Happy New Year everyone!

GlenDronach 39 yo 1972 (49,9%, OB 2011, oloroso cask #712, 466 btl.)

Nose: strikingly fresh and floral – the first thing I get are lovely roses and passion fruit ganache. A nice addition to the usual raisins, dried berries, cocoa and leather we were expecting already. Raspberries and redcurrant jam. Cherry plums. Big oak polish. Hints of mint. Underneath is a layer of darker aromas, blackberries and something vaguely meaty with a hint of clean gunpowder. While I’m usually struggling with these notes, they are so tiny I’d say it’s an asset. Simply excellent: very wide, luscious and juicy. Mouth: starts in a classic way, with Christmas cake, dates, sultanas… Rather dry with a velvety mouthfeel. After a few moments, a wave of superb tropical notes comes rolling in. Tangerine, guava, passion fruits again. As if they poured a few litres of BenRiach 1976 in the cask. Wow! It doesn’t last too long though, it returns nicely on chocolate, liquorice and very soft spices. Tiny hints of camphor / mint. Finish: very long, still a tad fruity but it’s mostly leather and spices now.

What a great dram to round off this year. It definitely needs time to open up and unfold the deep, almost oriental fruitiness that was hidden in the first few sips. For me this deserves a bonus point, I’ve rarely seen sherry and tropical fruits combined so beautifully, not even in other GlenDronach single casks. I’m stunned Serge chooses a GlenDronach 15yo (WF92) over this masterpiece (WF91). Around € 380, still available in some places. Many thanks for the sample swap, Mars!

Score: 93/100

Master of Malt is supporting this charity by the release of a 9 years old Glenfarclas (the youngest we’ve tried so far), distilled in September 2002 and taken from two oloroso hogsheads. It will go on sale today.

Glenfarclas 9 yo 2002 (53%, OB for Master of Malt 2011, oloroso hogsheads #2659 & 2662)

Nose: clean, rich sherry with plenty of rum & raisins, raspberry jam and kirschy notes. Some spicy chocolate. Oranges and red grapes. Hints of almond liqueur. A very juicy (and slightly more balanced) version of Glenfarclas 105. Mouth: in that same tradition of the 105. Deep sherry with dark sugar and raisins all over. Plums. Gets spicy (cardamom, pepper) with a savoury and lightly herbal (even salty) touch. Finish: baked pear with caramelized sugar, dried orange and a fair amount of oak.

Maybe these casks were pre-destined for the 105, but they turned out to be better than average? The result is very nice indeed. Around € 45 of which around € 11 will be donated to Movember. Please note that both Master of Malt and Glenfarclas are working at cost price on this project. Great initiative.

Score: 87/100

Macallan 21 yo 1990 (49,1%,
Malts of Scotland 2011, Oloroso sherry hogshead #1134, 184 btl.)

Nose: very aromatic, nicely sweet and balanced with the sherry. Apples and stewed fruits. Caramel. Rum & raisins, raspberry liqueur. Still some of the original malt underneath the sherry. A fine layer of fresh herbs. Tiny bits of menthol. All of this rounded by some polished oak. Very nice. Mouth: sets off with plenty of bittersweet spices and herbs. Quite peppery and gingery. Roasted nuts. Liquorice and coffee. Some oak. With all this bitterness and herbalness, it takes a while before the dried fruits are noticeable again and it’s never really rounded anyway. Finish: medium long, rather dry with cocoa notes and spices.

I really liked the nose, but on the palate the spicy theme gets a little strong. Let’s find out how it compares to the Fino. Around € 120.

Score: 86/100

GlenDronach 17 yo 1994 (60,1%, OB 2011, oloroso butt #97, 617 btl.)

Nose: similar. Very mushroomy start, with lots of caramel. Some vegetal and meaty notes (oxo). Lots of roasted hazelnuts. Caramel again. Adding water doesn’t help this slightly sulphury profile, on the contrary. Not my type of whisky, although I want to repeat that these notes can be temporary and letting the bottle breathe for a couple of months can make them disappear. Some pear syrup in the background as well. Mouth: sweet at first, but quickly overtaken by spices and herbs (cloves, pepper, liquorice). Then a wave of wood and dark chocolate. Dry and nutty aftertaste. Water does help on the palate, making it rounder and slightly more fruity. Finish: quite dry and quite long with spices and wood.

