As a result retail prices have risen, sometimes quite dramatically. That’s partly due to pricing policy by the distillery, but also because retail outlets realised they could ask higher prices for GlenDronach that was bottled in certain years — a regretful side-effect of this article. Current State of GlenDronach GlenDronach offers an exceptional range of whiskies, which for a long time have represented among the best values for sherried single malts. Prices have been steadily going up over the last few years; a reflection of increasing demand as the brand gets discovered and a more aggressive pricing strategy. The GlenDronach 18 years old has been named after the renowned founder of the distillery, James Allardice. This exceptional sherried single malt is natural in colour and bottled at 46% ABV. Matured in the finest Spanish Oloroso sherry casks, this sublime richly sherried malt is truly unforgettable. The GlenDronach 18-year is named after the 1826 founder of the distillery, James Allardes. It is aged for 18 years exclusively in Spanish oloroso sherry casks, and bottled at 46% ABV without chill-filtration or added coloring. 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”).

The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Members and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein. Finish: Deep, dark, fungal depths of resinous sherry. There’s a lot in there to plumb. Fades with a little mint and berry, and some mouth-drying barrel tannin. No bitterness. The finish is long, with the lingering dried fruit sweetness characteristic of sherry matured whiskies, along with a slight balsamic note, with some bitterness and a bit of pepperiness.Glendronach 1959 & 1960 GM Special Vatting to commemorate marriage of Prince Andrew to Miss Sarah Ferguson

Like its siblings, this is an oily, viscous whisky with a pronounced palate weight, although it is a little drier than the 12 YO and 15 YO expressions. B and B-: Good and above average. The best of the mass market whiskeys fit in this category, as do the bulk of the premium brands. A B- is three stars.

We may sell, license, transfer, assign or in any other way dispose of the Service (including Members) to any third party without any notification to you, e.g. (but without limitation) in connection with any reorganization, restructuring, merger or sale, or other transfer of assets.

I can’t fault the distillery for raising prices, the brand has been underpriced. It’s still an exceptional value, just a little less so than before. Prices will likely continue to go up, however, so if you find the whisky to your liking you might want to put a bottle or two away.

Top Whiskies

Billy even wanted to add new expressions, which we did. I expect that the new generation of whiskies will be mostly NAS with fancy names, but we hope to be able to sustain a core range of top quality whiskies with age statements. Especially because we feel like that’s the way we can keep up the delicate and unique character of our distillery, whereas with NAS-whiskies the influence of the casks will weaken that character.” Keeping the philosophy alive Ownership changed frequently and nearly all the big whisky brands owned this distillery at one stage or another. Chivas Brother, Charles Grant and William Teacher and Sons left a mark. The color is a rich, deep gold. On the nose, there are notes of milk chocolate and brown sugar, along with notes of apple, pear, cherry and a bit of grilled pineapple and some anise. Each and every Member must be of legal drinking age in its country of residence to be allowed to use the Service. If no such law exists in a Member’s country of residence, the Member has to be over 21 years old to use the Service. We have the right to ask you to provide proof of your age and/or to provide further identification to prevent underage usage and/or for any other legal or legitimate purpose. By using the Service, and by creating an account you represent, warrant and confirm that you are of legal age. You are responsible for all activities through your account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide to us in relation to your account, and for updating it where necessary. You are not allowed to create multiple accounts. We may terminate or temporarily suspend your account to protect you, ourselves or our partners from (suspected) identity theft or other (suspected) fraudulent (e.g. false, misleading, deceptive) activity. You have the obligation to keep your login credentials confidential. You shall not authorize any others to use or access your account.

To conclude the original article, I wrote “ Let’s just hope that in a couple of years, when they can finally release whiskies with accurate age statements, they are able to produce the same top quality as they do now.” That hope doesn’t seem to have come to fruition. Sure, some of the single cask releases are still top notch, but also priced pretty much out of everybody’s range. As far as the more affordable releases go: the latest Glendronach Cask Strength Batch #9 was underwhelming. Founded in 1826 by James Allardice, GlenDronach Distillery creates some spectacular single malts. Previously owned by Billy Walker, the distillery is part of the BenRiach Distillery Co. Sold to Brown Forman in 2016, the distillery now falls under the watchful eye of Master Blender, Rachel Barrie. The spirit has more body than some of the lighter Speyside styles. This is great for Sherry cask maturation, something GlenDronach are renowned for. Palate: Thin body. Prune up front, with more sherry resin, tobacco (shisha), and raw apple cider vinegar. Dry, really, without much of the sugar one would associate with sherry bombs. Raisiny in the extreme. The distillery converted from coal fired stills to steam heat in 2005. It was the last Scottish distiller to switch. Today, among major producers, only the Japanese distiller Yoichi still uses coal fired stills.

Those words by Buchanan turned out to be pretty prophetic. Indeed, GlenDronach has become so popular that despite their best intentions, the distillery has had a very difficult time keeping up with demand. Even so much so that they had to discontinue the GlenDronach 15-years-old Revival in 2015, less than 18 months after the original publication date of this article. On the nose, the whisky is sweet with notes of creamy crepe brûlée, along with notes of dried apple and pear, raisins, a bit of fig and a hint of anise. There are spice notes of cinnamon and raw ginger and a vermouth-like character with just a hint of clove and nutmeg. Distinctive cooked cereal notes emerge as the whisky opens up. Unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise, your use of and membership to the Service are exclusively governed by Dutch law. We shall first try to settle any dispute over a dram of whisky. Disputes that cannot be settled over multiple drams of whisky shall be solely submitted to the court of Amsterdam, The Netherlands unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise. This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services.