New look for GlenAllachie bottles - Blog post

Quality over quantity
With the capacity to produce four million litres of alcohol (LOA) a year, GlenAllachie took the decision to cut production to one million LOA in order to put the emphasis entirely on the quality of the spirit. By lowering output they now have the luxury of time, which allows a long fermentation of 160 hours - around three times the industry average - for a more complex, flavourful distillate.

Cask innovation
Being independent gives GlenAllachie unlimited scope for complex and creative cask experimentation. Their hard-won network of contacts with niche producers has opened doors to an outstanding inventory of not only the rarest casks but also the finest quality ones from around the world. No corners can be cut in the pursuit of exceptional quality.

Collaboration
In Billy Walker's experienced hands, a culture of precision, patience and persistence has been instilled in his small but highly skilled team of whisky experts. By working together, every element of production is optimised to deliver complex layers of character. The result of seamlessly coordinated collaboration is a range of carefully crafted, cask-refined whiskies.

Honesty and integrity
Their values sit at the front of everything they do, which is why they proudly bottle every expression at a minimum of 46% ABV or above, with no added caramel and no chill filtration. That lets the authentic quality and character shine through.

Malting and production
The malting process involves steeping barley in water and spreading it across a malting floor to germinate. This allows the conversion of starch into sugar to begin. The barley is then dried in a kiln to make it ready.

As a traditionally unpeated distillery, the malted barley used for The GlenAllachie single malt Scotch whisky comes from local producers based on the Moray Firth coast. They have nine malt bins, each holding 30 tonnes of malted barley.

They use the original Porteus mill, installed in 1967, to produce 9.4 tonnes of grist for each mash. This type of mill is notoriously reliable - so much so that Porteus went out of business, because repairs and replacements were never needed.

The milled malted barley, or grist, is mixed with hot water in their 9.4-tonne semi-lauter mash tun. The purpose of mashing is to produce as much fermentable sugar as possible. To maximise sugar extraction they use a four-water cycle for every mash, rather than the more common three, while using the same amount of water per kilogram of grist. The resulting liquid, called wort, is rich in the fermentable sugar that matters for the next stage.

The wort passes from the mash tun, cooled on the way, into one of their eight stainless steel washbacks to begin fermentation with the addition of yeast. The yeast they use is chosen for its ability to ferment the type of sugar produced when malted barley is milled and mashed. At The GlenAllachie Distillery they ferment for an extended 160 hours to develop esters and other flavour compounds that add extra character to their whisky. The resulting liquid is called wash.

Once the wash has fermented it is transferred to the still house for distillation. They use a traditional double distillation process, but because they have a low wines and feints receiver for each set of wash and spirit stills, they achieve better consistency of strength and volume between production runs. That matters in Billy's pursuit of absolute spirit perfection.

They currently fill at the industry standard 63.5% as well as 68.5% ABV, into virgin, first-fill and second-fill casks, to draw carefully considered flavour characteristics from the wood at each strength. They never use casks beyond second fill, to make sure the wood has optimal flavour influence on the whisky.

With 16 warehouses holding an impressive inventory of 50,000 casks on site, they have full control of the entire process from start to finish. Master distiller Billy Walker uses his exceptional network of contacts to source the finest quality casks from around the world. The spirit is monitored continuously as it develops, to assess whether it should be re-racked into a new cask to add further layers of complexity, or whether it has reached the sweet spot: the perfect balance between distillery character and wood influence.

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