Tasting Notes for Duncan Taylor The Octave Glenallachie 11 Year Old
Toffee sauce, buttercream, hint of sherry, milk chocolate, strawberry jam. Sherry, demerara sugar, chocolate fondue, smores, strawberry tarts.
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A Singapore exclusive from GlenAllachie Distillery for the fantastic Duncan Taylor Octave range.
The team at Duncan Taylor have been experimenting with smaller casks for over 40 years, with their research stemmed from the simple premise that there is more wood interaction with whisky over a shorter period of time in a small cask than in a large cask, therefore allowing a more rapid melding of wood, air and alcohol.
After a second maturation the octave casks have refined the whisky, enhancing its hue, taste, form and character. The flavour profile is gently expanded, a little more sophisticated with the commanding presence of a mature, well-balanced Scotch Whisky. So they say anyway, and who are we to argue, especially if they bottle up the whisky at cask strength!
One of the results of the US-fuelled 1960s whisky boom, GlenAllachie was built in 1967 by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries’ distilling subsidiary, Mackinlays, and eventually made its way into the Pernod-Ricard stable where it was used as a large part of Chivas Brothers’ Cask Strength series.
In July 2017, it was announced that Chivas Brothers had agreed to sell GlenAllachie to The GlenAllachie Distillers Company, operated by former BenRiach MD Billy Walker. Questions were asked as to why there would be such keen interest in a distillery which up until that point had been pretty anamous, but when the single cask bottlings full of big fruity malt whisky arrived, those questions disappeared. Needless to say GlenAllachie is highly recommended.
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Duncan Taylor was founded in Glasgow in 1938 where the company was initially a merchant and broker of Scotch whisky casks within the Industry. Over the decades, the company built strong ties with distillers and distilleries over Scotland, with the company bringing their own casks to the distilleries to be filled with new make spirit. This resulted in one of Scotland’s largest collections of cask whiskies from distilleries – many of which are now closed – maturing in the Duncan Taylor warehouses today.
In 2002 Duncan Taylor moved its headquarters to Huntly, on the periphery of Speyside, Scotland’s largest whisky producing region, where it has its own facilities for cask storage, bottling, a cooperage and very soon, its own distillery. At that time, Duncan Taylor also ceased the “brokering” of whisky casks to distillery companies and bottlers to focus on the production and marketing of its own brands, and diversifying the portfolio with the addition of gin and rum. -
Producer GlenAllachie Distillery for Duncan Taylor Style Cask Strength Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky Age 11 years Volume 70CL ABV 54.1%