Torabhaig Allt Gleann review and Distillery Tour
Torabhaig Allt Gleann - “The Legacy Series, Second Release”
Barcode: 5060033848012
Price: £50 at the distillery
Described as “Heavily Peated Single Malt”
Casks: First-Fill Ex-Bourbon and Refill Ex-Bourbon Casks
As stated on the label: “Drawn from small batches of no more than 30 barrels”.
ABV: 46%
Non-Chill Filtered, Natural Colour
Torabhaig distillery
Torabhaig distillery was built and is wholly owned by independent bottlers, “Mossburn Distillers & Blenders”, whose headquarters are situated in Roxburghshire, in the Lowlands “Scottish Borders” (and it is indeed only a few miles over the Scottish border).
As anyone who has been paying attention to the number of new distilleries like Ardnahoe (Hunter Laing), Clydeside (Morrison, AD Rattray) and many more, popping up all over Scotland over the past 10 years will know, there is a definite trend of independent bottlers, looking to purchase existing distilleries, or build their own new ones. The reason for this can clearly be linked to the increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain casks of Single Malt whisky available to them on the market, which independent bottlers rely upon. The solution is obviously to diversify into other spirits or better still, produce their own Whisky spirit.
Pronunciation (pronounced “Pronounciation”)
At the distillery, they pronounced their name as “Torah-Veig”. (Interesting, because Ledaig, Tobermory’s peated expression was up until a year ago, pronounced as “Le-Chaig”, but now, those in the know have begun pronouncing it as “Le-Chaik”. (Are we going to hear those same people start pronouncing this distillery as “Torah-Vek” even though the distillery staff themselves, pronounce it with a “veig” at the end?)
Hill on the Bay
The word “Tor” in Gaelic means “Hill or “Mound” and “abhaig” means a bay. So Torabhaig means “Hill on the Bay”.
(Tora! Tora! Tora! was actually the Japanese Navy’s codeword for “complete surprise”).
In a similar vein, being that this is an Orthodox Jewish Kosher Whisky review site, I must point out the obvious, that is, that the distillery name is going to really appeal to the Jewish community, for obvious reasons.
But it gets better. In Yiddish, “Torah Veg” means “The Torah Way”. Then, when I showed my son the bottle at the first Friday night Shabbos meal after my wife and I had returned from the UK, he looked at the name and pronounced it as “Torah BeCheg” which could mean “Torah on the [Jewish] Festival”.
Either way, for Jews, this distillery has a pretty cool name. Unfortunately, even after speaking to a few representatives of the distillery and explaining the significance of the name for Jews, she was less than impressed, saying only (in the best “official spokesperson” voice she could muster), that the distillery has no plans to exploit this coincidence. More on this later.
Our Visit to the distillery
Our visit to Torabhaig distillery in October 2021, was part of our long-awaited first trip to Scotland since the era of Covid prevented us from traveling abroad for almost two years. (I hope soon, Be’ezrat Hashem to write about our other distillery visits, those being to Bladnoch, Isle of Raasay and Ardnamurchan).
Mossburn’s Torabhaig distillery is situated on the southern tip of the Isle of Skye, a few miles from the Armadale ferry terminal which sails to Malaig on the mainland. Our original plan was actually to take the much more leisurely route using the ferry but the scheduled times did not match our online and pre-paid distillery tour appointment set for 11:00am, which we were obliged to book, due to Covid restrictions. (The distillery had to make sure no more than 6 persons turn up for any one tour).
So, we were forced to take the beautifully scenic but much more strenuous A87 route over the mountains, crossing the Skye Bridge and then taking the A851 down, following the coastline to the southern tip of the island.
