Glendronach 2007 N&P Single Cask Review

Hi everyone,

Today I've got another exclusive single cask whisky, this time in the form of Glendronach.

Glendronach have had a bit of a hyped reputation in the last few years, especially for the single cask stuff but I’ve noticed (as have others) that the quality seems to have declined more recently. Perhaps this is the delayed effect of Billy Walker selling and leaving, perhaps they just don’t have the casks they used to.

Glendronach 2007 Nickolls & Perks 60.1%

Colour: Light Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Fresher than expected, apricot and some peach, malt and chocolate, creamy, a little spirity, apricot yoghurt.

Water: Sweeter with chocolate cake and a mossy vegital thing going on.

Taste: Quite robust and spirity, vegital moss, some vanilla, ginger and black pepper spice, a very little raisin towards the end.

Water: A bit flat, plain oak with more chocolate.

Finish: Medium length. Sweeter here with raisin, chocolate and malt.

1st fill PX cask. 11yo. Quite spirity and fresh version of Glendronach. You can see why the spirit does well with time, similar to Macallan. But I’ve found these younger Glendronach’s to be disappointing compared to the more standard 15/18yo at around the same price. Still available for £75 on their website.

74/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #804

Whisky Network Review #958

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glendronach 2004 Hand Filled Review

Hi everyone,

I am planning to open more bottles of whisky from my own collection. For no other reason than there’s no time like the present.

Some bottles I’ve bought I’ve stashed away for a special occasion, but no occasion ever feels special enough. So I’m opening them. And this is one such whisky.

I love distillery exclusives. And even better I love ‘bottle your own’ distillery exclusives. Partly because they’re very special and you really associate the whisky with the trip and the time you had at the distillery. Also partly because they’re usually awesome single casks actually selected by someone who actually knows what they are doing.

 

Glendronach 2004 Hand-Filled 55.2%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium

Nose: Not the Sherry monster that I expected. Quite a muted nose with golden raisin, orange, fresh tobacco, faded cigar smoke and some subtle earthy notes coming through. Dried mushroom perhaps? Quite a soft and subtle nose.

Water: More complex, darker and more earthy, dried tobacco, more leather, classy orange, caramel digestive biscuits, dark chocolate, some cherry at times too.

Taste: Soft arrival, golden raisin, golden syrup, barley and malt, very fresh for a Glendro, tobacco with some dark chocolate, then more malty with some fresher citrus coming in, orange, some tangy lime and then becoming more spirity with lemon peel and juniper.

Water: Soft but much better balance, orange oil, classy oak, none of that spirity hit, more earthy and dry with leather and chocolate, cherry, a little raspberry maybe, malt, golden raisin and then golden syrup into the finish.

Finish: Medium length. A little spirity and almost gin like with juniper and mint, quite atypical for the Glendro's I've tried so far. Interesting though!

Distilled 02/06/04, bottled 01/07/16 from a Puncheon. A shame about the finish, in that it goes in a very differnt direction and is a little spirity for my taste. Perhaps could have done with another few years in the cask to calm it down. Much better with water, really brings everything together and into a much better balance. Despite that, I probably should have bought a bottle of the 21yo based on price-to-pointage alone.

78/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #585

Whisky Network Review #690

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glendronach 1991 Kingsman Review [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Oh god, where to start with this one?

So, this is a whisky released for a particular movie sequel, Kingsman 2. Now, I could understand Dalmore or Macallan popping up in James Bond, and there is that association here with the Bond films, but Glendronach? Not sure, that’s the image you want to cultivate. Especially, with a spy comedy.

Anyway, all of that aside, this was exciting. Because it’s Glendronach. It’s from Sherry casks. It’s cask strength-ish. And it’s old. The oldest Glendronach I’ve tried so far.

So I tried to not let the movie thing get to me and just assess the whisky itself.

 

Glendronach 1991 Kingsman 48.2%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Cherry and crushed mint, Sherry isn't too in your face, it's restrained, a little sharp alcohol though, nicely woody with some nutmeg, some cinnamon but there is a sour vinegar note that I feel I’m sensitive to.

Taste: Sharp then soft, woody, lots of oak, cherry, artificial cherry, cinnamon spice, Euro oak, sour red grape. It is quite sour and woody to start, then it gets even more sour. Thankfully, there’s none of the vinegar here.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Malty, lots of espresso, dark chocolate. Length is disappointing here.

Ah! What a fantastic way of getting rid of your ‘dud’ casks that haven’t performed as well as you’d have hoped! Release some swanky box and decanter for some Hollywood movie and sell for huge amounts of money.

Joking aside, this is disappointing. It’s disappointing for a Glendronach, and majorly disappointing for the price it’s at.

And yes, I did give it time. I decided not to add water but I left it to open up but didn’t get much more from it. As always, this review is just an opinion.

