Hello Everyone. I'm back. I was on summer holiday with my girlfriend in Greece, on the island of Zakynthos. Well, what can I say? It was amazing. As always I will be showing you a few pictures I took during my holiday at the end of the article. Make sure to check them out.

Today I will be reviewing a whisky that I didn't like at all in the past. Well, before the rebranding they did. I never really liked the Flintstones type of label, nor the whisky that was inside those bottles. The new one is much much better when it comes to the label, but did the whisky change? Let me quote myself from an older article that you can find HERE. "GlenAllachie is a distillery I still can't 100% like. What they do is very controversial to me. For one there is the matter of their limited Cask Strength bottlings that consists of over 100.000 bottles lately and they still call it limited. Or for example I just can't stand their core range. I only like the 15 year old. The 12-18 is just too acidic for me from the Rioja & Virgin Oak casks." I still stand by this. This is a distillery that is still very very controversial to me. I have heard rumors about many things that go on inside this distillery and their business practices, but I won't be getting into those because without hard proof it would be mere conjuncture. And we are better than that. I am curious if I will like the 12 year old now because it doesn't have the Virgin Oak casks now in the mix as it did before. HOOOORAY. Let's get into it.

About the distillery

GlenAllachie distillery is a Speyside, single malt whisky distillery at Aberlour founded in 1967, which sits at the foot of Ben Rinnes.

Previously, the distillery mainly produced whisky for blends however has since been relaunched as a distillery known for its fruity, single malt expressions. The GlenAllachie distillery was built in 1967 by Mackinlay McPherson. It was bought and mothballed by Invergordon Distillers in 1985. They sold it to Campbell Distillers in 1989, who restarted the distillery. In July 2017, it was announced that Chivas Brothers agreed to sell GlenAllachie to former BenRiach MD Billy Walker, Trisha Savage and ex-Inver House Distillers MD Graham Stevenson, who came together to form The GlenAllachie Distillers Company. It is now one of Scotland's few independently owned and managed distilleries. In 2024, the distillery carried out a rebranding. This gave the bottlings a new look and limited special bottlings were henceforth summarised under the name "Wood Collection". The rebranding also introduced the slogan "whisky in good hands".

"WHISKY IN GOOD HANDS"

At The GlenAllachie, each decision in creating our award-winning Speyside single malt Scotch whisky merges logic with instinct. In the experienced hands of legendary whisky maker Billy Walker, a culture of precision, patience and perseverance has been instilled in his small yet accomplished team of whisky experts.

The building of the GlenAllachie distillery was designed by S. Lothian Barclay from Lothian, Barclay Jarvis & Boys and William Delme-Evans. It is located at the foot of Ben Rinnes, close to the Lour burn. The grounds has ponds that are fed by the Lour, that provide water for cooling. In June 2023, the distillery completed the £600,000 upgrade of the visitor centre.

The distillery draws its water from spring fed and snow water fed streams on the North East of Ben Rinnes. Although the distillery has the capacity to produce 4 million litres of alcohol (LOA), they have reduced their production to just 500,000 LOA and extended their fermentation time to 160 hours. The distillery uses a semi-lauter mash tun, and six stainless steel washbacks. It uses two lantern shaped wash stills, and two onion shaped spirit stills for distillation.

GlenAllachie 12 year old - Natural Color, Non-Chill filtered, 46%

"This acclaimed unpeated Speyside single malt is a drinks cabinet staple that showcases our independent approach. Our flagship bottling is founded on our core philosophy: exceptional wood is key to creating superlative whisky.

With satisfyingly complex yet perfectly balanced flavours of sweet spice, dark roasted coffee, stewed apples and cocoa powder, it's a full-bodied whisky that can be enjoyed your way.

We proudly present The GlenAllachie 12-year-old with integrity; at a high strength of 46%, without added colouring or chill filtration, allowing the quality to speak for itself."

Nose: Wow. Not what I had expected. It's not your tyipcal sherry bomb. It has a very prominent and strong wood note with various spices such as cinnamon and cardamom. Then dried fruits appear in the form of figs, raisins and dates. Lots of chocolate. A hint of vanilla and sticky toffee with honey. Very very sweet. A hint of espresso and black pepper. At the very back of the nose a hint of citrus can be found. Off to a great start eh?

Taste: Syrupy, thick and oily. Just what I expected here. A very strong note of heather honey. Oak and pine nuts. Dried raisins, figs and dates. Cinnamon, cardamom and liquorice. Milk & dark chocolate. Espresso. Vanilla and sugar. Very malty. The distillery character (if there is one) is all but lost to the influence of the Oloroso & PX casks that are used here. It's sweet but not as fruity as you might think it is, it also has a few sour notes that are not really bothering but rather they try to balance the sweetness of the whisky. It has multiple layers and a great depth.

Finish: Medium length. Very sticky, sweet. Honey, marmalade, caramelized oranges and figs. Espresso and dry oak with pine nuts. Spicy and dry at the end. Great.

Overall I think this whisky changed. And FOR ME it changed for the better. I really enjoy the new flavor profile that it offers. With that said, this is still a whisky that I might not re-purchase. It is good, but not that good. I will give this whisky a solid 85 / 100. I think it is worth a try, and it is a great whisky for non-beginner whisky drinkers. For the price you get a complex and layered whisky. Enjoy it.

Zakynthos, Greece

The island of Zakynthos is truly remarkable. It has amazing beaches, great restaurants and lovely people. We took 2 boat tours during our stay. One of them took us to the south of the island to spot turtles and the other boat took us all around the island (around 110 km) to see amazing coastline and beaches including the shipwreck on Navaggio beach. Just take a look at these breathtaking photos that were taken either by my girlfriend or me.

Some pictures in this article are not owned by me, I tagged their owner and I attached a link of their site. All other pictures that have my logo on them are TAKEN AND OWNED BY ME.

Follow me on Instagram for more pictures and stories, and to get notified of my new articles, content there as soon as possible. HERE.

Check out the points on all the whiskies I've rated and ranked head-to-head over HERE.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. To many more. Sláinte.