Glenallachie 1972-2012 - 40 Year Old - Douglas Laing - Directors Cut - Single Cask 8217

Glenallachie is a modern whisky distillery, built in 1967, and until recently was a relatively obscure Speyside workhorse making high quality spirit for former owner Pernod Ricard’s blended whiskies. That all changed in 2017, when Glenallachie was purchased by a consortium headed by Billy Walker following the sale to Brown-Forman of his revived Benriach, Glenglassaugh and Glendronach distilleries. 

Since the takeover, Glenallachie has been revealed to be another hidden gem, and now has a core range of high quality aged expressions, complemented by superb small batch and single cask prestige bottlings. Glenallachie’s spirit is muscular and suited both to sherry casks and long ageing, making the distillery an ideal candidate for Mr Walker’s magic touch. Older official bottlings of Glenallachie turn up sometimes at auction - the best value are the cask strength sherried editions released by Pernod Ricard around 2005-2008.

Founded in the late 1940s by Fred Douglas Laing Sr, the Douglas Laing company spent decades as whisky blenders and exporters before Fred Laing’s sons Stewart and Fred Jr introduced the highly influential Old Malt Cask single malt range in 1998. The McGibbon’s Provenance and Old & Rare Platinum series followed soon afterwards, establishing Douglas Laing as one of Scotland’s finest independent bottlers.

In 2013 Stewart Laing left the business, taking Old Malt Cask and Old & Rare to his new company Hunter Laing, while Fred Laing Jr was joined by his daughter Cara and her husband Chris Leggatt from Morrison Bowmore, who left the business in 2023. The Old Particular and Extra Old Particular ranges were introduced to replace Old Malt Cask and Old & Rare, and the company has since moved into distilling with the purchase of Strathearn distillery in 2019 and the construction of Clutha distillery in Glasgow.