Billy Walker is like the king of whisky making. He has been doing incredible "uisgebeathas" for a long time. To be precise, he has been making whisky for 50 long years. Nowadays he owns one of the arguably best distilleries in the world, The GlenAllachie, which has earned that reputation because of this member of the whisky Hall of Fame. That is the proper explanation for my next review, the 4 year old, "Future" expression of GlenAllachie. A Peated single malt for the first time in this distillery's history; it honours the 50th anniversary of Billy Walker making the finest single malts in the world. Bottled at cask strength, 60.2%abv, this very young whisky is quite intriguing. On the nose, almost perfect. Smoked oranges, bacon, honey, BBQ sauce. Sausage, ribs and a nice spiciness. It maintains the fruity profile of GlenAllachie but it also has an aromatic peat feeling. After a sip, the aroma changed into lotion for burnt skin, kerosene and meat. Incredibly stuff. The empty glass gave me some milky reminiscense. On the palate, pure perfection. orange marmalade, chocolate. When you "chew" this dram a powerful red hot chilli will be released into your soul. Vanilla, toffee and oranges. Aftertaste is quite smokey! Tobacco, cuban cigars, orange peels. Very acid in a wonderful way. Hints of salt. Overall, this was incredible, specially when we stop ourselves for a second to think that this single malt is only 4 years old. It is called "Future" as a part of the 50th Anniversary collection, that has other two 16yo expressions: Past and Present. This is a "wink" or a hint where this distillery is going from now on. An amazing single malt, suitable to celebrate 5 decades of wonderful whisky making. My score for it is 98 over 100, Sláinte Mhath!
GlenAllachie 4 Year Peated Single Malt (Billy Walker 50th Anniversary Future Edition)
About this bottle
This is the third and final release in GlenAllachie's 50th Anniversary The Past, Present, and Future series which is a tribute to Master Distiller Billy Walker and his 50-year-long career. Representing The Future, this whisky is the first release to be created under Walker leadership since his takeover in 2017 —and the first peated distillate from the distillery — and reflect his updated production methods. It was made using mainland peat from St. Fergus that was kilned at 80ppm. After distillation it was matured for 4 years in ex-rye, ex-bourbon, and virgin casks and bottled at a cask strength of 60.2% ABV without chill filtration. Only 10,000 bottles are available globally as of September 2022. (SRP £80/$90)
Reviews
Showing the most detailed of 3 parsed reviews.
(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Whisky Tasting, 08 October 2022). Nose: Hot/spicy/alcoholic, fruit and nut, burned wood, apple, hairspray, peat Palate: 'Hot', wet peat, toasted oak, nutty, toffee, vanilla Finish: Long finish. Nutty, pipe smoke, damp peat, toffee, burned wood, sweet and dry on the aftertaste. 160hr fermentation time 1 of 10,000 bottles (worldwide) Ex-rye, bourbon and virgin oak casks Interesting, hot and a bit numbing. Loads of peat and wood smoke. The layers are fantastically diverse. Not necessarily an easy drinker, more of a chin-scratching "interesting" dram than one you'd choose to keep going back to. I would never have guessed that this was a GlenAllachie if it was a blind tasting - very little of their typical character. Came second out of the six drams, with 27% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 80% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.
This definitely needs, and can take a lot of water. I have no problem drinking higher, cask strength whiskies but occasionally run across one that really only shines with water. Nose has smoke and red fruits and neat it is just very rough and youthful. Took a second adding of water and then it rounded/smoothed out with much better integration of smoke and juicy re fruits and hint of savory note. Worth taking time with this one 👍
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