Torabhaig The Legacy Series - Allt Gleann - 2021 Release

Torabhaig is an independently-owned distillery founded on the Isle of Skye in 2016 by the blenders and bottlers Mossburn Distillers. Torabhaig began production in 2017 and is a small farmstead distillery with a quality-focused production process, wooden washbacks, two stills and an annual production capacity of around 500,000 litres per annum. 

As only the second distillery on Skye, Torabhaig attracts inevitable comparisons with famous neighbour Talisker, particularly as Torabhaig’s spirit is also peated - the distillery’s style is referred to as ‘Well-Tempered Peat’. Torabhaig’s Inaugural Release single malt whisky and its follow-up Torabhaig Legacy Allt Gleann appeared in 2021 as the first releases in the Legacy series, a planned roadmap leading to the distillery’s first 10-year-old bottling, which is currently scheduled for 2028.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.