I can’t really recommend this one, unless you’re familiar with this style and like your sherry a little dirty. Around € 100.

Score: 77/100

GlenDronach 19 yo 1992 (59,2%, OB 2011, oloroso butt #161, 500 btl.)

Nose: a more pronounced version. It has some lovely polished oak and nutty aromas. A little heather honey. Natural caramel. Kirsch and raspberry liqueur. Hints of bread crust. Silky vanilla and almond paste too. There’s a subtle herbal / earthy side as well which makes it stand out. All of this on the expected background of dried fruits and sultanas. Very good, nicely balanced and more complex than the 1989 and 1990 (just like the sherry I would say – PX can be a little mono-dimensional). Mouth: spicy sherry (cinnamon, pepper) with a nice raspberry / cocoa combo. Sweet and sour. Orange cake. Again a range of herbal flavours. Heather honey. Vanilla and nuts. Pretty great. Finish: long, fading on chocolate and herbs.

A very entertaining cask, with all the expected elements but also a wealth of additional layers. Very attractive. If you’d ask me to recommend one of the more accessible bottles of this batch, this would be the one. Around € 115.

Score: 90/100

It is composed of 22 oloroso sherry hogsheads from 1998.

Arran 12 yo 1998 ‘The Westie’
(46%, OB 2011, 6000 btl.)

Nose: fruity and slightly acidic, with sour cherries, orange zest and lemon sherbet. Something of a soda lemonade as well. Hardly any oloroso influence if you ask me. Fresh oak. Hints of honey. A few floral notes too. Mouth: a malty centre with spicy and nutty overtones. Again a zesty kind of citrus flavour. Growing warmer with vanilla, apricots and more noticeable oak. Lemon pie. Finish: medium long, drier, with leather and spices. Traces of mocha.

Quite a smooth Arran, this Westie. Fresh, fruity and convincing as a whole. The oloroso casks must have been second fill or rather third fill, because there’s hardly any sherry to be found. Around € 40.

Score: 84/100

ps/ There’s another limited edition Arran ‘The sleeping warrior’, 10 years old and released to help The National Trust for Scotland. It’s more expensive (around € 60) but it’s cask strength and remember part of your money goes to Scotland’s natural heritage.

Glengoyne

As the filling level of the Christmas Cask becomes lower, evaporation and maturation speed will increase. It’s an interesting experiment and a great chance to follow the maturation of one specific cask throughout the years.

Bottles will be available on 28th of December, priced £ 100.

A similar cask #197 was released shortly after as an official bottling – it was available at the distillery only.

GlenDronach 14 yo 1996 (57,2%, Malts of Scotland 2010, oloroso cask #195, 287 btl.)

Nose: very thick and heavy. Chocolate coated raisins. Toffee and balsamic syrup. Prune jam. Lots of nutty aromas (walnut, hazelnut butter, Nutella) and bread crust with honey. Milk chocolate. A few herbal (Maggi) notes as well. Mouth: also very heavy – sweet and sticky. Mocha. Roasted nuts. A little pepper. Stewed fruits and prunes. Dark chocolate. Dates and figs. Walnuts. Finish: Quite long, totally on dark cherries and chocolate sauce.

This is thicker than a’bunadh… thicker than other GlenDronach as well. It’s not bad (not at all) but I think it’s slightly over the top and too focused on the sherry. It is probably great as a sauce for vanilla ice cream, I will try that as soon as I have the chance. Around € 60.

Score: 82/100

GlenDronach 38 yo 1972 (51,5%,
OB 2010, Oloroso sherry butt #718,
396 btl.)

