The fantastic Speyside distillery, GlenAllachie, will be joining us for the first time in March and we're delighted to welcome them to the Kingdom of Fife!
As distilleries go, GlenAllachie is a relative newcomer to the Scotch whisky industry. It was built in 1967 by Mackinlay-McPherson; a company formed five years previously to operate the wine and spirits side of the then Scottish and Newcastle Breweries.
GlenAllachie became part of Invergordon Distillers and then, later, Pernod-Ricard/Chivas and the vast majority of the distillery's output was matured for blending purposes. As a result, GlenAllachie hasn't always been well known as a single malt and may have fallen under the radar of some.
Let's fast forward to 2017 when Billy Walker, Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson acquired the distillery and to the middle of 2018 when the first core range of GlenAllachie single malts was released by the team.
From the age statements - 10, 12, 18 and 25 years - it's clear that these bottlings contain whisky from the previous owners. However, with all these releases being bottled at 46%, non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, they set a high standard for future expressions from the present owners.
As well as the GlenAllachie core range of single malts, the team's blended malt, MacNair’s Lum Reek, which contains both peated Islay as well as Speyside malts, has proved to be a hit with whisky enthusiasts.
At the inaugural Scottish Whisky Awards, GlenAllachie was voted Scottish Whisky Distillery Of The Year 2019. Having visited the distillery in November the same year, one half of the Fife Whisky Festival team can certainly recommend the tour! Even for those who have visited many distilleries, this is one of the most thorough and interesting tours we've been on with some great drams waiting for you at the end.
We're delighted to be able to welcome Ronan and the GlenAllachie team to Cupar on 7th March. Be sure to drop by their stand and enjoy these superb Speysiders!
