Whisky : Glendronach 11 Year, SMWS 96.34 “Stroll through the seasons”

Country/Region : Scotland/Highland

ABV : 60.2%

Cask : First Fill Barrel

Age : 11 Years (Distilled 10 March 2009)

Nose : Fruity, floral, and vanilla. Apple juice and glazed apple fritters pushed into view with vanilla, cream, guava, and blue vanilla shave ice syrup. Sweet orchard fruit joined with lemon and lavender to create the impression of laundry detergent, which my wife also described as silk flowers.

Palate : Medium-bodied and oily with caramel, cinnamon bark, and fruit. Classic bourbon barrel notes of brown sugar, cinnamon, and buttery caramel. The impression of detergent was not entirely lost as subtle floral and citrus notes appeared on the mid-palate. Toward the end were slightly tart crab apples, Sweet Tarts, licorice, and orange peel.

Finish :  Lingering citrus, lemon, and lavender

Score : 4

Mental Image : In the Cinnamon Tree

Notes : I reside on the sparsely populated hill of people who find Glendronach drinkable but uninteresting whisky. No one who has glanced at a few of my reviews over the years will be surprised when I say I am not that into heavily sherried drams. The one area where über fans of sherried Glendronach and I probably agree is that young ex-bourbon Glendronach is suboptimal. I did rate an older, presumably ex-bourbon, Glendronach highly, so maybe it is not a question of cask as much as it is age. It would not shock me if sherried Glendronach shines younger, whereas ex-bourbon needs a few decades.

This Glendronach was the least popular dram at a recent local whisky tasting and left people asking why anyone would drink ex-bourbon Glendronach. Since we included the other two drams from the SMWS “Gathering 2021” bundle, excluding this US exclusive would have been weird. While this was not a total disaster— and I did think it was much better the second time I tried it— it did feel a bit one-dimensional, especially compared to the Laphroaig and Glenrothes also in the bundle.  

Overall, not a horrible whisky, though it was easily overshadowed. I suspect fans of apple, cinnamon, and wood notes would find more to love.