If sherried single malt is very much your thing, then GlenDronach is a name you should get to know very well. The distillery resides in the Highlands, busily working away on some incredible expressions, with sherried malt sitting at the core of many of them. This particular dram, The GlenDronach 12 Year Old, is allowed to age in a combination of Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez casks from Spain, resulting in generous helpings of dried fruit and Christmas spice running through it.
Please note: We're afraid we can't guarantee which vintage you will receive. It'll still be yummy GlenDronach no matter the vintage, mind!
Rich cereals, struck match, raisin, cinnamon, caramelised sugar. Opens with some sweeter PX and lots of delicious raw ginger before becoming creamier with hazelnuts.
Fruits, peels, buttery. Pain au chocolat, a little marmalade on toast before becoming firmer and nuttier with spiced raisins.
Smoky toffee and nut brittle.
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I used to like this a lot. But I don't know if my taste changed or whether this whisky got a lot less good. As it stands I would not recommend it.
Surprising amount of heat, sherry sits back in my opinion. theres sweetness but it's balance, great price point and good entry level dram. A good Whiskey, I prefer the Benriach Sherry cask 12 or 15 year, which is a tiny bit more expensive but this is still a good quality drop.
This is an excellent sherried scotch and one of the best values in the 12 year range. Not as good as the 15-year-old revival but pretty close. In my opinion, it blows away the Macallan 12 and even rivals the Mac 18 Sherry oak.
They haven't had time to build up their reputation. I also suspect their whisky might not get as much critical acclaim because it is very heavily sherried and for one thing that segment is overcrowded if there ever was one, for another judges tend to subtract points if the whisky takes over too much of the qualities of the wine, sherry, bourbon or whatever resided in the cask before. But to the point, what I found most remarkable in this dram is that the nose displays a scent very much reminiscent of a well sorted vine cellar. That amalgamation of noble rot, maturing wine and a slight dampness. It's definitely there. To the taste it is fruity and you could be forgiven to think it had a wine finish instead of sherry. Nevertheless it is very enjoyable and a huge bargain if you ask me.
I've bought the miniature set after my distillery visit and have done a vertical tasting of 12YO Original, 15YO Revival, 18YO Allardice, 21YO Parliament. If you taste them one after the other you would actually be inclined to rate the 12YO slightly lower, because the older expressions are truly, genuinely excellent and the youngest one pales a bit in comparison. But then you have to remember this is an almost entry level expression and very reasonably priced. To be perfectly honest I can't fathom, how Glendronach could be this cheap and low profile, as it is easily up there with the likes of Dalmore, Glenmorangie, dare I say close to Macallan as well. I only have the following two guesses: perhaps because the distillery has reopened a few years ago, they haven't had time
