GlenAllachie Madeira Wood Finish 13 year 700ml

GlenAllachie Madeira Wood Finish 13 Year is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky matured first in ex-bourbon barrels before finishing in casks that previously held Madeira, the fortified wine from Portugal's Madeira islands. GlenAllachie, under distiller Billy Walker, has built its reputation on exactly this kind of wood experimentation, and the Madeira finish is known for pushing sweeter, nuttier notes into an already rich Speyside base. Expect dried fruit and toasted nuts over honeyed malt, with the Madeira cask adding a slightly tangy, oxidative edge to the finish rather than simple sweetness. This is a bottle for a Speyside drinker who's already through the standard sherry- and bourbon-cask expressions.

How to drink GlenAllachie Madeira Wood Finish

Pour it neat to let the Madeira cask show its full range — this isn't a whisky that needs dilution to open up. A single drop of water is fine if the fortified-wine sweetness feels heavy at first sip.

ScotchEx-bourbon, finished in Madeira casks · Speyside, Scotland