Waze GPS Error
We had been using Waze GPS the whole time (rather than Google Maps) and so far, it had served us well. However, when we arrived outside the distillery, which we could clearly see from the road, it told us to turn left at a non-existent turning. When we carried on a few metres, looking for the actual entrance, Waze went meshugah, making that dreaded “Di-di-doo-doo-di-di” when you have gone wrong and telling us that we needed to turn around in another 10 miles! Instead, we turned into the clearly marked driveway of the distillery and drove slowly down following the signs to the car park. It was really quite comical looking at the Waze screen as we seemingly drove straight through a cow’s field. Checking Google Maps later, the street view had also not obviously been updated for some years and did not show the new road. I reported this error to Waze using the option in the Android app and actually received a personal reply the next day from someone, thanking me for my report and promising to fix it, which they did the next day! Google street, however, is still not even showing pictures of the distillery along the road, yet it is marked on their map. From Google Maps, it looks like the site used to be farm and Waze had been trying to take us through the old Farmyard entrance.
Background to the Tour and Full Disclosure
First the Full Disclosure
Now, although I have not written about it before, I am currently involved in a few Kosher Mehadrin Whisky projects at the moment, acting as a consultant for certain Kashrus organisations who wish to produce Single Malts matured in Kosher Port and Sherry and Wine casks (under strict supervision) for producing whisky for the Orthodox Jewish community. (This is also the reason why I have neglected my Whisky blog over the past few months, for which I apologise).
Our Tour
Because, as mentioned above, the name of the distillery has a rather obvious if unintentional Jewish connection (have I mentioned this before?), I wrote to Torabhaig distillery in September, when booking the tour and explained that I write a Kosher Whisky Review Blog and that their name would greatly appeal to the Orthodox Jewish Community. I then asked them if there would be anyone available who I could have a chat with, about the possibility of Torabhaig doing a Kosher Certified Wine Cask Matured expression.
This email, for reasons I still fail to understand, seemed to have flipped them out, as I received, what can only be described as a rather official corporate looking over-formal reply (and certainly not the usual friendly distillery staff tone), the bottom line being that there would, unfortunately, be no one available to speak to me.
OK, fair enough. I was still looking forward to the tour though.
When my wife and I arrived at the distillery, we found the front desk and went to book in as arranged according to their Covid regulations. There was a man and a woman manning the desk. Both of them stared at me, then looked at each other, their eyes visibly widening. OK, so being a new distillery, they probably haven’t seen too many Orthodox Jews enter their premises before, but it was just so blatant and, I have to say, rather ill-mannered of them. The lady on the desk turned back to me and asked me if I was that Kosher Whisky reviewer they had been expecting? I answered in the affirmative, giving them a warm cheerful smile but inside, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. They then looked back at each other, both with what I interpreted as rather nervous looks on their faces. What on earth were they anxious about? What had they been told by their supervisors? I must admit to being rather baffled and feeling very uneasy by this frosty and somewhat bizarre reception.
We were instructed to wash our hands with this really stinky heavily perfumed alcohol gel provided for us, and make our way to the back of the shop where there was a small waiting area with soft benches, for those booked on the tour.
Already there was a young and very athletic looking English couple who looked as if they had either biked or hiked here. We chatted and it turned out that they were reasonably knowledgeable about Single Malts.
The guide, a well-dressed and distinguished looking woman in her late fifties/ early sixties (?) introduced herself to us. She then turned to me and said in a tone and accompanying facial expression, which I perceived to be a mixture of nervousness (and perhaps a hint of disdain?), “Ah, you must be that Jewish Whisky expert!”
I once again gave her a warm smile and, giving her the benefit of the doubt, I thought perhaps that she was worried I would hog the conversation or ask her uncomfortable or highly technical questions, not suitable for a regular tour? I decided that the best line of approach was to keep quiet and let the other couple talk, unless I was directly spoken to. In hindsight, I think this was indeed the best thing I could have done.
So, hands covered in stinky alcohol gel and all masked up, we began our tour by walking up the stairs and entering a set of double doors. The distillery, arranged long-ways, is pretty compact with everything laid out from left to right. (I apologise for not having any photos of the inside, as according to managerial policy, all photography was banned).
