Single Malt Report: GlenDronach 14 year old Virgin Oak Finish

Though Monday's post was entitled, "A week of unsherried Glendronach," this whisky spent at least some of its life in European oak before being finished in American virgin oak, according to its makers.  Yet in the reviews I've read, almost no one ever references the European oak or sherry.  Most folks spend a lot of time focusing on the abundance of new U.S. oak.  So I had assumed that this whisky spent much of its life in lifeless multi-refill sherry casks, and I had set my expectations low since the whiskybase vox populi enjoyed Tuesday's and Wednesday's single casks much more than this official release.  Surprises were in store.

Distillery: GlenDronach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd
Age: minimum 14 years
Maturation: ex-sherry European oak casks firstly, then new American oak secondly; the exact lengths of time are undisclosed
Region: Eastern Highlands (on the edge of Speyside)
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chill filtered? No
Caramel Coloring? No
(Sample purchased from Master of Malt)

Its gold color is lighter than that of this week's single casks and the 15yo Revival.  The nose holds a lot of fruit.  At first there's apple and pineapple.  Then later, apricots and maraschino cherries.  Then finally, white peach.  Meanwhile, there's a defined wood smoke note right up front that then fades away with time.  There's definitely some sherry in there, reading as toffee and prunes.  Vanilla and caramel do appear after 30 minutes.  Some sawdust and bourbon show up after 40 minutes.  Overall, it noses like it's going to be very sweet.  But luckily the palate is gentle with its sweetness.  It's really malty, though.  A soft desserty note lingers throughout; something like toffee pudding with orange zest and sea salt.  Sure there's vanilla and caramel, but they register at low-to-moderate levels.  Some oak spice picks up after 30 minutes.  It finishes with that wee puff of smoke from the nose.  A little bit of dryness and salt.  It grows sweeter and picks up more citrus with time.  The oak shows here the strongest, as split timber and caramel.

First off, this was much better than I had expected.  Serge and Ruben reference problems with the oak levels.  While I too have issues with high levels of oak in whisky, I really don't think the oakiness is too high here.  In fact I find that it compliments the malt well.  I'll take John Hansell's side in this instance.  And I really enjoy the bundles of fruit in the nose.

The nose shines the brightest with the fruit, oak, and sherry mingling well together.  The palate is decent and mild.  (One of the Malt Maniacs says that it tastes too malty.  Too malty?  You're a Malt Maniac, right?)  Meanwhile the finish is the one place where the oak almost goes overboard.  And yes, there definitely is some sherry in the mix, appearing mostly in the nose.

GlenDronach released this whisky in July of 2010.  Now it's nearly gone.  I have a feeling that the lack of support from the whisky gods for this particular wood finish may have limited its sales which in turn limited the distillery's desire to risk more of their sherry casks for additional batches of this release.  And that's a shame.  While I don't think it can beat most of their sherried range -- I would take it over the 12 year old Original, though -- it's a good whisky, and considerably better than most of today's oak heavy whiskies which don't even cop to the oak tech involved in their construction.  I'd consider buying a bottle of this if I found it at the very low end of its price range.

Availability - Maybe a couple dozen retailers worldwide

Pricing - $75-$85 US; $55-$75 Europe (w/VAT)

Rating - 86

Single Malt Report: GlenDronach 10 year old 2002 Single Virgin Oak Hogshead #4530

Yes, what you see here is an actual bottle.  I bought this as a birthday present for myself two years ago.  I saw it at a The Bonding Dram and said "Oooooo.  Woooooo?"  It sat patiently in my Whisky Closet for about a year and a half as I tried to find an opportunity to do a Glendronach series.  With its new oak cask, I figured it could be bourbon-ish thus might be better for the Spring or Summer.  Now it's Spring and now I'm doing a Glendronach series.

Like yesterday's single cask I have no idea if this one spent its entire existence in new oak, thanks to the revelation that GlenDronach has been known to rerack its so-called single casks into different types of casks and not divulge this information.  (I again point you to MAO's excellent Glendronach articles.)  But like yesterday's single cask, I wouldn't be surprised if it did spend all or most of its time in the listed virgin oak hogshead.

Distillery: GlenDronach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd
Age: 10 years (June 2002- October 2012)
Maturation: Virgin Oak Hogshead
Region: Eastern Highlands (on the edge of Speyside)
Alcohol by Volume: 57.1%
Cask: 4530 (selected by The Nectar Belgium)
Limited bottling: 298

When I first opened the bottle, the whisky was REALLY sweet, like a bourbon+scotch liqueur.  It was a bit much for my palate, but luckily the liquid calmed down after a month.  These notes come from a little above the halfway point in the bottle, about two months after it was opened.

NEAT
Its color is dark gold, darker than yesterday's 8yo, like an older barrel strength bourbon.  Right up front I find three major notes in the nose: Corn syrup, cotton t-shirts, and sawdust.  There's much less ginger than in the 8yo.  With about 20 minutes of airing out, the nose broadens.  Wheated bourbon (like Maker's but better), clover honey, root beer, milk, and something meaty.  After a half hour it's all bourbon: vanilla, caramel, and baking spices. Its palate is less hot and more approachable than the 8yo.  Not exactly "scotch", but not exactly "bourbon", either.  LOTS of oak, but the malted barley still stands strong in the background.  Limes and simple syrup.  Sweet, not much complexity, but nothing going cockeyed either.  The finish has Caramel with a capital "C".  Honey in tonic water.  Wheated bourbon (like Maker's but better). Swisher Sweets and a hint of wood smoke.  Gets sweeter with time.

