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However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you. 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. Overall: If you couldn’t tell from the over-the-top language in the above notes, this is an incredible whisky. One of the best, literally, that I have ever had. It strikes all of the bells for me: Sweet and fruity sherry without being overly resinous or sulfurous. Decadently full flavor without excessive alcohol burn. Mountains of chocolate, to degrees I’ve never experienced in a whisky. It starts confidently, strides across the palate without faltering and finishes with elegance, retaining its integrity. A whole, full, round, complete whisky. When I first tried I thought I had made a big mistake. Left it a few days and gave it a few hours with cork out.
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.Now, in my career (not giving too much away about Hamish’s daily activities), I often ask my clients and customers: “If you were to wave a magic wand right now, what would you want delivered? What would deliver value and make you happy?” I ask this now, as a whisky drinker, of you and the wider enthusiast group. ‘Value’ is the word of 2022 when it comes to our whisky purchasing. What a lot of us expect from our precious brown liquid, for our hard-earned money –let’s wave that magic wand – is: Nose: Rich luscious and sexy sherry profile. Very sweet. Golden syrup. Honey. Dried fruit especially plums and raisins. A tad vinegary. And a tad meaty too going to bouillon country quite fresh for the age of 21! To find out more about responsible consumption, visit Responsibility.org and OurThinkingAboutDrinking.com
Entering the discussion, I couldn’t help but focus on my preconceptions about what this new chill-filtration process entailed. My pre-emptive questions were about why the decision had been made to filter the liquid, who had made that decision, what Brown-Forman was trying to achieve by incorporating such a drastic step, how much it even cost to run one of these machines, and what the impact on the liquid itself would be– a liquid that had built its reputation on natural presentation and incredible taste. Wow. That almost says everything. One would like to enjoy only what is offered as a whole, without having to worry much about details. Nevertheless, here too rich fruit blend, sherry full, first-class balanced, makes you want more. The 48% Vol. Are the malt well to face. It won’t be long now before the GlenDronach 21 Years Parliament will be made from whisky that was distilled after GlenDronach reopened in the early 2000s. It means that the release I’m reviewing today will be at least 25 years old, maybe even 26 years, since it was bottled in 2021. After all, the distillery was closed between 1996 and 2002, and that gap of six years forces GlenDronach to use older whisky than necessary. Glendronach distillery does incorporate a level of filtration. When the casks are vatted and brought together–either under Dr. Rachel Barrie or, previously, Billy Walker – every batch is going to contain some level of flocculation and, indeed, of turbidity. That vatted liquid is then sent down to the bottling line for further inspection by the quality control team, where it is then compared to a base sample of the 12 Year Old. (I’m using the 12-year-old expression as my example for this piece, although the same process is carried out by the team regardless of expression.) If the newly vatted liquid is deemed to have a ‘higher’ level of turbidity than the base sample, it is subjected to filtration. Glendronach has also incorporated a randomly selected team to blind taste samples on occasion. This team is ever-changing and can involve anyone from the production team, members of the bottling line, and gift shop workers. This means there is an additional level of quality control incorporated in the process– a bit more due diligence to ensure the liquid remains as it should.
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. 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.
GlenDronach has featured extensively on this blog, and not just about how many of their whiskies are older than the age that is mentioned on the label. I’ve reviewed roughly 25 different expressions from GlenDronach, with their 50-year-old being the absolute highlight. But there are many other examples of GlenDronach that I enjoyed at lot ( and some not so much). 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. Don’t think anyone is going to fight me on this, but Glendronach is one of the best distilleries out there at the moment. The miracles in cask selection the people of Billy Walker performed after the take-over in 2009. So much that the 15yo revival in no time, became an all-time favorite with the whisky crowd. So what about one of its older brothers: next to the 18yo the official range offers a 21yo expression, called Parliament. 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 think this would be easy enough to justify it’s price; just tally up all the less than spectacular food or useless junk you would have spent the same money on. The either starve temporarily, or live off of ramen for a little while, and there you go – whisky bliss!The information and quotes for this blog post originally appeared in a Dutch article by Bert Rutkowski for Whisky Etc. His article was published in early 2014, mine followed shortly thereafter in February 11th 2014. The final update to this article is from October 14th 2021. Extra Information of Whiskey Misconduct In 2023 - Tasty Bites Journey on Scarce, High End Bourbon Drives American Scandals
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