Three new Virgin Oak from GlenAllachie

Speyside-based GlenAllachie Distillery has just announced the debut of three new editions of whisky, each of which has undergone a finishing maturation in fresh oak casks. In each of the three cases it was oak of a completely different type. The distillery's offerings include:

GlenAllachie 15yo Scottish Virgin Oak Finish
GlenAllachie 10yo French Virgin Oak Finish
GlenAllachie 10yo Chinquapin Virgin Oak Finish

All three were bottled as liquors with a strength of 48% vol., without caramel coloring and without cold filtering. All three, the producer says, are a testament to the mastery of whisky maturation techniques achieved by distillery owner Billy Walker. All three editions began maturation in bourbon refill barrels before being transferred to appropriate Walker-selected barrels for about 18 months. The differences in the flavor profiles of the different editions are due to the species of oak, but also to the influence of the environment in which these oaks grew, the period of drying the oak in the open air in that environment, as well as the degree of roasting or firing of the individual barrels.

In Billy Walker's own words, studying the effects of fresh oak on GlenAllachie whisky has become his true passion in recent years. In his opinion, fresh oak is still not used often enough in the Scottish distilling industry, and this is something the GlenAllachie team aims to change. Its greatest pride is the edition subjected to a finish in fresh Scottish oak barrels. It should be emphasized that this wood is extremely rare and expensive to harvest, which makes the GlenAllachie 15yo Scottish Virgin Oak whisky all the more unique and valuable.

The oak referred to in English as Chinquapin, used for the additional maturation of the last whiskey mentioned above, is the following Quercus muehlenbergii, a variety that occurs naturally in Canada and the central and eastern United States.

All three new editions will be available any day now in specialty aging liquor stores. These are, naturally, limited editions, so they probably won't take their place there for long. Their retail prices have been set at £175 for the 15-year-old and £61.99 for each of the 10-year-olds.

GlenAllachie is a relatively young distillery, first launched in 1967, producing a whisky that is delicate and fruity in character. For most of its existence, it produced only distillates used for blended whisky blending, and the first edition of a local single malt whisky did not take place until 2005, when the distillery was owned by Chivas Brothers. The turning point for GlenAllachie came in 2017, when Chivas decided to sell the distillery to a consortium headed by - and still standing today - the aforementioned Billy Walker, a legend of the Scottish distilling industry. Since then, GlenAllachie's market offensive has begun, and with successive editions of the whisky available on the market, it is gaining new admirers and convincing skeptics of its appeal.

The House of Whisky Online offers a whole range of whiskies from under the GlenAllachie banner, including mainly those selected and bottled by Billy Walker, although not only. We invite you to visit.


[22.03.2022 / photo: GlenAllachie]