The GlenAllachie 12 Is the Best Single Malt in the World, According to the World Whiskies Awards

The World Whiskies Awards has crowned its Best Single Malt for 2025, with one of Scotland’s few independently owned and operated distilleries taking the top spot for the second time in five years.

Announced in late March 2025 after multiple rounds of blind judging, The GlenAllachie 12-Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky was named the World’s Best Single Malt. The whisky was also recognized as the Best Scotch Speyside Single Malt; The GlenAllachie’s 15-year-old expression received a Gold designation in that category as well 

In winning Best Single Malt, The GlenAllachie 12 had to surpass top contenders from other single malt subcategories, including American, Irish, Japanese, and all other Scotch winners ranging from Islay to the Highlands. The GlenAllachie previously won the overall award for Best Single Malt at the 2021 World Whiskies Awards for its 10-year-old Cask Strength Batch 4.

In February, the World Whiskies Awards announced its winners for the American whiskey categories, including best bourbon. However, producers and whisky fans alike had to wait another month for the international superlatives. Other overall category winners include Three Ships Bourbon Cask (best blended whisky), Fercullen 15 (best grain whisky), and Redbreast 27 Years Old (best pot still whisky). 

While The GlenAllachie’s success in the competition is impressive, the Speyside distillery remains relatively new to self-branded releases. Originally founded in 1967, the distillery primarily produced components for blended whisky during its first 50 years of operation. In 2017, Chivas Brothers sold the operation to an investment group led by industry veteran Billy Walker, who previously worked at BenRiach, GlenDronach, and Glenglassaugh distilleries. Walker now serves as the master distiller for The GlenAllachie. In 2018, The GlenAllachie launched its core line of branded expressions, which today includes 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 30, and 35-year age-stated bottlings.

The GlenAllachie 12 is an unpeated Speyside single malt, matured on-site in Pedro Ximénez and oloroso sherry casks, along with red wine and medium char, medium toast American virgin oak. GlenAllachie's assistant blender, Ronan Currie, tells Food & Wine that this cask makeup is crucial for curating the distillery’s desired flavor profile: “With these four different cask types, we are looking to balance the dried fruit, chocolate, orange peel, sweet sticky raisin, molasses tart, and dark cherry notes of Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez with the fresher fruit and mocha flavors of the red wine, along with toasted hazelnut, butterscotch, brown sugar, and cinnamon imparted by the toasted and charred virgin oak. All these flavors are underpinned by the distillery DNA of heather honey and butterscotch.”

Notable for value-minded consumers, this bottle won’t exactly break the bank, with a suggested retail price of around $66. To win World’s Best Single Malt, The GlenAllachie 12 outperformed many other entrants with prices several times greater than its own.

According to the World Whiskies Awards’ judging notes, this expression begins with a “nose of rich sultanas, flapjacks, and milk chocolate, alongside acetone notes. On the palate, dried apple, gourmet chutney, orange zest, nutmeg, and cinnamon emerge, complemented by vanilla custard. The finish is medium-long, oily, and slightly warm, making for a very enjoyable dram.”

Additional tasting notes from The GlenAllachie highlight hints of dark chocolate, treacle, and heather honey on the nose, as well as mocha and butterscotch on the palate.

“The whole GlenAllachie team is absolutely thrilled at this extraordinary endorsement of the 12-year-old: our flagship expression,” said Billy Walker in a statement after the winners were announced. “When we took the reins at the distillery almost eight years ago, it was beyond our wildest dreams that a previously low-profile whisky would be crowned the world’s best single malt twice — especially within such a short timeframe.”

The GlenAllachie is available in over 50 countries globally. For American consumers, the 12-year core expression is widely available on both retail shelves and specialty online platforms.