Whisky Review: GlenAllachie 2005 #901042 “Sherry Cask” 15 Year Old

I want to know if this is PX/Oloroso/Ruby or something else, and Mr. Billy Walker usually tells us!

GlenAllachie 2005 Sherry Butt 15 Year Old / 63%

Tasted neat, then with a drop of mineral water

The rather-mysterious label of this single-cask GlenAllachie tells me it was distilled on 25.10.2005, raked into undisclosed sherry butt #901042, and bottled on ??.02.2021 having aged for 15 years. This is bottle 407 of 523.

Sherry-type aside, we do get nice non-chill filtered (NCF) and natural colour designators. It does not state that it is cask strength, but the only other absurdity on the label, the whopping 63.0% ABV, is surely cask strength.

The bottle notes read:

COLOUR: Rich Mahogany.
NOSE: Mocha, vanilla and molasses, with cocoa, almonds, nutmeg and ginger.
TASTE: Layers of dark chocolate, treacle and mocha, with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and orange zest.

• Color: old oak (1.8)
• Nose: sour cream, oak planks, ethanol; musty/humid petrichor, corn chowder soup
• Taste: cinnamon, milk chocolate, cracked leather; dried figs
• Finish: long, orange peel and dry, tannic plums — hint of butyric acid

Having tasted this now, I think it’s definitely been slammed with a wet Oloroso cask.

This is a seriously good sherry bomb; it’s meaty and robust, contains lots of interesting flavours and notes, and isn’t a dud/over-sulphured cask. It just works, so keep the magic coming, Billy!

Rating: 92/100