GlenDronach Distillery
For nearly 200 years GlenDronach Distillery has produced single malt whisky with their perfected handcrafted techniques. The company tagline “The Sherry Cask Connoisseurs” accurately summarises what defines GlenDronach single malt: Deep colors and full-bodied flavor profiles stemming from maturation in a variety of sherry casks. Indeed, GlenDronach offers the industry’s highest percentage of Pedro Ximénez, which naturally creates the most unique tasting whisky.
GlenDronach is thus a niche distiller: they offer a varied assortment of sherried single malt whiskies, sparking curiosity within every whisky connoisseur and collector.
GlenDronach has its home in the East Highland Forgue Valley and is one of Scotland’s oldest distilleries – indeed they were among the first to become licensed. Originally founded by James Allardice in 1826, the distillery has been under a fair amount of different ownerships through the years, but the quality and determination have held throughout all the apparent changes. Despite its ups and downs, GlenDronach has also managed to upkeep a cult-like status within the whisky industry, which of course is evidence to GlenDronach’s hard-earned place on the single malt map.
Keeping a typical Highland style GlenDronach whisky is recognized by both heaviness and robustness. They consider it a continuous process to master maturation in sherry casks, and as such, they repeatedly introduce the finest and richly-sherried single malts.
The collection is categorized into three ranges together with a large archive:
- The Core Range
- Limited Releases
- Cask Bottlings
The collection includes young and aged single malts, albeit the assortment mainly consists of long-matured products. GlenDronach acknowledges proudly the fact they cling onto old-fashioned methods, and their dedication to time-honoring processes and traditions equally shine through in the collection.
The history of GlenDronach runs through the distillery’s veins in spite of the changing of hands throughout the two centuries. Not much has changed, and therefore the background has a lot of influence regarding what is being produced today and why.
A Consortium of Entrepreneurs
With James Allardice as the helm, GlenDronach was established in 1826 upon the purchase of the Boysnmill estate in North Aberdeenshire. A group of farmers and businessmen made up a consortium for the business venture, which seemed very promising: The estate’s property had both suitable buildings as well as a water supply (the Dronac Burn after which the distillery was named), and barley was also in local production.
The distillery benefitted greatly from the involvement of Robert Davidson, a chemist who was also Allardice’s nephew. Davidson had by this time already begun selling fresh yeast and London Porter yeast, and so he brought technical knowledge to the consortium. The consortium became an all-encompassing entity with an ideal blend of land, money as well as business insight – and of course Robert Davidson’s practical experiences.
Through the years GlenDronach has had a rather interesting timeline because of the many purchases. Among the owners are Captain Charles Grant (approx. 1920-1960), who was the son of Glenfiddich’s founder, William Grant, and more recently Pernod Ricard (2005-2008) as well as BenRiach Distillery Company (2008-).
In 2016 the American company Brown-Forman acquired GlenDronach, and regarding both the various acquisitions and a mothballing period between 1996 and 2002 GlenDronach has persevered with great elegance. Quite, fortunately, GlenDronach has had their unique profile and great single malts to give cause to ‘stay afloat’ and remain a sought after whisky brand.
Generational Connoisseurs at Work
It was ‘already’ in Allardice’s time that the distillery became known by the sherry cask maturation, and today GlenDronach is renowned for exactly that method. GlenDronach persists on being dedicated to old-fashioned ways of production, and every step of the distillation is seen to with attentive care and perfect timing. It’s of integral priority to ensure the continuation of what has essentially been the distillery’s definition: the distinctive practices. GlenDronach has undeniably been through a lot of changes as a result of the many ownerships, for which reason it’s the more important for the distillery to keep true to their essence.
The distinct GlenDronach taste is already created within the stills. GlenDronach single malts are distilled in four saxophone-shaped stills, which encapsulate top notes of Seville oranges and berries in addition to chocolate, leather, and tobacco base notes. Even just off the stills, the liquid has a rich, full-bodied quality, and this quality is of course enhanced in maturation. In maturation the Highland spirit is married with the Spanish oak wood – the warehouses house a cask stock dating backing to the 1960s, and in general, the casks create fruitcake, clove, and sultana notes and cause a velvety texture.
The sherry casks from Andalusia are either Pedro Ximénez or Oloroso casks, and they add different characters to the maturing whisky – Ximénez inserts depth, intensity and sweetness, while the Oloroso-casks contribute with a more dry and nutty flavor profile.
A Collection of Sherried Single Malts
GlenDronach holds an impressive collection of single malts, each release true to the GlenDronach signature, but of course, each release is singular.
The Core Range entails a series of classic GlenDronach whiskies, and they all have a particular story to tell. The award-winning GlenDronach 12 Year Old is the distillery’s flagship and its expression is the epitome of the distillery’s character and maturation when in perfect balance. It has been matured in both Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso casks for the self-evident 12 years and offers a sensation of smooth vanilla and soft fruits, and its finish is notably long and nutty.
The range equally features GlenDronach 18 Year Old Allardice, which is named after the founder as well as the GlenDronach 21-Year-Old Parliament. The latter refers to the parliament of rooks, which have nested in the warehouses for years and have become fixed inventory. The distillery considers the bird’s guards for their secrets, and it’s believed that for as long the rooks are present, the whisky will benefit.
An innovative level of experimentation is shown with the Limited Releases range. The eponymous GlenDronach Port Wood is matured in Portuguese port casks concerning the historical import of port casks beginning in the 1800s. The combination of sherry matured GlenDronach single malt and Duoro Valley port casks are rare and surprising, and of course, the peated nature of the barley is likewise evident.
In another vein, The GlenDronach Boynsmill Aged 16 Years is in reverence to the distillery’s landscape both in name and flavor profile. GlenDronach is Gaelic for ‘the valley of the brambles’, a name, which aptly describes how the area was known for its bramble fruit terroir. Notes of bramble shine through in both nose and palate, and the whisky’s color also has a wonderful bramble hue.
Since 2010 the GlenDronach distillery has launched yearly Cask Bottlings. The Master Distiller handpicks each cask: The distillery boasts of a large selection of hogsheads, puncheons, butts, and barrel, and each year a handful of casks are judged to be good enough for bottling.
The most recently released single casks is Cask Bottlings Batch 17, which consists of no less than 14 whiskies bottled between 1990 and 2007. Each of the casks offers their particular expression, causing this range to feature a large variety of flavor profiles. 1992 Cask #5896 Aged 26 Years is a dark ruby color with orange, leather and cigar box aromas and blackberry, dark chocolate, and walnut taste notes.
In comparison, 2005 Cask #887 Aged 13 Years has a ‘golden sunset’ color, and its nose is fruity with notes of nectarine, cherry, and apricot along with spicy notes such as mint and cinnamon. The flavor profile presents notes of apricot and nectarine coupled with cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, and honey. The former has been released in 828 bottlings exclusive to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The latter is a European release of 425 bottles.
GlenDronach has a comprehensive back catalog of single cask limited releases, and it’s well worth going on an exploration in their archives.
The GlenDronach Distillery, The Sherry Cask Connoisseurs, is a most interesting, unique and skillful single malt distiller. As a specialist distiller, GlenDronach produces niche whiskies, and their collection is fascinating, quality-driven, flavourful, and for every collector or connoisseur, it’s a must to delve into their extraordinary richly-sherried single malts.