Scotch Whisky Review #279: GlenDronach 14 Year (2005) Hand Filled Cask #1930

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.

Scotch Whisky Review #279, Highland Review #53, Whisky Network Review #422

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.