Cooper's Choice GlenAllachie 'Summer Fruits'

The Maker

The Cooper’s Choice is a single cask range of independent bottlings from The Vintage Malt Whisky Company. Established in 1992 by current day Chairman Brain Cook after several years in the industry, Vintage Malt set about developing a wide range of accessible whiskies for the low to mid-end of the mass consumption market. In other words they are all about releasing inexpensive but decent quality whisky, often from anonymous distilleries.

This description covers the popular and often award winning ranges they operate - such as The Illeach, Islay Storm, Smoke Stack and Finlaggan. In recent years i've tried several of these and while I can’t say that any of them have been especially memorable for their quality, they have consistently provided just what you want from a low cost undisclosed Islay that’s more than likely a youthful Caol Ila – namely a rich oiliness and minerality served with a hefty dose of peat smoke.

Given this approach, I was somewhat surprised to find out that The Cooper’s Choice was another iteration of the Vintage Malt family, as it represents a somewhat different approach to which we have become accustomed. This time, instead of focusing on Islay, this series takes big name distilleries from across Scotland and puts out single cask bottlings at cask strength. This is of course something much more tailored for the whisky nerds market that's likely reading this, than their usual mass market output. Doing so will likely see this range up against some stiff competition from other independent bottlers and facing a market that’s likely to be far less forgiving.

But the pitch goes even further. Not only do they have this cask focused approach (hence the name), but they also place the emphasis on what they term as “innovative and creative cask maturations and finishes”. A cynic might call this wording the company hedging its bets for when some of the series don’t quite work out as planned. However, I think a better way of seeing it is that The Cooper’s Choice is a range of oddities which will hopefully result in a fair few positive surprises.

To that end it’s been around since 2018 as far as I can tell and has, for the most part, garnered positive reviews for a wide range of releases.

The Expression

Given the above I wanted to get an expression from a distillery with which I was reasonably familiar, and one which I knew had a good reputation for how it responded to aggressive cask ageing and finishing. For me that suggested one obvious choice: GlenAllachie.

I’ve written extensively about GlenAllachie in a previous review so I won’t repeat that here. However, it suffices to say that it's gone through quite the renaissance and is currently one of the ‘hottest’ distilleries around, and increasingly hard to get a hold of. Yet despite this ever growing reputation since the arrival of Billy Walker and co it’s been good to see a steady release of GlenAllachie from a variety of independent bottlers. While it’s possible that this might be independent bottlers releasing existing stock while interest in the distillery is high, the age of a lot of it suggests that there might still be some oversight being had by GlenAllachie themselves. Given that I strongly suspect they don’t want their own standing in the sector undercut by a sleuth of releases that aren’t up to scratch.

In part to test of this theory I’ve gone a Port Wood finish GlenAllachie that is one of just 360 bottles from cask number 9602 . The length of maturation isn’t clear on the packaging, however, thanks to Andrew at Vintage Malts, I was able to confirm that this release spent six years maturing in American oak before being finished for an additional year in a Ruby Port Pipe. That finish is immediately present in the rich red colour of the whisky, as is the fact that it’s not chill-filtered from the level of cask sediment present at the bottom. Further to this the cask strength is a healthy 55%.

One other thing to add about this expression is that it’s released under the taste descriptor of ‘Summer Fruits’ rather than the age statement. This is an interesting approach which Vintage Malt has followed for several years now where they pick a release that matches it from their stock. In previous years the Summer Fruits release has been a Glen Moray (in 2021), and a Royal Brackla (in 2020). This is perhaps helpful to people chasing a particular taste experience rather than a finish or distillery.

The Neck Pour

The initial nose is dominated by the alcoholic burn. But it’s followed by strawberries and cream. Also raspberry jelly, traditional vanilla crème brulée and burnt cinnamon char. There’s also a citrus-like acidity cutting through which gives the whole thing a sense of boozy trifle. Finally there's also a strange hint of Coke. After about 10 minutes in the glass it seems to settle down.

Given the prominence of some of these flavours on the labelling I can't help but wonder to what extent these notes are down to the power of suggestion? So in future i'd be tempted to try some blind tasting.

The taste itself is very rounded. The sweetness of the port is there. So are the slight tannins you'd expect, but what dominates is a viscous texture. The rich stewed fruit follows from the nose. Less summer fruit here and more stone fruits like plumb, apricot and peach. The finish is short. But still all very pleasant.

The Body

I’ve started giving this a good 15 minutes in the glass. That initial alcohol burn on the nose has definitely subsided as I enter the lower half of the bottle. The rich jam notes have replaced them as the port finish has come to firmly dominate what was there before. This gives way to even more of the stewed fruit as the ex-bourbon’s traditional vanilla char disappears into the background.

The more I drink it the more I feel the dividing line is going to be how much you love Port. As someone who has been known to quietly get through a whole bottle on a Christmas evening and then (briefly) feel ashamed of myself, I think you’ll understand where I stand. So for me a bottle like this is ideal.

This does of course lead to wider questions about 'finishing' and whether a good finish is one which adds the whisky more than one which overwhelms it to create a very different drink? I’m also working my way through the new Craigellachie Bas-Armonach which is raising the same question.

I’d describe this as more of the latter, but I can’t help but think the former is what’s preferable. But then I remind myself that what matters is how much I enjoy the dram, and I’m enjoying this very much. I've also tried some blind tasting and the flavours here are well beyond the powers of suggestion.

Final Thoughts

To get some wider views I offered some to my local whisky group. In a rare change of form for me the bottle blew the group away. Across the board it was either favourite or close to it among that evening’s selection - thus taking home the win by a significant margin. As recommendations go that isn’t bad.

As I finish the bottle I can only conclude that this delivers upon every promise with ease and exceeded my expectations on the whole.

Those jam notes have only increased as time goes on and the harsher alcohol side has subsided. Together these make a wonderfully sweet and fruity dram that keeps its balance well into the finish. If you can find one of the remaining 359 bottles in the world I suggest snapping it up while you can.