The Gift of Time
GlenAllachie
Imagine being given the gift of time. What could you do with that? Well, there is a chap in Scotland who has effectively been given exactly that gift. His name is Billy Walker – sadly no relative of mine that I can trace – when he and two partners (Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson) bought the Glenallachie distillery in 2017. The deal included a warehouse full of slowly maturing whisky meaning that the new owners were not starting from scratch. In fact, some of the casks in the warehouses were filled back in the 1970’s.
And in only 6 years, they have been able to release a core range that includes a 10-year-old Cask Strength, 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 18-year-old, 21-year-old Cask Strength, and 30-year-old Cask Strength. Now that is the gift of whisky time!
The distillery lies at the heart of the Speyside, at the foot of Ben Rinnes close to the town of Aberlour. The distillery’s water supply is drawn from dam heads just over 2 miles from the distillery, on the Northeast side of Ben Rinnes. Blackstank dam is the largest of the two and provides the cooling water, whilst Henshead dam is much smaller and provides the process water.
The History of GlenAllachie
Glenallachie is not an old distillery, being founded in 1968. It was the fourth distillery designed by William-Delme Evans and built by Mackinlay McPherson (distilling arm of Scottish and Newcastle). In February 1968, the distillery began its first production run with the capacity of producing almost three million litres of alcohol. Operations began with two stills and increased to four after just six months. In 1985, Mackinlay McPherson became part of Invergordon and the distillery was almost immediately mothballed. Campbell Distillers (later part of Pernod Ricard) acquired the distillery in 1989 and production recommenced on April 24th.
The GlenAllachie Distillers Company Limited
In 2017 Billy Walker teamed up with Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson to acquire the GlenAllachie Distillery from Chivas Brothers (the whisky arm of Pernod Ricard) and form The GlenAllachie Distillers Company Limited, bringing with them over 100 years of industry knowledge and expertise. Billy Walker sold his previous distilleries – BenRiach, GlenDronach and GlenGlassaugh – to American spirits giant Brown-Forman in 2016 for £285 million.
Their first move was to raise the A in the name to a capital letter to match what Billy had done at his previous distilleries. GlenAllachie was born as an independent distillery. His second move was to start sorting through the tens of thousands of single malt whisky casks that had been steadily maturing in the 16 warehouses on the site.
Billy is hands-on. He continually evaluates the aging spirit and re-racks into new wood to deliver additional layers of complexity. With an annual wood budget of over £2million, Billy hand-picks the finest casks to elevate and perfectly complement the fruity, yet complex GlenAllachie spirit, creating exceptional quality whiskies that are enjoyed around the globe.
About Billy Walker
Billy’s whisky career began in 1972 at Hiram Walker & Sons – the company behind Ballantine’s at the time – where his role covered almost all aspects of production. After four years, he moved on to Inver House Distillers, taking up the position of Master Blender in 1976. In 1982, Billy joined Burn Stewart Distillers where he went on to spend two decades, most notably playing a key part in the resurrection of Deanston and Tobermory Distilleries. When the company was sold, Billy turned entrepreneur.
Over the next twelve years he acquired BenRiach, GlenDronach and GlenGlassaugh Distilleries, each of which were either mothballed, closed or under exposed to the market. It was at this point in his career where Billy truly made a name for himself within the industry, leading the brands’ rejuvenation and subsequent phenomenal success.
Since acquiring GlenAllachie in 2017, Billy has transformed the spirit slumbering in 16 on-site warehouses into something truly spectacular. In 2021, he was inducted into Whisky Magazine’s prestigious Hall of Fame – a permanent tribute to those who have made a lasting contribution to the industry.
GlenAllachie Whiskies
The new owners cut back on quantity and slowed down production to gain control over quality. But the new-makes are still young and the focus has been on the vast reserves of mature whisky in the 16 warehouses.
In July 2018, GlenAllachie’s new owners released their first core range of single malt whisky. The range featured a 10, 12, 18 and 25 years old, all natural colour, non-chill-filtered and bottled at a minimum of 46% ABV. A 15 and a 30-year-old has been added since. They also maintained the White Heather and MacNair’s brands of blended whisky.
In November 2018, MacNair’s Lum Reek was released. It is a blended malt Scotch whisky. A combination of peated Islay and Speyside malts married together with older GlenAllachie. The whisky is then filled to cask for further maturation at GlenAllachie Distillery before the final blending.
2021 saw GlenAllachie move into a new spirits category for the first time, releasing a new experimental rum line under the MacNair’s label; Exploration Rum.
The core range whiskies (10, 12, 15 year) sell for between 50€ and 80€ which are good value in my opinion. The 18-year-old costs around 130€ making it rather special. But the 30-year-old will set you back upwards of 1500€ a bottle! My suggestion would be to start with a GlenAllachie 15 year and see how you go!