Speyside distillery Glenallachie has unveiled its 1990 35 Year Old Cask Strength single malt, its joint-oldest whisky release to date under owner and scotch veteran Billy Walker.
Comprising spirit matured in four cask types, the 35 Year Old is hailed by Glenallachie as a superlative demonstration of Walker’s blending skills, honed over the past five decades at companies including Hiram Walker and Chivas Brothers.
The limited edition comes presented in a bespoke wooden case, created by in-house designer Kayley Barbour, which is inspired by the Japanese woodworking art of kumiko.
The 1990 35 Year Old (RSP £1,512.99) is available from select retailers and theglenallachie.com.
Tasting the Glenallachie 35 Year Old
Under Walker’s stewardship, Glenallachie has become known for its bold cask experimentation, and the 1990 35 Years Old is no different. It comprises spirit matured in four cask types: mizunara oak (30%), oloroso (30%), Pedro Ximenez (20%), and new Appalachian American oak (20%). It’s bottled non-chill filtered and with natural colour at 50.2% ABV.
It equals the age of Glenallachie’s oldest bottling to date, the 35-year-old 2024 edition, which also featured spirit matured in PX, oloroso and new oak casks.
Although he’s a scientist by training, Walker believes creativity is as crucial to good blending as chemistry, saying some of Glenallachie’s newer releases would “never have [been] tasted” in past decades.
“We are moving into a totally different flavour spectrum to when I started blending 50 years ago,” he says. “Today we can be experimental. We are using casks from all over the world.”
Even with the bold cask types at play, the 35 Year Old’s profile is harmonious. There’s vanilla crème brûlée and spice from the new oak, gentle potpourri notes from the mizunara, jammy red fruit, raisin and dark chocolate notes from the PX, and marzipan-wrapped fruitcake from the oloroso, along with subtle notes of dried herbs and tinned pineapple which hint at its age.
Embracing Kumiko
The case for the 1990 35 Year Old takes inspiration from the Japanese art of kumiko, a traditional woodworking technique that involves intricately carved patterns and nail-less construction. The delicate side panels feature the gable end of the distillery and four motifs, representing the four cask types the whisky comprises.
Explaining the kumiko concept, designer Barbour notes the precision and patience it requires — much like that needed to mature and compose a 35-year-old single malt Scotch whisky.
The Art of Ageing
Since he bought Glenallachie from Chivas Brothers in 2017, Walker and his team have been assessing stock assiduously and reracking where they feel it’s necessary for a whisky “to continue its journey”. “Ageing is a challenge because if you are not monitoring casks they can behave badly,” Walker says wryly. “We want to showcase quality.”
Despite more than 50 years on the job, Walker still gets enthusiastic about the “remarkable” chemistry of whisky making. “First of all you have to make good new-fill spirit. You have to have the right building blocks, the right esters and high alcohols,” he says. “Then when you toast and char the wood, the cellulose and hemicellulose and lignins start decomposing and create flavour components that we want to bring into the whisky.”
Walker also cites the importance of a spirit’s ABV during ageing. Wood contains both alcohol-soluble and water-soluble compounds (made more accessible through toasting and charring), so alcoholic strength will affect the balance of these components in the maturing liquid. “The strength of the whisky in the cask plays such an important part. As the strength is falling, the ability of the whisky to talk to the cask changes,” he notes.
What Else We Tasted
Glenallachie celebrated the 1990 35 Year Old Cask Strength’s launch with an intimate whisky-paired dinner at London restaurant HIDE.
In addition to the 35-year-old, two more Glenallachie whiskies were served: the newly released third edition in the distillery’s Sinteis Series, which was distilled in 2014 and matured in new French oak and oloroso sherry casks; and the White Heather 21 Year Old, from the blended whisky brand Glenallachie resurrected in 2021.
The Sinteis Part III carries well-defined flavours from its hero casks with notes of orange, cherry, fig, dark chocolate, fresh mint, vanilla-scented brioche, and a healthy dollop of ginger and clove spice.
Walker feels the new edition is “something very special”. “We are trying to tease out some really interesting flavour contributions from the French oak and the oloroso,” he says. “French oak, from a spice point of view, is nearly as good as Scottish oak.”
The White Heather 21 Year Old is the oldest core expression in the range, bottled at 48% and non-chill filtered. It blends Scotch grain whisky (53%) with a mix of malts: Highland (20%), Speyside (23%) and Islay (4%).
The grain character is given space to shine in this blend. There are notes of oatcakes, salted butter, lemon balm and green apple alongside strawberry, milk chocolate, ground walnuts and orange zest.
Read the full article at All You Need To Know About Glenallachie’s 35 Year Old Cask Strength
