2023 in review

With another successful year completed, we feel it’s important to look back on 2023 and reflect on The GlenAllachie Distillers Company’s year. We’ve launched a new brand, won awards and made the steps to become more sustainable, to say the least…

January

January saw the release of The GlenAllachie 2012 Vintage Cuvée Cask Finish – Cuvée being a French term that means a blend of more than one variety of grape. This innovative wine cask release applied this description to whisky by carefully crafting and expertly blending four exceptional wine finishes into one unique expression.

The wines used were a Languedoc, Recioto Della Valpolicella, and two undisclosed Premier Cru Classés. This offered a truly unique spin on the GlenAllachie spirit.

February

In February, MacNair’s Boutique House of Spirits released the second batch of Lum Reek 10-year-old Cask Strength. A blend of both peated and unpeated spirit, this expression offers tastes of gentle smoke and sweet spice. Bottled at a cask strength of 55.8% ABV, this is an exceptional dram to be savoured.

March

Adding to our Virgin Oak Series, March welcomed a new trio of limited-edition single malts. An 8-year-old Scottish Virgin Oak Finish, a 7-year-old Hungarian Virgin Oak Finish, and a 10-year-old Spanish Virgin Oak Finish were the three expressions that made up this tranche.

April

In preparation for the following month’s Spirit of Speyside festival, we released our Spirit of Speyside distillery-exclusive single cask. This was a 17-year-old Ruby Port, and it had an abundant taste of juicy oranges, sweet strawberries, and maraschino cherries.

Alongside this, we also launched three other single casks exclusive to the UK: The GlenAllachie 12-year-old cask #804024 Oloroso Puncheon, The GlenAllachie 14-year-old cask #6894 Chinquapin Barrel, and The GlenAllachie 13-year-old cask #804970 Pedro Ximénez Hogshead.

May

May saw our favourite week of the year – The Spirit of Speyside Festival. Over the course of six days, we welcomed over 650 whisky lovers from around the world. Our 23 dedicated events sold out within hours of launching. It truly was an exceptional week that allowed us to meet our fantastic supporters.

June

In June, our Visitor Centre had a little makeover with the addition of our new bar and tasting lounge. The investment converted a former engineering workshop into our modern whisky bar. Offering an outdoor area with uninterrupted views of Ben Rinnes, this space is excellent for relaxing and enjoying a dram.

You can view the tours and tastings that we offer here.

June was also a monumental month for MacNair’s Boutique House of Spirits, with our Exploration Rum winning a number of prestigious awards at three international spirits competitions. These competitions include the International Wine & Spirits Competition, the International Spirits Challenge, and the World Rum Awards. Find out more here.

July

A new addition to our premium core range, The GlenAllachie 30-year-old Cask Strength Batch 3 was released in July of this year. For the third batch release of this limited bottling, there were just 2,400 bottles available. Matured in Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso Sherry hogsheads, as well as several American virgin oak casks, this is the embodiment of sherry-matured indulgence.

August

A first for The GlenAllachie Distillery Company, we released three Regional Exclusive whiskies in August. They consisted of:

• 11-year-old Marsala Wood Finish exclusive to the UK.
• 12-year-old Moscatel Wood Finish exclusive to Europe.
• 10-year-old Ruby Port Wood Finish exclusive to Asia.

Each expression underwent primary maturation in American oak ex-Bourbon barrels before being re-racked into casks hand-selected by our Master Distiller, Billy Walker, who is renowned for his wood innovation.

September

September unveiled our brand new Peated whisky brand: Meikle Tòir, which means ‘big pursuit’. This new brand has four Peated Speyside Single Malt expressions: The Original, The Chinquapin One, The Sherry One, and The Turbo 2023 release. The launch consisted of social media activity, as well as events in three key locations throughout Scotland (Our Speyside Distillery, Glasgow, and Edinburgh), where Master Distiller Billy Walker held guided tastings of the new range. Discover Meikle Tòir here.

In September, we also announced a 40% increase in revenue from the previous year, meaning that we reported £20.7 million in sales. This was a huge milestone for our independently owned company.

October

The second batch of our Wine Cask Series and our fourth batch of The GlenAllachie 21-year-old made their way from our distillery to consumers in October.

The casks used were expertly sourced from three fine wine producers located in France, Italy, and Portugal: An 11-year-old Premier Cru Classé Cask Finish, a 10-year-old Grattamacco Cask Finish and a 9-year-old Douro Valley Cask Finish.

The fourth batch of The GlenAllachie 21-year-old was a marriage of single malts matured in three vintage Pedro Ximénez Sherry puncheons from Jerez, Spain. This expression offers “sophisticated qualities of clementine zest, cocoa-covered tiramisu, dark cherries, and sticky Medjool dates”.

November

With a goal set to become more sustainable, we set out to achieve a grant from the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to install technology that will improve our energy efficiency. With the grant now secured we will reduce current energy demand by 50% by introducing Mechanical Vapour Recompression technology.

This progression is a huge milestone for our Speyside home, as it will allow our distillery to move away from using natural gas to eco-friendly electricity and alternative green sources, including biogas.

With the end of the year now in sight, we look forward to 2024 and another successful year for The GlenAllachie Distillers Company. We thank all of our loyal customers for their continuous support of our four brands, The GlenAllachie, Meikle Tòir, White Heather, and MacNair’s Boutique House of Spirits.