The previous Society Glenallachie released last summer focussed on 1st fill sherry (107.24 Oven-ready Moomin) – here we’re keeping it simple with a 9 year old 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel at a notably high bottling strength.
Nose: Cider apples, Battenberg cake and toffee sit alongside menthol, canvas sacking and shortbread. In the background, lightly sugared berries and golden cereals join a scattering of waxed lemon peel. Reduction offers ginger and golden syrup alongside cake mix and planed oak.
Taste: A lovely arrival. Toffee, coffee and pepper morph into a much broader fruit-driven experience with candy apples and pear drops joined by desiccated berries and powdery salinity. The addition of water reveals sunflower oil, burnt toffee, char and a selection of syrupy and candied fruits – lemons, oranges and raspberries.
Finish: Medium with earthy cask char and fading fruit sugars.
This Glenallachie drinks exceedingly well for its ABV – and it likewise becomes much wider ranging and more vividly composed once reduced. The spirit and the cask are really in tune with each other here – resulting in the award of my pick of the month.