Today is the first day for my advent calendar. I figured I’d try and write a review for each one (although I can’t promise to publish them daily). I did cheat a bit and look at the list of what should be included, but there’s a possibility that some substitutions will be made. That being said, almost all of these will likely be to be brand new to me.

#Sample No. 1

Torabhaig is the newest Isle of Skye distillery, opened in 2017. This makes it the second Isle of Skye distillery in 200 years of legal Scotch distilling. As a new distillery, they don’t have an extensive library of releases yet and everything released appears to be NAS.

The distillery provides a nice amount of detail for their bottlings. The official description for this second release of Allt Gleann is:

Our second release in The Legacy Series, Allt Gleann is named after one of two burns that feed the distillery. An evolution on the 2017 inaugural release, Allt Gleann introduces Laureate malted barley alongside Concerto, Safspirit M-1 yeast alongside Pinnacle MG+, and re-fill whisky barrels in maturation alongside first-fill bourbon barrels. There is a little more peat and added complexity compared to the 2017 inaugural release, elegantly showcasing the evolution of our spirit.

They elaborate that the finish is 80% First fill bourbon and 20% re-fill whisky barrels.

Spirit phenols are 77ppm, and whisky phenols at 17ppm. This is not information I’ve seen listed on other distillery sites (admittedly I’m still very new to scotch, so maybe this is more common than I think), but I think it’s very cool that they offer it. This seems in line with Torabhaig being a new distillery with a focus on craft distilling. Accordingly, their bottlings are not chill filtered and they don’t add color.

The second release of Allt Gleann is bottled at 46% ABV and has no age statement.

#My review:

Nose: Peat, ocean brine, orange, bowling shoes, wood smoke.

Palate: Early sweetness, then waves of peat and salt, then a spicy burn at the end. Vanilla cream, peat, salt, chili, and black pepper.

Finish: It’s a light finish that fades fairly quickly, but leaves a bit of a spicy chili burn, salt, and fruit.

Notes: The nose is intriguing. It’s salty and funky, but there are undercurrents that remind me of fruit, without being overtly fruity (if that makes any sense?). The nose reminds me of an Ardbeg 10 but with a lighter, fresher note. The palate is not complex. It’s very straightforward: mostly salt and peat. But there’s an underlying sweetness running through the palate that makes a really interesting contrast. This is a brash, young scotch that highlights two rather unsubtle flavors, peat and brine. While that sounds a bit unflattering, it does a pretty classy job of it. In a way it reminds me a bit of Ardbeg Wee Beastie: unrefined, raw, but with more sophistication than you might expect.

I enjoyed this dram. It’s not something I’d reach for every day, but it is interesting and I’m glad I tried it. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this distillery.

Score: 7.2/10