NUTELLA OF THE WOODS – Score: 7.5/10
Imagine a jar of hazelnut spread left open on a forest floor, the cocoa mingling with damp bark and fallen nuts. That is roughly where this single cask lands you within seconds of the first sniff, and it is a very pleasant place to be.
GlenAllachie is still something of a newcomer by Speyside standards. Built in 1967 near Aberlour, it was designed by William Delmé-Evans, the architect behind Tullibardine and Jura, and for decades it worked quietly in the shadows, feeding blends for its corporate owners. That changed in 2017, when industry veteran Billy Walker, the man who had already revived BenRiach, GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh, bought the distillery with two partners and began bottling its spirit under its own name. This cask, #4614, was filled in 2010, years before the change of hands, and spent fourteen years maturing before being bottled as a single cask.
In the glass, wood takes the lead, but it never turns harsh or drying. It acts more like a frame for a generous core of milk chocolate and roasted hazelnuts, the kind of nutty sweetness that coats the palate and lingers. The three notes fold into one another so naturally that the whisky feels less like a list of flavours than a single, rounded idea.
Not the most complex dram you will ever pour, perhaps, but a remarkably coherent and gourmand one. It shows what patient wood and a well-chosen cask can draw out of a distillery long hidden inside blends, and it earns its place among the bottles worth opening again.
