Whisky Review #2: The GlenAllachie 12 Year
It's a beautiful sunny day here in the UK and for once I've got it off, and what better way to spend the afternoon than sipping on a whisky in the garden with some music playing?
I'm traditionally an Islay drinker and when I decided earlier this year that I wanted to start learning more about whisky and expanding my tastes my first stop was Speyside, a decision largely driven by the fact that my fiancée has shown an interest in Scotch recently and her favourite band have a song called Speyside. After some googling I came to the decision that this would be a good entry-level example of the Speyside style.
Bottled: 2025? I'm still figuring out how to read bottles. The code etched on this is L 09 10 25
Cask Type: Nothing stated on the bottle, but Whisky Base lists Pedro Ximènez and Oloroso
Stated Age: 12 years
Strength: 46% ABV
Price Paid: £43.95
Served: Neat in a Glencairn, rested for 15 minutes in the sun (mainly because I forgot it was there)
Nose: Cocoa and toffee apples,
Palette: Warm chocolate, caramel
Finish: Bitter and tannic
It took me a while to get anything other than "generic whisky smell" from the nose but I did pick out some chocolate notes and a little sweet fruit that reminded me of toffee apples. I certainly don't get any of the treacle, espresso, cinnamon, or sticky raisins that the notes on the bottle tell me to expect. Compared to the Hibiki 12 I reviewed over the weekend it's a much more simple, straightforward whisky.
This has a really lovely, treacley mouth feel. It's rich and warm, though not particularly complex - a burst of chocolate and sweet caramel, but not a lot else. It's hot but not overpowering, and the flavours are immediate and reach up into your nose.
A long finish on this, lingering long after you're done. There's not much flavour in the finish, mainly a sense of bitterness, maybe a touch of saline, and really grippy tannins that grabbed onto my bottom gums and wouldn't let go.
Overall I'd say I enjoyed it but didn't love it. It's an easy, daily drinker, but nothing to write home about and not something that inspires me to want to explore GlenAllachie further. Is that just the whisky, or is it that I don't have strong feelings about the Speyside style in general? I don't know - I guess I'll have to try some more offerings from the region to find out.
I'm still not comfortable giving scores so I'm going to use my Yum/Meh/Yuck scale and give this a Yum-. It's fine.