Glenallachie 18 Year Old - 2020s

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.

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.