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Day 2 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 2, 2025

by Evan

We are back on the blog for Day 2 of Kensington Wine Market’s 2025 Still Not An Advent Calendar tastings. Today, we will be diving into the GlenAllachie 15 Year Old.

One could argue that this isn’t a tremendous shift in style versus the SMWS Glenfarclas we just tasted on Day One. Perhaps that is a fair assessment. Both that bottle and this GlenAllachie 15 Year are sherry-driven drams from distilleries that have a heavy focus on the use of sherry casks for maturing their whisky. Also, they both start with Glen and reside in the Speyside region of Scotland. What are the odds!?! We will get to tasting this dram in a bit to see if it is a veritable clone of Day One’s dram. My guess is that it won’t be, but who knows at this point? Let’s talk about GlenAllachie before we find out.

Compared to Glenfarclas, the GlenAllachie Distillery is quite young. This plucky newcomer wasn’t even around when the Pattison Whisky Crisis nearly made Glenfarclas fold. Glenallachie Distillery was founded only last century, in 1967, by a subsidiary of the Scottish & Newcastle Company. The distillery started producing spirit in 1968 and operated for nearly two decades until it was purchased and mothballed by Invergordon Distillers in 1985. The distillery was sold to Campbell Distillers in 1989 and restarted production. Campbell Distillers eventually became part of the company now known as Pernod Ricard. Under Pernod Ricard’s slash Chivas Brothers' wing, Glenallachie’s output was used almost entirely for blending, but that would change significantly in 2017.

8 years ago, on October 2nd of 2017, a group headed by Billy Walker. His first order of business? To capitalize the A in GlenAllachie in a similar move to what he pulled off previously at the BenRiach and GlenDronach distilleries. It must be some sort of fetishistic impulse. The man must be stopped! The next move in Billy’s playbook, of course, was to improve the whisky creation and maturation regime at the distillery and focus on getting the best sherry casks possible to mature GlenAllachie’s whisky in.

A lot of time was spent carefully checking the distillery’s stock of maturing whisky inventory and re-racking a good deal of it in newer or better casks. This has been paying off tremendously over the near decade of Billy Walker & co’s stewardship of the distillery and launching of GlenAllachie as a serious Single Malt Scotch Whisky brand.

GlenAllachie Distillery is located Aberlour, Scotland. It is only about a 7-minute drive North and East from Glenfarclas Distillery, along the A95. Its closest neighbours include Aberlour Distillery itself, which is just another few minutes drive North and East on the A95. Being in the heart of Speyside means there are plenty of other distilleries nearby as well. Head off for a jaunt in any direction from GlenAllachie and you are likely to stumble onto another distillery in short order. Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Dailuaine, Dalmunuch, Tamdhu, Macallan, and many more are all not too far away.

We did feature the GlenAllachie 15 Year Old in a previous KWM Whisky Calendar, nearly five years ago. It was featured on Day 18 in the KWM 2020 Whisky Calendar. How much has changed for this bottle in the past half decade? How much has your and my palate evolved? Can this possibly hold up to a sherry infused nostalgia I, personally, held for that bottling? Let’s find out.

GlenAllachie 15 Year – 46%

From The Producer:

"This spectacular Scotch whisky embodies our unwavering dedication to obtaining Sherry wood of the highest standard. A watchful eye throughout the maturation journey ensures the whisky is bottled at its optimum.

With an intense mahogany hue, this single malt exudes sheer indulgence with layers of cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla toffee and dark chocolate.

We proudly present The GlenAllachie 15-year-old with integrity; at a high strength of 46%, without added colouring or chill filtration, enabling its true charm to shine through."

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Eatmore bar, dark chocolate and dried fruit leather (and hints of actual leather) all over the place. A touch of espresso in the mix as well.

Palate: Heavy sherry and Tawny Port notes along with dark chocolate ganache, dried apricots, dates, maple syrup, cloves, Kahlua coffee Liqueur, some spice and an underlying acidity.

Finish: Dry and leathery with a lingering richness. Pralines and nuttiness on the long, slow fade.

Comment: As I said when I wrote notes for a batch of the GlenAllachie 15 half a decade ago: If you are an unabashed lover of heavily sherried single malt and you have not had this, then you need to change that now. I stand by that assertion, and so does this bottle.

My notes for this GlenAllachie 15 are not far off the notes I wrote 5 years ago. Either my writing is consistent or this whisky is. My bet is on the whisky. While The GlenAllachie 15 has not changed to much, I have to say the GlenAllachie 12 Year Old has over the past 5 years. It is gotten a lot closer to the 15 year in style, and is definitely worth a taste as well!

Cheers,
Evan

evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com

This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM 2025 Still Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

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