Origin: Highlands (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Chillfiltetered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Brown Forman Corporation (BenRiach)
Official website: www.glendronachdistillery.com
Released between 2024 and 2025, this is a series dedicated to the sherry maturations for which the distillery is known, with three bottlings curated by master blender Rachel Barrie.
Two unpeated single malts and one peated which, in her words, ‘embody the essence of GlenDronach and tell our history, our heart and our dedication’, they have become firmly established in the distillery’s portfolio.
The Glendronach Ode to The Valley
Strength: 46.2%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Sherry and ex-Port
Average price: € 60.00
Matured in a combination of ex sherry and ex ruby port casks, it celebrates the valley where the distillery is located, in Aberdeenshire.
Tasting Notes
The nose is of a light red and tart, with cherries in spirit, currants, gooseberries and raspberries, with a contribution of pink grapefruit and a drop of blood orange. Over time, it darkens and softens, with prunes, blackberry juice, spices (nutmeg, cinnamon), coffee candy, caramelised brown sugar and marzipan, together with candied fruit in a panettone-like idea. Slightly damp woody background.
Light-bodied on the palate, with a pronounced spiciness of black pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon still on the acidic tones of red fruits leaving little room for anything else, with alcoholic notes a little too evident and surly. A few brushstrokes of citrus, nuts, sweet liquorice, coffee and traces of cocoa, with a persistent vegetal and mineral vein more marked in length.
Fairly short finish of spices, gooseberries, currants, dried fruit and vegetal notes.
Perhaps way too young, with the alcohol that especially on the palate messes up and unravels the flavours, the casks don’t seem to have had time to integrate, leaving on the field a decomposed whisky lacking any finesse.
Vote: 76/100
The Glendronach Ode to The Dark
Strength: 50.8%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Sherry PX
Average price: € 95.00
The name is dedicated to the (very) dark colour imprinted by the strong Pedro Ximénez sherry casks in which it is aged.
Tasting Notes
The nose does justice to its name, with plenty of nutmeg dotting dried fruit (figs, dates, apricots, plums, sultanas), blood orange, black cherry, milk chocolate, coffee and macadamia nut. Very dense, compact aromas that do not assault the nostrils but slowly creep in, like molasses, with a background of mushrooms, musk and traits of leather. At length, waxed wood. Everything you would expect, with centred strength.
The palate tingles with black pepper, chilli pepper and nutmeg, with a discreet oiliness that drags the rough, full-bodied notes of the nose onto the palate accompanied by liquorice, balsamic vinegar cream, bitter orange marmalade and a surge of cocoa. Nuts are also more present, including walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts, while the earthy and umami component seems to be lost in favour of a more vegetal and woody spirit. Hint of fruit mustard along the length.
Not very long and dry finish of spices, cocoa, prunes, nuts, wood and bitter, vegetal tips.
Almost textbook embodiment of PX maturation, which for this very reason doesn’t involve and excite, remaining on the surface and, indeed, decaying a little in the finish.
Vote: 83/100
The Glendronach Ode to The Embers
Strength: 48.4%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Sherry Oloroso and PX
Average price: € 80.00
And here’s the peated one of the trio, made with Highland peat, which is still matured in only sherry between PX and Oloroso and celebrates the embers with which the germinated barley is dried.
Tasting Notes
Toasted bread hovers on the nose over the sherried aromas that follow its thread, with red fruits (sultanas, blueberries, blackberries) embedded in a plum cake, dried goji berries, prunes, toasted almonds, jaffa cake. The smoke evolves into vegetal tones, between shrubs thrown into a bonfire and incense, quite pronounced, against a background of liquorice, milk chocolate and toffee. In the distance, slight mineral inflections. Compact.
The palate is rather light, with strings of black pepper and nutmeg on fruit (prunes, blueberries, blackberries, sultanas, blood orange), almonds, sweet liquorice, maple honey and milk chocolate, with touches of rhubarb. The smoke emerges in length, evident on the walls of the mouth at the end of the sip, always leaning towards the vegetal and incense. Saline streaks in length.
Not very long and saline finish of spices, red fruits, liquorice, incense.
Simple, almost basic I would say, with little evolution and little to tell, especially in the mouth, Overall, as an ode to the distillery let’s say they could have done better.
Vote: 81/100