Let’s close out non-island distillery sherry cask week with another whisky from a Speyside distillery. After an 11 yo Craigellachie, here is a 10 yo Glenallachie. This is Batch 6 of their 10 CS release—I’m not sure what number it’s up to now. I rather liked both Batch 2 and Batch 3 and am hopeful that this will be good as well. Like those batches this one—a large release at 39,000 bottles—has been put together from a hodge-podge of cask types: PX and oloroso puncheons, rioja barriques, virgin oak casks of one kind or the other. That’s a lot. What does it add up to? Let’s see.

Glenallachie 10 CS, Batch 6 (57.8%; from a bottle split)

Nose: A quite nutty, slightly beany arrival. On the second sniff there’s some orange peel and some sharper notes (yeast? chalk?); some palpable oak too behind it all. More of the orange peel with time but there’s also a touch of bitter oak extract. Water pushes the bitter notes back a bit and pulls out some cherry.

Palate: Comes in with the orange peel leading the way, followed by the oak and the nuts (which pick up some salt here). Not unapproachable at full strength; good texture. The oak mellows a little as it sits and a dustier note emerges along with more fruit (orange, apricot). The oak emerges again with time. Okay, let’s see what water does for it. Water makes the oak spicy and brightens up the citrus as well.

Finish: Long. More of the oak here and then more salt. More oak here too with time and the bitter oak extract shows up as well. As on the palate with water.

Comments: Well, I did not like this as much as either Batch 2 or Batch 3. It seems too oak-driven and too engineered: the spirit gets lost under all the different oak influences. Drinkable enough but no real identity or character. But I guess if you’re delivering a dark whisky at a higher strength, you’re doing a lot in this market.

Rating: 83 points.