GlenAllachie 12 yo Winner 2025

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 46% | Chill filtration: No | Colouring: No

Special Features:

The GlenAllachie 12 Year Old centres on maturation in a varied selection of casks with a clear sherry influence. The whisky matures on the distillery grounds in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry casks, red wine casks and Virgin Oak casks made from previously unused oak. This cask selection is integral to the bottling, which represents the distillery’s core range.

In 2025, this twelve-year-old single malt was named World’s Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards. Its full-bodied character combines sweet spices with dark-roasted coffee, cooked apples and cocoa powder. It is bottled at 46% without chill filtration or added colouring. The 0.7-litre bottle comes in gift packaging.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: The nose reveals notes of dark chocolate, dark sugar syrup and heather honey. Cinnamon, espresso and sweet raisins sit in the background.
• Palate: The palate opens with marzipan and orchard fruits. Warming mocha, butterscotch and grated nutmeg follow.
• Finish: The medium-long to long finish feels oily and gently warming.

Distillery/Bottler:

The Speyside distillery GlenAllachie was built in 1967 to designs by William Delmé-Evans and began production in 1968. His design relied largely on gravity to move materials through the process and reduce energy requirements. For many years, the distillery supplied whisky for blends. In 2017, Billy Walker, Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson acquired GlenAllachie from Chivas Brothers; its first single malt core range under their leadership followed in 2018.

Today, GlenAllachie uses eight stainless-steel washbacks and a fermentation time of 160 hours. This long fermentation encourages the formation of esters and other aroma compounds. Double distillation follows. The water used for mashing comes from the Henshead dam on the north-eastern side of Ben Rinnes.

The distillery matures its whisky in its own warehouses on site. Billy Walker and his team regularly taste the maturing whiskies, deciding whether a move to another cask type could add further dimensions or whether the whisky has already reached the desired balance between spirit and cask influence. Cask management is therefore central to their approach.

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