Review by: zSolaris

Distillery: Glendronach

Region: Highland

Age: 14 year. Distilled December 15th, 2005 and bottled in 2020.

ABV: 60.00% Cask Strength

Cask Type: Pedro Ximénez Puncheon

Price: Sample courtesy of /u/xreekinghavocx

Color: 1.6, Mahogany/Henna Notes. Natural Color and Non-Chill Filtered

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Nose: Takes a really long time for it stop burning your nostrils out when you put your nose near it. Once it does stop clearing your sinuses, there’s a ton of sherry as expected. Some maraschino cherries, a clove heavy spice mix, and sugarcane juice round things out.

Palate: Holy mother of hotballs. It needs water and needed water yesterday. It’s hotter than the sun. Get a fire hose, this one needs it. Thankfully, it does cool down eventually. Once it does, there’s a lot of sherry with some oak. Oak. A Little bit of chocolate malt and chocolate rice krispies come through as well.

Finish: Fairly quick, surprisingly. There’s a touch of sherry with vanilla in a few forms namely vanilla paste and vanilla cheesecake.

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Conclusion: It was a few months and a year ago that I was planning out a trip back to Scotland. One of the stops was going to be the GlenDronach distillery. Sadly that trip got called off, but this distillery hand-fill reminded me of the exciting of planning it all out. This one seems to take a long time to get started. It’s hot and burns a bit. Thankfully it does eventually calm down. The end result is a little simplistic, but still tasty.

Final Score: 81.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.