The GlenDronach Original Aged 12 Years Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 70cl

Product Information

In any case, I’m off to buy a 12yo Glendronach. That’s something I didn’t expect to say anytime soon. Thanks, Hamish and Dougie– this deep dive was needed. While “richly sherried” is a perfectly apt description, it’s not as sharp with citrus as many sherry-heavy Scotch expressions. Instead, GlenDronach finds honey riding heavy on its aromatic profile, with austere, oily wood notes, walnut, and toffee rounding things out on the nose. The palate is quite rich and seductive, those nutty walnut and polished wood notes really driving the agenda, which ultimately leads you down a road to creme brulee, more toffee, toasted marshmallow, and hits of clove-studded orange, a citrusy overtone which lingers on the finish for quite some time. I think this is my first taste of a GlenDronach. This is the entry level of the range which is matured for 12 years in a mix of Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez casks.

Cherry toffee. Cherry sauce drizzle on ice cream-van ice cream. Creamy vanilla jam, like clotted cream and jam on a scone. Grapey, more spice – a little more tingle on the tongue. Vague nuttiness, and cinnamon-dusted raisins. All whisky is filtered to a certain extent, with barrier-filtered whiskies often making their way into cask-strength bottlings. Not all chill-filtered whiskies are subject to the huge industrial and forceful filtration technique we associate with the blends and mass-market malts we all know. The definition of chill-filtration, in my opinion, potentially needs to be re-assessed as our knowledge of whisky grows and the whisky-making process is refined and altered as time goes on. Development: Again, mild on my palate, but in an interesting and subtle way. I taste the sherry influence mostly at this point. Honey and syrup dominate, with some ginger and pepper sneaking through. Let this one linger on the middle of your tongue for a while -- mmmmm! In 2004, with the Sherry 15-year-old now discontinued, Glendronach 12 Year Old Original was revived, with the strength at 40% but retaining its ‘original’ 1980s cask recipe of ‘Sherry Wood and Traditional Oak Barrels’. This unloved Original was the last of its type before Billy Walker’s Benriach company bought Glendronach in 2008. A few drops of water seem not to affect the nose, palate, or finish. Odd, that. I suggest leaving out the water, although it might sweeten things a tad, if that’s how you prefer it.

About The Distillery

Nose: Big sherry, dark chocolate, over ripen grapes, clove, oak, caramel, dry raspberry tea, hybiscus. Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Members, such as chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”). Whiskybase B.V. is the Dutch private limited liability company, having its statutory seat in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and its office at Zwaanshals 530, 3035 KS Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Whiskybase B.V. is registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under no. 52072819. Finish: The palate settles into a chewy finish of medium length and features more wood and baking spice influence. Cardamon, nutmeg, and more ginger all come through. My experience with Glendronach thus far is tasting the 15 and the 18 (I preferred the 15), one or 2 CS releases, and 2 single casks in their late teens (one of which was really good and my bottle of it will be opened when I retire from Medicine - it was distilled a month after I started Medical school).

The last 10 years have seen Glendronach concertedly reinforce its reputation for producing heavily sherried Speyside whiskies – barring the release of the 8 year old Hielan I’ve rarely seen an expression from the distillery in recent years that has not played entirely to its sherry matured DNA. This has become even more the case since the distillery’s sale (in April 2016) to Brown-Forman which has resulted in the ending of peated runs at the Huntly-based distillery – you’ll still find Glenronach Peated on the shelves, but don’t be expecting any more to be produced once that consignment has been and gone. Glendronach has carved out a popular niche in the whisky market and its owners are keen to exploit that positioning. Rightfully so – reputations are not formed overnight and every oddly finished or contrarily peated expression fails to provide the underpinning that Dronach is the place to go for big sherry. As such, it seems these variants of Glendronach have been consigned to the dustbin of history (all of the wood finishes are now listed under ‘ Archive’) – at least for now. Yet the modern Glendronach Original must have been made from steam-distilled spirit since around 2017. Evidently the change in spirit character was hidden or smoothed by sherry casks and skillful blending, and if they can balance that big of a change we’d imagine that the present challenge should be a doddle for someone as talented as Rachel Barrie. If there wasn’t an uproar after the seismic switch from coal to steam powered distillation, it seems unlikely that a change as relatively minor as chill filtration should make that much of a difference. Nevertheless, the presentation of a whisky surely gives us an insight into the attitude and mindset of a producer when bottling an expression (be it a special release or a core range product). The distiller and blender are saying to us, “This is the best product we can deliver. This is our spirit, and we are proud.” With more and more new distilleries releasing inaugural bottlings and beginning to distribute their core range, we are seeing these three requirements met from almost all of them. They aren’t produced for blends: they are setting up their stall and proudly displaying their liquid in as natural a form as they can.Taste: This is neat by the way. I rarely add water to my scotch. I tried in the beginning, but it really doesn't do anything for me. Mild honey. Burn comes on very very slowly and never gets intense. Finish is honey and chocolate. Toblerone? Butterfinger?