After Jun Nunez’s head-to-head review of the Glendronach 18 and the Macallan Sherry Oak 18 yesterday, I thought I’d make it a series on the Glendronach core range. I’ll mention that my own conclusion on yesterday’s contest, would have been different – as I prefer the Glendronach 18, and not only on the value for money rational.

I’ll state this right out of the gate, I’m probably not too objective on this one. I’m a Glendronach fan. I appreciate the craft with which they practice, their commitment to not coloring their products, to refraining from chill filtration and minimal ABV of 43% for the 12 but 46+ for the other expressions in the core range, but most of all, their commitment to their place in the market. You see, Glendronach was mothballed from 1996 to May 2002. What that means is that there’s a a six year gap of production, making bottled expressions older than they’re stated to be, sometimes by up to 50%. My colleague Thijs Klaverstijn published a post based on Bert Rutkowski’s article in Dutch on this in his Words of Whisky blog, and you can read it here. In short, it means that any Glendronach you buy will, at specific times, be up to six years older than the label states. For instance, If your 12 year old was bottled before 14 May 2014, you’re actually getting a 17-18 year old whisky. My current bottle of the 15 year old Revival was bottled on November 27, 2013 making it a 17-18 year old, very much like my current bottle of the 12 year old original (bottled on June 26th 2013). At the end of this arc, in 2022, you’ll be buying 27 year old Parliament as a 21 year old.

Now, Glendronach could have taken the NAS route, either hiking prices up or selling their stocks mixed with younger whiskys, or both. But keeping true to their credo, chose to keep the basic age statements (12-15-18-21), even if it means “underselling” their stock for 6 years on each expression. Billy Walker, who owns BenRiach together with two funding partners, bought Glendronach in 2008, and is highly committed to age statement core expressions, as we see with BenRiach. This, to me, is true integrity.

Glendronach 15 Revival (46% ABV, NCF, NC)

Color: Deep bronze with thin and slow legs.

Nose: Dried fruit (dried figs and apricot with notes of prune sweetness), sugared pecans, cloves, sweet sherry, malt, milk chocolate and cinnamon.

Palate: Spices – freshly ground pepper and allspice, with a dry and tangy sweetness in a full body.

Linger: Spicy sweetness, tartness well pronounces in the linger. The spice remains long on the tongue.

Conclusion

From now until May 2017, your 15 year old Revival is actually 18-21 years old. I’ve seen bottles in Dutch stores for €40 (and I bought my current bottle for €45). I have a hard time thinking of a better value than this anywhere in the world of whisky.

But this expression is a worthy buy not merely on its value for money, in fact, that’s only the bonus. In my opinion, Glendronach has one of the best lines of core expressions in the industry. Now, I’m not saying that EVERY one of them is top of its class, rather, that taken as a whole, this distillery offers consistent value and excellent whisky, no matter which bottle you reach for.

Of course, if sherry matured whisky isn’t your thing, keep your distance. There will just be more around for the rest of us 🙂