The GlenAllachie Distillery’s Master Distiller Billy Walker sets his hand yet again at creating liquid gold with its new peated whisky range, Meikle Tòir.
Scotch whisky legend Billy Walker needs little introduction.
But for those who do, the widely-acclaimed industry pioneer who now heads Aberlour-based The GlenAllachie Distillery was inducted into the Whisky Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2021, a ringing endorsement and testament to his longstanding contributions to Scotch whisky.
One that spanned over 50 years.
Walker first started his illustrious career in 1972, back at Ballantine’s in his home town of Dumbarton northwest of Glasgow. Walker is possibly most famous for his time at The BenRiach Distillery Company, when in 2004 he and some business partners purchased Benriach Distillery from Pernod Ricard and then adding GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh distilleries to their portfolio in a few short years. Walker led their rejuvenation to such astounding success that those iconic whisky brands were then sold, at a princely sum, to Brown-Forman in 2016.
Walker could have retired then. Instead he set his eyes on The GlenAllachie Distillery, purchasing it from Chivas Brothers in 2017. Every bit the visionary, he reinvented the distillery – which previously mainly produced whisky for blends – as a single malt whisky brand in its own right. Today Walker’s whiskies from The GlenAllachie is already winning awards for its single malt expressions.
And yet Walker is still not done. Late last year The GlenAllachie Distillery announced the debut of Meikle Tòir, a new whisky brand offshoot that combined the hallmark fruitiness of Speyside whiskies with intoxicating peat.
Featuring four different expressions in its initial release, Meikle Tòir upends whisky tradition in a number of ways. There’s its age statement. All four drops are 5 Year Old whiskies. At that young age most distilleries would tend towards leaving the age statement off the label.
And while many Speyside distilleries have dabbled with peat, the new brand from The GlenAllachie Distillery places peat up front and centre. Mainland peat too, no less. The distillery utilises premium mainland peat from St Fergus, which is said to impart a sweeter, oakier smoke profile, a far better complement to Speyside whisky’s classic fruitiness as compared with Islay peat.
But four whiskies?
There’s The Original, if you’re looking to experience peated whisky in all its smoky glory. Matured in a combination of first fill Bourbon, Rye and American virgin oak casks and clocking in at 50% ABV, it’s an intense dram. On the other hand, you have the The Sherry One. Starting off in American ex-bourbon barrels and finished in PX and Oloroso sherry casks, the time in those Spanish puncheons draws the signature sweetness of sherry to mellow out the punchy peat.
A more unusual expression is The Chinquapin One. You’re looking at an expression cask finished using special Chinquapin casks sourced from Northern Ozarks in Missouri, offering a subtle sweetness that’s laced with anise, incense and cedar notes.
The last is The Turbo, which as you can probably surmise from its name, comes in with the highest PPM and also coming in at 50% ABV as with The Original. Matured in medium-charred American virgin oak casks and first fill Oloroso hogsheads, this comes closest to traditional peated Islay whisky.
Good news for the peat heads among us, The GlenAllachie Distillery’s Meikle Tòir peated core range is now available in Singapore. You can find available for purchase and island-wide deliveries at S$108 per bottle from its exclusive Singapore distributor Asiaeuro Wines & Spirits at www.asiaeurowines.com.sg.
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