Nose: wow, this is quite surprising. Plenty of fruits here, but not the obvious dried ones. There’s poached fruits (pears, yellow plums) but also overripe mango, blood orange, some passion fruit and notes that remind me of different sorts of fruit jelly (quince jelly, raspberry gums and cassis sweets). Some butter toffee. Faint hints of cardamom. It keeps developing. This is like a wicked genius: you don’t understand it completely, but you do realize that it has a special and totally intriguing character. Mouth: continues in the same direction, with slightly sour stewed fruits and soft vanilla, but slowly changes character to milk chocolate and all kinds of nuts (mainly walnuts and almonds). Oak as well, but less tannins than in the 1971 version. Finish: very long, slightly fruity but really dry with notes of walnut skin.

After the great reviews of last year’s 1972, this cask was highly anticipated. In my opinion it’s less flawless but slightly more unique. It’s different from cask #719 and certainly different from the rest of the series. I’m curious to know what happened in 1972 to achieve such outstanding casks?
Around € 350.

Score: 92/100

GlenDronach 39 yo 1971 (48,8%, OB 2010, Oloroso sherry butt #489, 541 btl.)

Nose: compared to the 1978, it’s clearly darker and more candied. Its smell of strawberry / raspberry ganache (chocolate cream used to fill pralines) reminds me of the workshops of the famous chocolatiers here in Belgium. Lovely cocoa really. Sugared nuts (hazelnuts, almonds). Fresh figs. Raisins. Milk chocolate mendiants. Oranges. A very light meatiness as well. Balanced hints of pine wood with a soft hint of smoke. Really good. Mouth: rich and mouth-coating with big hints of coffee and bitter-sweet notes of dark chocolate. Intense dried fruits. Walnut skin. Clear oak now, a little tannic maybe, but overall the wood is not too invasive. Finish: very long, heavily sherried and a little dry.

Like last year, the GlenDronach 1971 has a more classic profile than its 1972 sister. Perfect balance with all the flavours you’d expect. 
An interesting cask but a bit overpriced.
Around € 370.

Score: 91/100

GlenDronach 31 yo 1978 (51,2%, OB 2010, Oloroso sherry puncheon #3315, 522 btl.)

Nose: elegance is the keyword here. There’s a juicy fruitiness to start with: sour cherries, bramble, soft raspberry. Hints of apple cake as well. Superb freshness of Seville oranges and pink grapefruit. A little mint. Very lively with an incredible smoothness. Water doesn’t seem to work here, the nose is too subtle to survive. Mouth: rich and vibrant. Raspberries, tangerine, some chocolate. Orange peel. Again some undertones of mint. A bit of oak. This time water works nicely and brings out walnut flavours. Finish: long, a tad nuttier.

A very crisp GlenDronach, high on citrus notes. When compared to the older 1970’s releases, it misses a bit of punch. But of course this one is less expensive. Around € 200.

Score: 89/100

GlenDronach 17 yo 1993 (60,5%, OB 2010, oloroso sherry butt #529, 627 btl.)

Nose: the first thing that struck me was rubber with hints of mushrooms and a sulphury note of fireworks. It’s similar to GlenDronach 15yo Revival in that respect, but less subtle. Also hints of walnuts and meat. On a second level there are hints of mint, cloves, parsley and wet earth with just a hint of sweet berries. A bit of water makes the red fruits stand out. Mouth: very sherried and very spicy with pepper, cloves and cinnamon. Still a bit beefy, earthy and dirty. Hints of dates. Very nice chocolate notes in the end. Again fruitier and more balanced (less spicy) with water. Finish: long with spices and hints of berries again.

Personally I don’t find this kind of nose very appealing, the sulphur is just too prominent for me (once you’ve nosed another vintage, this one really stands out… in a negative way). On the palate it was better but still not completely convincing. Around € 90. I’d save that money for one of the others.

Score: 75/100

Have a look at the 2009 batch of single casks if you wish to compare.

GlenDronach 20 yo 1990 (57,9%,
OB 2010, oloroso sherry butt #2621, 
546 btl.)

