Whisky Tasting and Glendronach Distillery Visit
I popped into Glendronach Whisky Distillery the other day for a short tour and whisky tasting. Luckily the experienced and knowledgeable Karen was on hand to show me round.
Glendronach Introduction
For those not familiar with Glendronach this Highland distillery was founded in 1826. It has an output this year of 1.3 million litres of spirit from 2 wash stills and 2 spirit stills which are magnificently displayed through the large windows of the 1960’s extension building. The distillery still uses spring water from the surrounding hills, the distillery owns the land the spring is on which ensures the water is clean and pure and remains free of contaminants.
This lovely remote distillery is definitely worth a visit and could be included on a 3 distillery day tour from Aberdeen airport which would include GlenGarioch, GlenDronach and GlenGlassaugh as well as a stop into Deans Shortbread visitor centre. Get in touch for more information.
After a short tour with facts and figures being thrown around hard and fast Karen went on to explain she also runs informal private tutored tasting sessions – get in touch via this website with your contact details and I’ll put you in touch with her!
Karen has been kind enough to supply the photos on this blog post, taken while the distillery was out of production. For safety reasons photo’s are not allowed during production!
Glendronach Whisky Tasting
I picked up a few whisky tasting samples while at the distillery to take home, I was driving after all! Prices below are at the distillery visitor centre and correct for January 2018. The whiskies are, from left to right, Glendronach 12 bottled at 43% and priced at £42 per bottle, Glendronach 18 bottled at 46% and priced at £80 per bottle, Managers choice handfill distilled 12th February 1993 making it almost 25 years old. Bottled at cask strength (53.6%) and priced at £250 per bottle. The final whisky is their Peated no age statement, bottled at 46% and priced at £38 per bottle.
Plenty of people before and after me have written plenty of tasting notes so rather than adding to them I’m simply going to rate these whiskies in order of value for money and my own preference!
Order of Preference
So first, the order of preference, the (nearly) 25 year old Managers Choice (distillery only) is a fantastic whisky, a great mouthfeel and very long finish. I’ve written the nose is reminiscent of ‘slightly rotting mangoes on the Trinidadian forest floor’ – a much nicer smell than it sounds! Often a 53% whisky would need water but I found I didn’t need to add any to enjoy this fantastic dram.
Next, and probably not surprisingly the 18 year old, with a fantastic long finish, my tasting notes say ‘Sultanas of Swing’, the mouth feel is syrupy, not as thick as the Managers Choice. A nice lightly sulphurous nose coming from the sherry casks used in maturation among the slightly burned caramels and fruity notes.
What comes next surprised me; I’d rather the 12 year old with its light fruity bananas and pears taste and evaporative light mouthfeel. The finish I’ve described as ‘Delicate Turkish Delight’ indicating a slight chocolate hint and the traditional rose flavoured Turkish Delight.
Finally, the whisky which I think is slightly contrived, almost like someone made a peated whisky with the view ‘that’s how a peated whisky should taste’. As a fan of Islay malts this slightly malty whisky didn’t cut it for me. The nose I thought was like ‘straw smoke over a freshly cut barley field’ the mouthfeel light with an enjoyable inner cheek tingle and a long fading smoke finish.
Value for Money!
And now to put these in Value for Money order. I’d spend £80 on 1 bottle of the 18 instead of 2 bottles of the 12. At £250 I’d struggle to buy a bottle of the Managers Choice. I could have a bottle of the 18 and a bottle of several Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottlings that are single cask, cask strength and at least the same age, although perhaps not sherry cask I’d still have change for a case or 2 of beer and maybe even dinner. As to the Peated, I’d leave it on the shelf.