76/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #460

Whisky Network Review #525

Network Average: 74.3

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

[Scotland Stag] Glendron-aching for more: Tour

Hi everyone,

After Glenfiddich we popped over to Speyside Cooperage for a quick tour and some food. Then it was time to take Tom over to Glendronach, as he’s a huge fan of Sherried whiskies. I’d been on my last trip to Speyside but had only done the basic tour. So this time we did the Discovery tour with some tasters of stuff I hadn’t tried yet.

Glendronach is a lovely traditional distillery, set well away from the main Speyside trail in some lovely rolling hills with swaying barley fields. You are shown the old maltings that were active until 1996, then the cast iron mash tun, wooden washbacks, etc. Since we were there on Friday afternoon, the distillery had shut down for the weekend and everything was being polished, which was actually a nice change to the heat and shouting (over the noise) tour guides of many other places.

Speyside Cooperage

It’s interesting to find out how much distilleries are running too, Glendronach, as well as many other places, run 24 hours a day over 5 days, while some distilleries are 24/7 if demand is high. I also asked whether Brown Forman (who bought the distillery last year) had made any changes and the guide said that there had been no changes to the production as of yet.

All the stills at Glendronach were direct fired until 1996 too, but the distillery was closed from then till 2002. This means, if you do the maths, that recent batches of the 18yo will be 20 years old. What I don’t like about the Glendronach tour though, is that you don’t get shown any of the warehouses, just a window into one. This is a real shame as that’s always my favourite part of a tour.

The tasting for our tour was meant to be the Cask Strength, 21 year old and the Manager’s Cask (a bottle your own). Unfortunately, it had been Spirit of Speyside festival earlier in the month and a few distilleries were out of their bottle your own’s. So we had a 1994 Distillery Exclusive Single Cask instead. All of the them were really good, we were Mort-lapping it up…

 

Glendronach Cask Strength Batch 6 56.1%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Alcohol and Sherry fruit, herbal, fresh mint sprig, dunnage oak. Fresher with water with some nice lime.

Taste: Amazing fresh lime on arrival, lovely Sherry and chocolate powder, then some malty and spicy notes. Raisin, leather and a little oak.

Finish: Long length. More malt now, some leather and chocolatey oak.

A lovely whisky, really surprised by the freshness but the nose was a bit closed.

78/100

I reviewed the 21yo fairly recently and it was just as great as I remember, maybe it deserves an upgrade to 84/100 but my review is here.

Glendronach 1994 Single Cask Distillery Exclusive 54.1%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: A mix of fresh and old, ethereal and minty, sweet Sherry, intense grape. It’s quite closed though, with water that dunnage note comes out.

Taste: Soft, perfect grape, really velvety, looooooooong development, builds to a spicy and malty ending.

Finish: Long length. Black pepper, malt, then chocolate powder.

An immaculate arrival, but that nose is closed again. Bottled 2015 from PX Cask 1189.

81/100

Glendronach 18 46%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Lovely, classic Glendronach, lovely chocolatey malt, nutty, fruity and sugary with brown sugar.

Taste: Rich, nutty first, then malty with a lovely balance. Spiciness building with clove and pepper.

Finish: Long length. Spicy and fruity.

u/generalbirdy managed to blag a sample of this, thanks bro (He bought one too). Very very good, and a great bargain at the moment as it’s over 20 years old. It was great to compare this directly with the 21yo too, and although I still prefer the 21, it was a close call.

82/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch reviews #383-#385

Whisky Network reviews #429-#431

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Celebratory Scotch: Glendronach 12 Sauternes, Glen Grant 1996 Adelphi & Longrow 10 100 Proof Reviews

Hi everyone,

More whisky from my birthday on Tuesday, this time the Scotch’s.

If you didn’t see my post on yesterday, I had my exam on my General Certificate in Distilling in the morning and then ran around Bristol looking for Banksy’s street art. We ended up finding a BrewDog with a great selection of whiskies and just had to chill there for a bit. Great, great day.

Really never thought I’d find an independent bottling in a pub either!

Glendronach 12 Sauternes Finish 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Funky! More like a Port Charlotte! Ha. Seriously though, honey glazing, meaty fruit, juicy apricot, pomegranate, a fruity cocktail, nutty, malty Glendronach and Sauternes sweetness of course.

Taste: Soft, very soft arrival, sweetness builds up with crystallised honey, lemon peel, lemon fruit pastilles, nice malty notes develop into the finish. A little harsh oak comes out after a minute though.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Maltiness stays with some spice and dry oak.

Lovely nose but the taste doesn't quite follow it up.

74/100

Glen Grant 1996 Adelphi 54.4%

Colour: Gold

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Light and delicate. Alcohol, floral, freshly washed linen, fruit pastilles, lemon citrus, light vanilla pod, waxy.

Water: Lighter and more floral, but less of everything else.

Taste: Cutting sharp lemon, lemon peel, Cask waxiness comes in to balance it, floral, lavender, violet, candle wax, refill Bourbon's soft vanilla, some spice comes through with light ginger.