Nose: quite a fragrant kind of sherry. Hints of sweet honey and oak polish. Red mosto (grape juice) and sour oranges. After that, a very classy nuttiness starts to grow stronger (walnuts, some roasted coffee beans, almonds). Evolves on dark chocolate. There are undertones of matchsticks as well, but they’re actually quite nice and seem to come and go (with some water they simply disappear). Some mint. Hints of leather. Quite complex! Mouth: starts fruity (figs, dates) with hints of cherry liqueur. Again (clean) matchstick notes. Old oranges. Nice mocha and chocolate truffle. A few drops of water highlights walnuts and almonds. Finish: nice finale on coffee and nuts. Quite long.

This GlenDronach 1990 has multiple personalities. It shows a typical nutty sherry but also fresh fruits and hints of matchsticks that we associate with some Karuizawas. I like it, also because it’s interesting to play around with water. Around € 100.

Score: 86/100

It’s a selection of some of the oldest oloroso casks at GlenDronach. The expression is bottled at 45,8% (cask strength).

The official tasting notes of GlenDronach Grandeur mention “fruits, nuts, berries, coffee and subtle sweet sherry notes with date pudding aromas”.

There are 1013 bottles. No indication of the price…

It’s a 37 year-old, matured in an oloroso sherry butt.

GlenDronach 37 yo 1972 (53,3%, OB 2009 for LMdW, oloroso cask #705, 399 btl.)

Nose: pretty similar to the markethouse bottling. More red fruits (raspberry rather than blueberry / blackcurrant. Citrus as well (blood orange). Water brings out hints of exotic fruits (papaya, mango). Dark chocolate. Some toasted notes. Less oak polish than the OB. Less farmy notes, more the meaty kind of sherry. Ginger, pepper. The LMdW nose is great but compared directly with the OB, it is slightly less complex and less expressive. Mouth: still those very nice red fruits but they are almost drowned by big waves of resinous notes and mentholated oak. Chocolate coated oranges. Tobacco leaves. Getting  quite tannic and dry with a salty hint of liquorice. Finish: woody and dry but very rich with notes of tangerine and milk chocolate.

I guess 1972 already is a legendary year for GlenDronach, in the same way  BenRiach 1976 are all great. I prefer the original bottling though. Still available from La Maison du Whisky at around € 310.

Score: 89/100

GlenDronach 13yo 1996 (59,4%,
OB 2009, oloroso butt #193, 399 btl.)

Nose: this one is the most rubbery of all the single casks. Nothing nasty, just plain rubber. I don’t really mind. Of course heavy sherry as well: raisins, prunes, chocolate. Some mint. Leather. Kirsch. A tad more meaty than the other casks as well (tajine lamb?). Mouth: A bit sharp, hints of sweet & sour. Figs and dates. Cherry liqueur again. Classic notes of coffee in the aftertaste. Finish: very long, a bit dry. Dark chocolate. Added notes of oranges.

The 1996 is the youngest and roughest cask of the GlenDronach single cask series. Close to being over-sherried. The rubbery nose costs a few points, but overall still decent value for money. Around € 65.

Score: 83/100

ps/ Its sister cask #209 (a 1996 vintage as well) is now promoted in Belgium by the GlenDronach “cask in a van” event. You can fill your own bottle straight from the cask.

Let’s compare it to the GlenDronach 1992/2009 16y.

GlenDronach 16yo 1993
(60,4%, OB 2009, oloroso butt #523, 634 btl.)

Nose: More powerful than the 1992, a bit more prickly on the nose (the alcohol difference is not that big though). I don’t have to tell this has some heavy oloroso influence as well. The raisins, the dried fruits, the chocolate, they’re all here. Compared to the 1993, more notes of fresh leather and a bit of nail polish remover (more towards an old bourbon). Raspberries. I’m missing the added notes of toffee and vanilla here. More herbal notes (sage, mint). With water: hints of a dusty cellar, some beeswax and very light hints of a stable. Very nice. Mouth: good depth in the mouth. Spicy, fruity, slightly toasted. There’s papaya and dried figs. Prunes. Some rancio in the background. Hints of coffee. Quite sweet overall. Finish: very long and quite sirupy. Getting drier on oranges and figs. Less bitter notes in the end here.