The tour was clinical, lacking the usual Scottish charm. There were a few things I would have liked to have asked and even a few things which she said which were not exactly 100% accurate and which I would have wanted to question, but I continued to keep quiet, letting the young couple ask the questions, only speaking when spoken to.
Actually, I did ask a single question. The guide mentioned that they buy in their peated malted barley from Simpson’s and I asked her if they had any plans to build their own malting floors. For the first and only time, she showed some emotion whilst she answered. She said (as if speaking from bitter experience), that the island’s residents were very suspicious of newcomers and any new enterprises and they had made them jump through hoops of fire in order to receive permission to build a new building or convert an existing one on Skye. She said that at some point in the future, they would like to but it wasn’t in the works at the moment.
At one point I noticed a young guy testing the spirit at a desk. Breaking away from the perfectly choregraphed tour for just a moment, I went up to him and asked him if he might have time later on to have a chat as I had some technical questions about the distillery which tour guides are not always equipped to answer. He looked up at me and shook his head nervously, telling me that he was very busy and had no time. Maybe it was just my over-creative imagination but it looked to me as if he was scared to talk to me?
Eventually, we ended up in an elegantly designed tasting room.
As we entered the tasting room, there was more of that stinky alcohol gel which we were encouraged to use. I found this rather odd, seeing as the tour had been so sterile.
The application of this liquid completely ruined the tasting session as all I could smell was the heavy perfume on my hands.
The guide explained that Torabhaig was (at least for the moment), maturing its whisky exclusively in Ex-Bourbon casks in order to establish and perfect a unique distillery flavour profile. At that point, she turned directly to me and asked me what I thought of this, being that I was a “Cask expert”.
I put on a thoughtful look and nodded my head in agreement. Then I said that an expression in Sherry casks at this early stage was not advised as they were still experimenting with their signature flavour profile, using relatively neutral Ex-Bourbon casks rather than First-Fill Sherry/Wine/Port casks, where the wine flavours would dominate the whisky. A lot of distilleries like Arran (Lochranza) made this mistake at the beginning.
Before leaving the guide, I had to mention to her that, whilst appreciating the need to enforce Covid regulations, perhaps they ought to think about getting a non-perfumed hand sanitizer. She seemed to already be aware of the problem and said that it was being dealt with.
After the tour we went back to the distillery shop in order to pick up my two bottles of whisky, 2 Glencairn glasses and fleece hoody which I had purchased earlier.
We both left this very pretty distillery with an uncomfortable feeling that they were glad to see the back of us. I just wish I knew what had spooked them about me. I suspect it had something to do with my initial email, but I don’t really understand exactly what it was as I use a pretty standard introductory email for all distilleries I visit, and I’ve never had that reaction before.
Anyway, now to the Whisky Review.
The release name: Allt Gleann means “Old Glen” in Gaelic.
“Kol HaKavod” to the distillery for stating on the label that the Whisky was:
and
Bottled in July 2021
Which makes this barely legal as whisky at just over 3 years old.
Peat Levels:
Two figures quoted: 77+ PPM and Residual phenols levels measured at 17 PPM.
This is really impressive stuff and takes transparency to a different level. What they are saying is that the malt they ordered was measured at 77 PPM but the actual measured PPM after production was only 17 PPM. As far as I am aware, there is no legal definition of a whisky PPM (or as some say, PPPM), and no regulated stage as which to measure phenol levels, so hats off to Torabhaig for this extra information, giving us the figure at the beginning and then at the end of the process.
Barley Types:
A mix of Concerto and Laureate malted barley from Simpson’s.
Again, stating barley types similar to Bruichladdich, is fantastic transparency, going above and beyond.
Yeast Types:
Pinnacle MG+ and Safspirit M-1 yeasts
OK, now, by stating yeast type is going into transparency hyperdrive.
What? No stated Angel’s Share?
