Glenallachie 9 year old 2008 SMWS 107.13

I'm going to pause the Glenallachie OB reviews to try a pair of 2008 flame throwers from the indies. Both were aged in Oloroso butts, and were probably sibling casks at some point. The first one is a 9 year old single cask torch bottled by SMWS for the 2018 Spirit of Speyside Festival. Being that the distillery's filling strength is 63.5%abv, I'm guessing that a hot & humid warehouse corner resulted in the 9yo's 65%abv. Or the spirit went into the cask at a higher strength than usual. No matter what, I have water on hand.

Distillery: Glenallachie

Ownership: The GlenAllachie Distillers Company Ltd

Region: Speyside (Aberlour)

Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Age: 9 years old (26 Aug 2008 - 2018)

Maturation: refill Oloroso butt

Cask #: 107.13, "Andalusian gazpacho"

Outturn: 624 bottles

Bottled for: Spirit of Speyside Festival 2018

Alcohol by Volume: 65.0%

(from a bottle split)

NEAT

The lively nose leads with a lot of chocolate up front, and cherry juice and dried currants right behind. It picks up hints of leather and pipe tobacco after 15 minutes. At ~30 minutes, new notes of amaretto and Twizzlers appear. The palate is indeed warm, but approachable and sweet, with crème de cassis, cherry macarons, Twizzlers, and cinnamon. Its finish matches the palate to a T, though it does numb the tongue a little.

DILUTED to ~50%abv, or 1¾ tsp of water per 30mL whisky

The nose stays vivid, while changing its colors: blueberries, dried currants, vanilla fudge, dark chocolate, shoe polish, and a hint of toasted oak spice. The palate stays sweet, but with new notes. It's slightly rummy and gingery, with cinnamon rolls, raspberries, and oak spices registering loudly. It finishes with dried blueberries, fresh ginger, and toffee.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

This may be the first ≥65%abv baby whisky that I've thoroughly enjoyed. The nose's vibrancy never lets slip any raw ethyl notes, while packing in piles of character. Sure it's a dessert whisky, but the palate appealed to this non-sweet-tooth. I'm not sure what SMWS could have done with this cask other than to shift it to nearly neutral hoggies, or just bottle it like they did. Any more time in this "refill" sherry butt would have driven the whisky over the edge. Now, onto an even hotter cask...

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - less than €100
Rating - 85