Whisky entrepreneur Billy Walker, who last year led the acquisition of GlenAllachie Distillery near Aberlour on Speyside, is releasing a special bottling of limited edition Scotch as his first product launch from the site.
Having sampled an “extensive selection” of the distillery’s 40,000 casks, Mr Walker picked out six for bottling to mark the 50th anniversary of the distillery’s maiden production run on February 17, 1968.
More than 3,500 50cl bottles have been filled as special edition single cask whiskies; 720 for the UK, 2,391 for general export and 425 for Taiwan – all bottled at cask strength, with prices ranging from £200 to £699.
They are being released in advance of the launch in June of the full GlenAllachie range, which will mark the first time the distillery has had its own distinct brand identity.
Mr Walker and two business partners – Trisha Savage, who worked with him on his previous venture at BenRiach Distillery Company, and former Inver House Distillers managing director Graham Stevenson – bought GlenAllachie from French drink giant Pernod Ricard. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
“I’ve seldom come across such a high-quality collection of casks,” Mr Walker said, adding: “GlenAllachie has always been prized as an important blending ingredient. What’s particularly exciting about these special-edition single cask bottles is that we’ll be able to demonstrate the really high quality of GlenAllachie as a standalone whisky.”