Whisky: Glendronach 26 Year (1992) Cask 8314 for The Whisky Barrel

Country/Region: Scotland/Highland

ABV: 52%

Cask: PX Sherry Puncheon

Age: 26 Years (Distilled 5 June 1992, Bottled 2018)

Nose: Dried fruits, raisins, earthy mustiness, dried mushrooms and sweet dry wine, crème brûlée and toasted sugars.

Palate: Medium-bodied, drying, dried fruits, cherries, big and malty, baking spices, cinnamon, anise, hints of orange, subtle earth and rubber at the end.

Finish: Medium-length with dried fruits, malty sugars, and hints of herbs.

Score: 6-7

Mental Image: Cheer up, baby!

Narrative & Notes: Look, I will keep this short; while I love writing reviews and enjoy sharing them with others, I am not a massive fan of sherry-driven profiles (as this week of reviews likely makes plain), and I often find Glendronach to be pretty boring. It may be one of my most “unpopular” whisky takes, but it is what it is, and I have given up on trying to make things work. I am not unbiased here, so hopefully, if our biases diverge, you can recognize the value or absence of value in this review.

If you love big sherry profiles and these early nineties single-cask Glendronach, then I am absolutely sure you would score this higher than I did. Nothing was wrong with this malt; it felt well-balanced if not a little light for what I expected, and the flavors were generally well-integrated. However, they sat on a relatively narrow band. So, no big thoughts or wild imagery from me this time; sometimes a whisky just tastes like whisky— and a no-nonsense sherry bomb does what you expect.

About Glendronach

The history of Glendronach aptly illustrates the vagaries of fate and fortune, or misfortune, in the Scotch whisky industry.  Founded in 1826, the distillery enjoyed early success under the leadership of James Allardice, but the operation ground to a halt in 1837 when the distillery burned to the ground with bankruptcy following in short order. However, due to the whisky's reputation, the distillery was rebuilt in 1852. In 1920, during a round of consolidation in the industry, William Grant and Sons purchased the distillery, selling it in 1967 to William Teacher and Sons. It then passed to Allied Distillers when it purchased Teacher’s in 1976.

By the 1990s, the distillery was showing its age, having only undergone minimal refurbishment and expansion over the last century. In 1996, Allied Distillers mothballed the distillery as it looked to reconfigure its Scotch whisky holdings.  Glendronach reopened in 2002 but closed for refurbishment in 2005 as its coal-fired heating system was switched to steam. That same year, Pernod Ricard purchased Allied Domecq (Allied Distillers) but saw Glendronach as a surplus to their plans, so they off-loaded the distillery to the BenRiach Distillery Company in 2008. Brown-Forman then purchased that company in 2016 as it looked for ways to expand its investment in the Scotch whisky industry.

Billy Walker and the BenRaich group built the distillery’s modern reputation behind an impressive cask management program, especially the careful release of pre-mothball 90s stock. Beginning in 2009, they relaunched a core range of age statements, with many of the products being much older than the stated age due to the period in which the distillery was mothballed.