The GlenDronach 1992 and 1993 are equally sherried and equally flawless, I would say. The differences in flavours are a matter of personal preference. I was amazed by the soft vanilla nose and the spectacular fruity effect of the 1992 (with water), so that one has a small edge for me. Around € 90.

Score: 86/100

This year, there are five single casks:

• GlenDronach 38yo 1971 (cask #483) – 544 bottles
• GlenDronach 37yo 1972 (cask #719) – 474 bottles
• GlenDronach 16yo 1992 (cask #1140) – 598 bottles
• GlenDronach 16yo 1993 (cask #523) – 634 bottles
• GlenDronach 13yo 1996 (cask #193) – 399 bottles

GlenDronach 16yo 1992 (57,2%, OB 2009, oloroso butt #1140, 598 btl.)

Nose: big big sherry. Hints of raisins, milk chocolate, worn leather. Maraschino cherries / kirsch. Sweet notes of toffee, even some vanilla. Walnuts. Hints of roasted nuts and smoke in the distance. With water, bang, a fruit explosion: tangerine, lovely raspberry and red currant. Very sweet and juicy. Mouth: prunes, cherry liqueur, some balsamic vinegar. A bunch of fruit jams as well (figs, prunes, blackcurrant). Light cinnamon. In the aftertaste, there is some beef stock and more leather. Finish: amazingly long, on sherry, hazelnuts and spices (cloves and a bit of ginger). Evolves to very dark, slightly bitter chocolate.

Now you have to like heavy sherry of course, but if you do, you will love this GlenDronach. No nasty sulphur effect whatsoever, which can be a problem with heavy sherry bottlings. Clean and complex. Too bad for the oaky bitterness in the end, which I found a bit distracting.

Not available yet, but on its way to the stores as we speak. Around € 90.

Score: 89/100

Be sure to compare this one to the Bunnahabhain 1974 by The Whisky Agency, another heavy sherry bottling in the same series.

Glenfarclas 39 yo 1970 (54,4%, The Perfect Dram 2009, first fill oloroso butt, 240 btl.)

Beautiful oloroso colour! Nose: classic sherry influence. 1+1 is definitely more than 2 here. Very big, dark chocolate smell with raisins, oranges and dry figs. Some toasted flavours (coffee, roasted nuts). Hints of matches but far away from the sulphur alarm. Just terrific. You might argue this is closer to sherry than whisky though. Mouth: very powerful and still very sherried, developing on dry fruits (figs, prunes, cherries) and going towards balsamic syrup. Slightly bitter hints (cafe cortado or over-infused tea) with a faint salty edge. Really mouth-coating and very concentrated. Finish: medium long and very elegant.

Amazing how sherry maturation can result in such an integrated dram (like only Glenfarclas can produce). A real sherry bomb. Actually, when diluted, this is getting really close to some of my best sherry bottles… Price unknown.

Score: 89/100

The Three Wood is matured in different casks: at least ten years in bourbon wood, one year in oloroso and six months in the sirupy Pedro Ximénez.

Auchentoshan Three Wood 
(43%, OB 2008)

Nose: it’s possible to distinguish the different casks. There is clear sherry influence with notes of raisins, plums, dates and oranges. Bourbon associations as well. Some vanilla, apricot, apple and cinnamon. Toffee. Tobacco. In a way, it’s interesting to have the different influences, but on the other hand, it doesn’t work together as a whole. Too much oak to be refined. Mouth: sweet, lots of toffee and chocolate. Caramel and nuts. Quite “dark” with some burnt sugar and even some rubber (although it’s not unpleasant). Liquorice as well. The finish shows some bourbon-type flavours: cedar and pine wood, mint and spices. With water: lemon grass. Quite dry.

Sometimes I don’t mind unbalanced whiskies, because they dare to be different and tend to have a unique character. But this is a bit too rough and completely overpowers the Lowland character. Around € 45.

Score: 76/100.