The future of whisky according to Billy Walker
In May of this year, Billy Walker, now in charge of the Glenallachie distillery team, inaugurated a celebration of his half-century of work in the Scottish distilling industry. At the time, the first of the announced three whiskeys to honor the anniversary was released. It was Glenallachie 16yo matured entirely in sherry casks and bottled as cask strength. This first edition was called Past Edition. Later, in July, a second edition was released, also a 16-year-old Glenallachie, this time finished in Mizunara oak casks. This one was referred to as Present Edition.
The time has come for an edition dedicated to the future.
Glenallachie 4yo Future Edition is a whisky that came entirely from the hand of Billy Walker. It is a beverage made on a base of high-temperature, heavily smoked barley malt (80 ppm), matured in rye whiskey barrels, bourbon barrels and fresh oak barrels. Bottled as cask strength, which in this case is 60.2% vol., without cold filtration and without the addition of colored caramel. Edition limited to 10,000 bottles, of which the purchase of a single one is an expense of £80.
According to the producer, the new whisky from Glenallachie offers notes of beeswax, dried fruits and hazelnuts in the bouquet, as well as accents of smoldering oak, dark chocolate and apples with cinnamon. In the taste we should detect notes of cinnamon-soaked pears, roasted almonds, heather honey, pipe tobacco, followed by hints of smoky barley, vanilla toffee and orchard fruit.
It should be emphasized that this is the first time we are dealing with a whisky made entirely under the guidance of Billy Walker, after he took over the Glenallachie distillery in Speyside and made sweeping changes to the production process. As a result, they meant a reduction in production of about 80%, and consequently greater care in the entire process. One of the changes made was to extend the fermentation time to as much as 160 hours, which was expected to have a positive impact on the final quality of the whisky by allowing the production of an ester-rich distillate. Billy Walker also introduced the production of whisky based on peaty, smoky distillate, for about 6 weeks a year.
Glenallachie is one of dozens of Scotch malt whisky producers located in the Speyside region. It was founded in 1967, in response to the first signs of a resurgent Scotch whisky boom. The crisis of the 1980s, which caused the closure of quite a number of distilleries, also forced the closure of Glenallachie in 1987, but just two years later it found a new owner (Pernod Ricard), obtained investment in expansion and restarted production. For most of its history, Glenallachie has served as a producer of malt ingredients for blends, so editions of whisky from the distillery have appeared infrequently on the market, primarily through independent distributors. The situation changed dramatically in 2017, when Glenallachie was purchased by The Glenallachie Consortium, founded specifically for this purpose and headed by Billy Walker, who was just celebrating his anniversary. The very next year, more and more single malt whisky editions began to arrive on the market, branded by the new owner. These were, naturally, distillates produced by Billy Walker's predecessors, which is why the debut of the new whisky described here, already fully produced under new management, is so significant.
Billy Walker became known to a wider circle of whisky lovers when he and a group of friendly investors bought the Benriach distillery, followed by Glendronach and finally Glenglassaugh. Of the three, two almost didn't exist commercially until our hero took care of them. The same was true of Glenallachie, which he bought in 2017, having previously sold the first three to American conglomerate Brown Forman.
In the current offer of the House of Whisky Online, you can always find a wide selection of whisky from Glenallachie distillery. We invite you to visit.
[21.09.2022 / photo: Glenallachie]