From the Archives: GlenDronach 12 Review (2020)

The GlenDronach 12 (2020)

Strength: 43% ABV

Purchased: 2020 – ~$63 + tax

Aged: 12 years

Casks: Pedro Ximenez (PX) and Oloroso Sherry

Presentation: Non-chill filtered (Maybe? See below), Natural Color

Original Review: December 13, 2020

Score: 7. Very Good (with caveats!).

From the Archives: FTA is a series of tasting notes and reviews that I had hand written earlier on in my whisky journey. These notes may not reflect how I would feel today, but represent my attempts to begin verbalizing what I was experiencing. I chose to hand write these because that seemed like a more intimate and focused effort. It also made me slow down a bit to think, write, and shake off any writing cramps between sips. In the spirit of full disclosure, I did add some text to make the reading experience a bit easier. I hope these ‘reviews’ will provide some context in my journey and will provide some reference points for my evolving palate over time.

Details: Bottle was ¼ full when review was done.

Nose: Raspberries, raisins, toffee, vanilla. Sherry forward, but light overall. Complex. A higher ABV would greatly improve the nose.

Palate: Citrus and rich dark fruit. Lightly spiced. Tobacco. Creamy and juicy. 

Finish: Dry, spicy, light oak, touch of anise. Medium long.

Overall: This grew on me, as have sherried whiskies in general. I wish the nose was more bold and dense, but the palate and finish were great. An excellent deal at $60. Score 8.7/10.

In Retrospect: Of the few whisky reviews I have looked back on, this one sticks out as probably being the one I would most likely disagree with at the current stage of my whisky journey. I suppose that the lower ABV, despite my objections at the time, may have been beneficial to my enjoyment as I appear to have had an easier time with notes than some previous bottles. I also wonder if sherried whiskies are just easier to write ‘notes’ for being that there are some basic flavors that you can identify and no one can really argue with you. This is similar with Kentucky bourbon where you can just write “vanilla, cherry, brown sugar and oak” for all of them and you technically wouldn’t sound like an idiot to most folks. Obviously, not all bourbons taste the same (despite that belief being held by some) and that is true for sherried Scotches as well. 

Glendronach was an early star in the world of Scotch for me, as a bottle of the 15 year old was also a big hit around the same time. Now, it is largely known that the 18, and possibly the 15, from this time likely contained whisky that was older than the stated age. My assumption was that Billy Walker either didn’t have the stocks of appropriately aged whisky to support demand, or he wanted to get Glendronach on the map with really good whiskies at an extremely fair price. Either way he was immensely successful. 

Regardless, I was drinking the 12 year old here and that means we are talking about a 43% whisky. It’s packaging stated that, despite this, it was non-chill filtered. There has been a lot of talk around the removal of this designation from all of Glendronach’s packaging back in 2021 and I will leave that to you to decide exactly what that means for you, but check out this article from Dramface before you do. Despite all that noise, I have a strong feeling that it would not stand up to the sherried whiskies on my shelf today. I have also gone the way of many enthusiast Scotch drinkers and have entered the ‘ex-bourbon is best’ phase of my journey through the world of malted spirits. The 8.7/10 score that I gave it nearly 3 years ago would certainly translate to at least a 7/10 now, which I imagine would be way out of whack for where I know it would likely end up on my overall scale should I review it again today. I do believe that this would likely still be a great introduction to sherried whiskies for beginners as you are still getting good flavor at the lower strength, allowing for a more relaxed experience. As I am attempting to respect my older scores, I am going to stick with a 7/10 with a massive caveat that this would apply to fairly novice enthusiasts. Score: 7/10….kind of.

Whisky Scoring Guide