, provided a balance of citrus along with malty vanilla flavouring, hints of cinnamon were bursting through, this brought a sense of happiness, just because it made me think of Christmas.

The taste was highly spicy, the spiciness lingered on for minutes after each sip the spiciness became so intense, this made me think of how punchy the cinnamon was. There were enormous amounts of honey and orange peel appearing, so you had a combination of a sweet finish and a spicy finish.

This wasn’t a bad whisky to start off with, however, I must say I did need a fair bit of water to drain away that spiciness which was still on my palate.

Rating – 6/10 

Sample 2 – GlenAllachie 12 Years Old

It was time to move onto the next sample which was the 12 Years Old!

The GlenAllachie 12-year-old is at the heart of the range, a landmark bottling to capture more history from this amazing place.

This Speyside single malt is matured in the finest oloroso casks and is bottled under the careful eye of Master Distiller Billy Walker.

A bronze looking whisky which had aromas of banana, along with a smoky and wooded smell! Hints of mocha and honey can be passed through the nose, at this point, it was turning into the type of whisky I love, highly sweet smells which were ever-lasting.

The flavours were superb, it bought that warm feeling along with a pinch of cinnamon, however, the sweetness from the honey and mocha were the just appealing to me straight away.

There was a gorgeous sweet aftertaste which would indeed leave you wanting more, this whisky was highly moreish!

Rating – 8/10

Sample 3 – GlenAllachie 15 Years

I was at the halfway point now and so far the whiskies that I’ve tried have been amazing, I couldn’t fault any of them!

The next sample was the 15 Years Old GlenAllachie!

This whisky was first launched before the 2nd anniversary since the re-opening of the distillery, and since the start the business has gone from strength to strength, opening up a Visitor Centre and the increase in staff are just some of the most impressive milestones this distillery has achieved so far.

Billy Walker has been working tirelessly on this new expression since day one, evaluating casks and refining recipes to deliver a fantastic whisky.

The 15-Year-Old whisky has been matured in PX Sherried Casks and this delivers a sunset bronze appearance when pouring into the glass.

On the nose there were sensational sweet spices along with an indulging vanilla/raisin feel, it smelt perfect!

The taste was just as perfect, orange peel and dark chocolate, this made me think of Terry’s Chocolate Orange straight away, along with complex rum flavour with hints of butterscotch.

I have to admit if you are looking for a Christmas drink, then this is the whisky to sample, this whisky delivered everything to do with Christmas, the frosty mornings, warming mince pies and the blazing fire.

Rating – 9/10

Sample 4 – GlenAllachie 10 Years Batch 3– This Link responds to Batch 4 (New Series) 

The next whisky is a series of Cask Strength limited edition whiskies that have been produced and distilled by the distillery.

The idea of producing a range of different cask strength whiskies is to visualise what the finish of each batch would look like, this can be experimented by using a variety of different casks to find a promising result.

There were divine aromas of vanilla along with honey, as well as a pinch of dark chocolate, the chocolate appeared more as I kept swerving the glass around.

If you thought the aromas were amazing, the taste took it to the next level, lashings of raisin, treacle and dark chocolate was piling onto the palate.

This whisky was WOW, there is no other word to describe it!

Rating – 9.5/10

Sample 5 – GlenAllachie 2008 Cask #508

The GlenAllachie 2008 #508 was first distilled in July 2008 and then matured in a single Pedro Ximenez (PX) cask for more than a decade. 

This outstanding, limited-edition whisky was bottled in February 2020, and according to the distillery, there have only been 773 bottles produced. 

It’s now time for the final whisky of the evening, and the reason being I’ve left this one until last is because I have done my own tasting video on this impressive whisky, I am genuinely looking forward to showing you this small clip, so I really hope you enjoy it!

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The flavours for this whisky were just spectacular, it was slightly sherried, which filled the glass up with sweetness. 

Hints of chocolate were peeling through along with a fruity taste of apricot, this whisky was perfect in every way shape and form! 

Rating – 10/10  

I think you can clearly tell from my smile, I was really enjoying this whisky and what a way to end the night! 

One of the most beautiful Single Malts, I have ever sampled in my whole life! 

Ending 

Just like that, the GlenAllachie Virtual Whisky Festival has come to an end, I have thoroughly enjoyed it so much and the samples which were on offer were all fantastic. 

However, we do have a winner and I can honestly tell you the whisky which was the most outstanding and impressive was the 2008 Cask PX #508, so I would highly recommend you all to try it and let me know your own personal thoughts. 

I do really hope that The GlenAllachie Distillery will do another Virtual Whisky Event in the future because in my opinion, they’re so much fun and you can have a great laugh. 

I really hope you’ve all enjoyed this post and that it’s potentially made yourself want to take part in Virtual Event. 

Enjoy the rest of your week and if you have any questions on any of the whiskies that I’ve sampled, please do leave them in the comments!

Cheers 

The Cask Connoisseur