But hold on. There is no mention of measured Angel’s Share which the Golani (Golan Heights) distillery states. Yes, I know that for a whisky matured in Scotland it would be a lot less interesting than here in Israel (or any other hot country like India for that matter) to know what the total Angel’s Share was measured at, but even so, it is not, contrary to popular belief, a standard 2% which is assumed by every distillery for TAX purposes. It can indeed vary depending upon the seasonal weather, location and position of the cask in the warehouse. I am however being pedantic. The amount of information stated on the label is truly phenomenal. I am really impressed.
Packaging
Design of the box is practical, made from quality materials but still manages to stand out on the shelf.
Despite there being a lot, and I mean, a lot of very useful information on both the packaging and label, everything still looks very well organised without it looking squashed or over-fussy.
The bottle is a rectangle box shape with rounded edges.
I find it a puzzling decision as I am sure that it will draw immediate comparisons to the bottle shape of the ultra-ubiquitous Johnnie Walker brand of Blended Scotch. This association is perhaps not such a good idea. It looks like the designer took a Johnnie Walker bottle and replaced the top and bottom bits with a Lagavulin/Caol Ila bottle?
And now to the tasting notes…
Notes upon first opening the bottle. Initial Reactions.
Appearance
Light green yellow
Very oily in appearance.
Aroma and Tasting notes combined
The first thing you notice is that even at 46% abv and only three years old, there is no alcohol nip whatsoever. This is a neat trick for a whisky this young.
Immediately, I became aware of this really strong smell of sweet earthy grainy malted barley. (Obviously from the peat). Initial nosing brings aromas of raw wet farmyard malted barley in husks. This barley cereal-ness comes out on the palate as well and is obviously the result of the long gentle peat drying process.
So, we have creamy peated barley. A hint of Menthol which reminds me of Golan Heights Single Malt (without the peat of course). The smell of fresh timber from a newly built Log cabin, with some still wet wood resin. Vanilla pods, white heather honey, baked apple, spices and caramel fudge on the finish.
Very promising. I left the bottle for a few days and then resumed my assessment…
Aromas
Sweet Peated grains and sea breeze air.
Yeasty Raw Wholemeal Flour Bread Dough.
Sweet Hay, newly built barn yard made from freshly cut wood.
Rose petals and green leaves in the rain.
New Leather Gloves.
White freshly squeezed Grape juice, cut open green grapes.
Baked Garden Red Apples. Russet Apples.
Sweet Lemon juice.
A slight sourness like “sweet” stewed Rhubarb.
Copper Kettle, Copper Pot.
Sweet, cakey, sour, tart and tangy.
In the Mouth, without water added.
Quite barley oily rather than creamy barley.
Soft peat in the background adding to the wet Barley flavours and spices.
Tasting notes with water added
Despite it not being nippy straight from the bottle, you really must add water or you are missing out on a whole load of flavours.
Smokey Barley and chocolate breakfast cereal chewy bar.
Heather Honey.
Golden Syrup, Treacle.
Walkers Shortbread biscuits.
Bitter 80% Cocoa Chocolate.
Burnt Golden Fudge.
Raw Bread Dough
Russet Apples.
Macadamia nuts.
Baked Apples, Rhubarb and caramel custard.
Finish
Slightly briny, drinking chocolate powder, Sour Savoury at the back of the tongue.
This quickly dissipates in the mouth leaving a Russets apple, Shortbread, honey and a slight copper pots flavour at the end.
Conclusion
A most fascinating, unusual and immensely enjoyable Single Malt. I am glad that our distillery visit didn’t leave a bitter taste in the mouth when it came to reviewing their whisky. I simply cannot believe that it’s just over three years old. It does show youth yet a lot of mellow flavour with it as well. A neat trick indeed, no doubt obtained by employing some pretty skilful cask management, combining First-Fill and Refill Ex-Bourbon casks.
If they ever decide to export to Israel then they will find a very receptive market for their product. Have I mentioned the Jewish sounding name yet?
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