Water: Much more spicy with ginger and white pepper then much more dry refill oak. A little harsh at times.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Waxy vanilla and some delicate white pepper spice.

Bottled 2014 at 18yo. Not really my kind of thing, very delicate whisky but undeniably a great Barrel. Better without the water though.

76/100

Longrow 10 100 proof 57%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Immediately funky, smoky, sooty and slightly floral- violet. Some alcohol, that boggy Longrow thing, earthy, charred meat and some red apple. Some chilli chocolate comes through.

Water: More alcohol unfortunately, red apple, soot and singed paper.

Taste: Oily, sooty, sharp as a blade and a lovely acidity normally reserved for Riesling, mineral chalky and hot slate, spicy chilli chocolate and oily black pepper, hot coals.

Water: Pleasingly hot and spicy still. Mineral, chalky and oily.

Finish: Long length. A blast of spicy black pepper more hot coal smoke, then a bit of biting oak.

Very Longrow, very classic. Shame there's a bit of alcohol on the nose.

79/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #353-#355

Whisky Network Reviews #399-#401 (Yay!)

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glendronach 15 Revival Review

Hi everyone,

Another quick review today and it’s a popular one.

Maybe 2 years ago, I think Glendronach was the most hyped distillery of discerning whisky nerds. Not in a bad way, they deserved the hype. They were bringing out some great stuff. All the intense Sherry cravings we were getting from Macallan withdrawal could be satisfied for less than half the price.

It’s traditionally made, they are using some great casks, they're releasing it at 46% as well as epic single cask versions. No wonder the stuff sold out.

Well, the problem was that Glendronach was closed between 1996-2002. If you do the maths, you can work out that that falls into that 15 year gap. Glendronach doesn’t have any 15 year old whisky right now.

You can also figure out that the latest batches of the 18 year old will be from 1996, sooooo 20 year old really.

Glendronach 15 year old Revival 46%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Ignore the award.
TWE's, not mine!

Nose: Treacle, toffee, rum, molasses, wood polish, zesty citrus notes, lemon peel, chocolate orange, nutty note, some vanilla. Develops spices, then a herbal note- Mint and wax, dark cherries, cream, more treacle comes through with sweet black grapes.

Taste: Intense and mouth coating. Toffee and some tannins, chocolate, raisins, sweet honey, mint, a little salty note, walnut, dark chocolate and coco, some coffee, cherry, some spice developing in the mouth.

Finish: Medium length. Drying with mint, chocolate and tannins.

Lovely and intense, a great Sherry bomb. Takes water very well too.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #329

Whisky Network Review #362

Network Average: 74.4

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Glendronach 1993 Single Cask Review

Hi everyone,

Got something special today.

Single cask Glendronach.

When I first started tasting whisky, the idea was to get a really special bottle for my 21st birthday from my birth year. But I wanted to be able to appreciate this bottle and choose something special too. I needed to know what I was doing.

So I found Ralfy’s videos and watched those, then started to learn more. I started to learn what words like ‘colouring free,’ ‘Non-Chillfiltered,’ ‘cask strength,’ and ‘single cask’ meant and why they were important. After trying the 15yo Revival, I decided this was the one to go for.

I finished the bottle ages ago but saved a small sample for future me to try.

Glendronach 1993 Single Cask 59.4%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: Sweet and spicy. Dry, rich, lots of fruit- plums, dates, raisins, dark cherries, dry sherry, toffee, 80% dark chocolate, leather, dried banana, herbal note- clove, liquorice, vanilla pods, honey, strong tea, nutty, perfumey notes, wax, figs, ginger.

Coming back to my sample I saved- Brown sugar, dry oak, soy sauce, less fruit than I remember, but some earthy and meaty complexity I don’t remember being there before.

Water: More toffee, butterscotch, little bit of chocolatey malt, vanilla fudge, brown sugar, golden syrup, toffee coffee.

Taste: Sweet, fresh clean sherry, dried fruit- Fig, date, plum, some leather, cherry, raisin, drying with tannins, toffee, clove, spice, pepper and salt. Sometimes red wine, lots of brown sugar, well brewed tea. After some time a chocolatey malt note develops.

Coming back to my sample I saved- Big, very rich, dry oak, fruity with black cherry, plum and date, dark chocolate, then spicy oak builds with ginger and something perfumed. Just as delicious as I remember.

Water: Softer arrival, less spicy, less oak, more brown sugar, honey and a perfumed note. Really thick and chewy, then lots of 90% dark chocolate into the finish.

Finish: Long length. Drying with burnt sugar, oak, dark chocolate and some coffee.

Cask 536, bottled 06/2012. Even more delicious brown sugar after time in the bottle. Really enjoyed this but prices of these single casks rose quite a bit after I got this, also 1993 seems to be a really popular vintage and always sells out super fast.

83/100

Thanks for reading!

Review #336

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 44

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, I have never accepted free samples from anyone in the whisky industry, but have bought bottles or samples with my money, bringing a different set of biases. Also, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.