48°
Distillery : The GlenAllachie - Speyside
1st Fill Ex-Bourbon and Chinquapin Virgin Oak Barrels
Original Bottling
Core Range
Single Malt
Launched in 2023
Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured
Peated around 35 ppm
This is the second expression of this new brand designed by Billy Walker, which gives a fine taste of Speyside peat. This time, the whisky was matured partly in top-quality virgin Chinquapin oak casks from the Ozark region of Missouri in the United States, which promises a fine woodiness. The whisky was fermented for 160 hours during the production process, which is a very long time.
Let's Taste It :
As you'd expect, it's very woody, with splinters, roasted nuts, sap and resin, bark, hazelnuts, in short, everything the virgin oak can bring. Fig jam in the background, dark chocolate, forest berries. The palate is a bit light, you can feel the youth, but still vanilla and lemon, white fruits, virtually no spice, which is astonishing. The finish is long but not too aggressive, with a certain woody and fruity sweetness. Earth, warm chestnuts, ferns, forest undergrowth.
In Short,
It's what you'd expect, very well made, and there's none of this unpleasant bitterness you sometimes find in virgin cask ageing. On the other hand, it clearly lacks complexity and even character. The virgin wood has blunted all the other flavours a little. For this reason, I prefer The Original. If you want to buy the whole range, OK, but if you're only going to buy one, it won't be this one. However, the price is still very reasonable.
Score : 87
To Be Listened While Sipping :
Elegy of Madness - Portrait of a Ghost
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