There are bottles you drink, and there are bottles that mark a moment. The GlenAllachie Lebanon Edition I belongs to the second category. For the first time, one of Speyside's most respected independent distilleries has selected a single cask exclusively for the Lebanese market, and the result is a 14 year old Oloroso sherry matured single malt of real depth and character.
This is not a general release with a sticker added for the region. It is one cask, cask number 1931, bottled in full and never to be repeated. It came about through a collaboration with the Lebanese distributor Mr. Elie Hanna, who chose this cask himself rather than accepting an allocation. All 156 bottles sold out within 24 hours of release, and once they were gone, that was the end of it.
What is in the bottle
The specification tells its own story of restraint and quality.
Distillery: The GlenAllachie, Speyside
Vintage: 2011, distilled on 06.12.11
Age: 14 years old
Cask: Single Oloroso Sherry Hogshead, cask number 1931
Bottled: May 2026
Outturn: 156 bottles only
Strength: 55.4% alcohol by volume, cask strength
Format: 700ml
No colour added, non chill filtered
Product of Scotland
Every one of those lines matters. This is a single cask, so there is no blending across barrels to smooth out the profile. It is bottled at cask strength, so nothing has been diluted down to a standard number. There is no artificial colour, and it has not been chill filtered, which means the natural oils and full texture of the spirit reach the glass intact. What you taste is exactly what the cask produced.
The release is catalogued on Whiskybase under reference WB302925, where the cask number, outturn and strength are recorded independently of us.
Why the Oloroso hogshead is the heart of this whisky
GlenAllachie under Billy Walker has built its reputation on sherry cask maturation, and the Oloroso hogshead is one of the finest tools in that trade. Oloroso is a dry, oxidative style of sherry, and casks seasoned with it lend deep dried fruit, dark chocolate, roasted nuts and warm baking spice to the whisky over time. Fourteen years in this cask has also given the liquid its colour, a natural, unadulterated tone so deep it sits close to black in the glass.
A hogshead is smaller than a butt or a puncheon, roughly 250 litres, so the spirit sits in closer contact with the wood. Over 14 years in Speyside that gives a richer, more concentrated extraction than a larger cask would. At 55.4% the fruit and the spice arrive with weight and length. A few drops of water will open it further if you prefer, but there is no rush.
The distillery behind the label
The GlenAllachie Distillery sits at the foot of Ben Rinnes near Aberlour, in the heart of Speyside. It was founded in 1967, and for most of its life it quietly produced malt destined for blends. That changed in 2017, when a group led by the master distiller Billy Walker, one of the most decorated names in Scotch, acquired the distillery and turned it into one of the few genuinely independent operations in the region.
Walker rebuilt the character of the spirit from the ground up. Fermentation was extended to around 160 hours, close to three times the industry norm, which produces a fruitier and more rounded new make. Married to his obsessive wood management and his access to a deep inventory of sherry casks, GlenAllachie has become a byword for full bodied, sherry driven single malt. This Lebanon Edition is a direct expression of that philosophy, captured in one cask.
Why Lebanon Edition I is a statement
The number in the name is deliberate. This is Edition I, the first, which tells you the intention is a series. A distillery of GlenAllachie's standing does not commit a hand selected single cask to a market it does not take seriously. That the cask was personally chosen by the Lebanese distributor Mr. Elie Hanna is what makes this release truly ours. For the Lebanese whisky community, that recognition is worth as much as the liquid itself.
At 156 bottles the exclusivity is real rather than marketing language. This is the kind of release that a serious collector wants on the shelf and a serious drinker wants in the glass, and there are simply not enough bottles for both. It reflects the direction Club Mareva has pushed from the start, bringing single cask, cask strength and genuinely rare expressions to Beirut rather than settling for what is easy to source.
How to approach it
Serve it neat first, in a Glencairn, and give it a few minutes in the glass. Expect dried figs, dates and dark cherry, layered with cocoa, treacle and a spiced sweetness from the Oloroso wood, all carried by the natural texture that non chill filtration preserves. Add water in small steps only if you want to explore how it shifts. This is a whisky to sit with, not to hurry.
With every bottle sold, the one place left to taste the Lebanon Edition I is at Club Mareva Beirut, where it is available by the glass for those who want to experience it before it disappears for good.
The GlenAllachie Lebanon Edition I is the sort of bottle that defines a cabinet and a moment. Being among the 156 who own one is not something that will come around again.
