Glenallachie Distillery — Speyside Single Malt Whisky

GlenAllachie Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery located near Aberlour, Speyside, Scotland. It was founded in 1967 and is currently owned by The GlenAllachie Distillers Co. Ltd, an independent company led by veteran distiller Billy Walker. Once a workhorse supplier of malt for blended whisky, GlenAllachie has been transformed since 2017 into an acclaimed single malt producer, with its flagship 12 Year Old named World's Best Single Malt at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards.

History

GlenAllachie was built in 1967 by Mackinlay McPherson Ltd, a subsidiary of Scottish & Newcastle Breweries, on the banks of the GlenAllachie Burn at the foot of Ben Rinnes. The distillery was designed by noted architect William Delmé-Evans, who also designed Tullibardine, Jura and Macduff, and it was built as a gravity-fed, efficiency-focused plant. For most of its life GlenAllachie produced malt whisky destined almost entirely for blends, notably Clan Campbell, and released very little as a single malt. Ownership passed to Invergordon Distillers in 1985, which mothballed the site, before Campbell Distillers bought and reopened it in 1989. The distillery later became part of Pernod Ricard's Chivas Brothers. In July 2017, Chivas Brothers sold GlenAllachie to a new independent company formed by former BenRiach managing director Billy Walker, together with Graham Stevenson and Trisha Savage. Under Walker's ownership the distillery has been repositioned as a serious single malt producer, building an extensive maturation warehouse estate, expanding its cask programme, and investing in a visitor centre that completed a major upgrade in 2023. GlenAllachie remains one of the relatively few independently owned and managed distilleries in Scotland.

Quick Facts

• Region: Speyside
• Founded: 1967
• Owner: The GlenAllachie Distillers Co. Ltd (Billy Walker)
• Status: Active
• Stills: 2 wash stills and 2 spirit stills

Core Range

GlenAllachie's core collection is bottled at natural colour and non chill-filtered, and includes an 8 Year Old, a 10 Year Old Cask Strength (released in small numbered batches), the flagship 12 Year Old (46% ABV, matured across Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry butts, red wine casks and virgin oak, and winner of World's Best Single Malt 2025), a 15 Year Old with pronounced sherry cask character, an 18 Year Old, and older cask-strength expressions at 21 and 30 years old.