WITH WATER (~40-43%abv)
The nose is loaded with vanilla and caramel, reminiscent of Cow Tales and salted caramel everything.  A moderate sized note of thick toffee.  In the far back, there are notes of roasted grains and phenols, but one needs binoculars to find them.  Nose binoculars.  The palate leads with some grassy malt with a massive layer of caramel and vanilla on top.  Small notes of cayenne pepper and tart citrus later expand with time.  The finish is sweet and grassy, with lime juice and a spicy zip.

Scottish bourbon.  I know I'm not the first to state that conclusion, but it kinda fits.  This cask is totally inoffensive (unless American oak offends you) and not complex, but impossible to hate as a dessert whisky.  If you have a bottle, I recommend airing it out a bit, otherwise you'll find pours from mid-bottle better than those from the top.

Unlike yesterday's 8 year old single new oak cask, this whisky never seems to be out of control nor a mess nor a slog nor a total oddity.  I would easily recommend this one over the other, whether the improvement is due to the two extra years or if it was just a better cask.  It does seem to be a limited experiment (which is why I bought it), and I doubt they'd actually do an all-virgin-oak release as its own regular expression.  But as far as whisky experiments go, it ain't bad.

Availability - Auctions?

Pricing - I bought it for €59 (€49 w/o VAT, cheapest 'Dronach single cask ever?)

Rating - 83
[NOTE: Please see my September follow-up review. This whisky became considerably worse with time.]

Single Malt Report: GlenDronach 8 year old 2002 Single Virgin Oak Hogshead #4525

Sorry for the crummy photo. The label was almost unreadable, thus effects were required.

Here's the first of two GlenDronach single virgin oak hoggie reviews.  Per Whiskybase, all or most of the casks numbered in the 4500s, filled in 2002, were virgin oak hogsheads.  This one was "Specially Bottled" for the whisky festival in Gent in 2011.  My sample was purchased at whiskysamples.eu a couple years ago.  More on this bottling after the tasting notes...

Distillery: GlenDronach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd
Age: 8 years (June 2002- January 2011)
Maturation: Virgin Oak Hogshead
Region: Eastern Highlands (on the edge of Speyside)
Alcohol by Volume: 58.8%
Cask: 4525
Limited bottling: 325

NEAT
Its color is dark gold. On the nose......Wow, ginger!  So much ginger.  Then that's topped by a blast of caramel and wood pulp.  Then oats with Worcester sauce.  With time, the cereal note strengthens.  Time also allows for the development of more floral esters (and banana).  It becomes almost rummy.  The palate is quite hot.  Right up front are the floral esters, followed by apricots, fresh and dried.  Lots of sugar (white and brown) and tartness.  Candied lemon peel.  A super bitter wasabi note suddenly appears after 20+ minutes, alongside brown rice.  The candied lemon peel note floats alongside the big bitterness in the finish.  Though it gets sweeter with time, there's also a note of something between bark and cardboard.

WITH WATER (~40-43%abv)
The nose is packed with oats, caramel, and brown sugar. Hot breakfast!  Less ginger.  More yeast and wood pulp.  Small notes of banana and peach purees.  After additional time in the glass, the whisky develops an earthy/mossy note.  The palate is not hot, thankfully.  Some bitterness remains, but a sugary sweetness envelops everything.  Some toasted things like oak and grains.  With additional time it releases larger notes of yeast and hay.  The palate's big sweetness remains in the finish.  Here it plays out as orange candies and caramel candies.  It's still quite big, though I'm not sure if that's a good thing because after a while a bitter aftertaste takes over as an under-ripe banana note trails behind.

Bizarre.  Beneath all the oak the whisky seems even younger than the 8 year old age statement......and more rummish than Scottish.  Meanwhile, when neat, it feels even hotter than the ABV.  Then once water is added it becomes an entirely different whisky.  Nothing about it ever seems in balance, but because it delivers plenty of entertainment value, I can't call it terrible.  I can't really say it's good either.

Ultimately, I'm perplexed by why this cask was selected (by the distillery itself?) for the Gent Festival.  It seems like an experiment that went awry to the point that it couldn't be blended away.  I can confirm this though: There were no sherry casks compromised in the making of this single malt.

Availability - Auctions?

Pricing - ???

Rating - 75

Glendronach? Glendronach. A week of unsherried Glendronach.

Since Billy Walker & Co. (also known as BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd.) took over the distillery, revamped their regular range, and began releasing single casks, Glendronach has won over Sheeple and assertive WhiskyDicks alike.  And that's a feat.

They have us all so enamored with their product that nary a fuss was made when My Annoying Opinions revealed Glendronach may be misleading consumers on their "single cask" labels.  The same anoraks who decry the loss of age statements, the addition of chill filtration, caramel colorant, and the designated hitter did not even burp a gripe out over the fact that these single casks may not actually be single casks since these whiskies likely had other undisclosed maturations in other casks.  The connotation of "single cask" has been thrown into question, and possibly the denotation as well.   I have little doubt that if Diageo were the perpetrators, then there would be a larger outcry.  But everyone's still cool with Glendronach.  And that's a feat.

On a more personal level, Glendronach helped bring me back around to enjoying sherry cask matured whisky.  Thanks to the bevy of sherry-finished whiskies on the market (with Glenmorangie Lasanta being the biggest culprit) my palate became averse to all things sherry+whisky for a couple years.  But a little GlenDronach Revival can set a person right, as can those aforementioned single ex-oloroso casks.  A third feat.

Whatever BenRiach Co. and/or Allied (the previous owners) are doing with their sherry casks, it has been working admirably.  But what about Glendronach whisky that is matured in something other than the rich sherry casks that tend to define the distillery?  The official range has a set of "Wood Finishes": Sauternes (12yo), Virgin Oak (14yo), Moscatel (14yo), Marsala (18yo), and Tawny Port (18yo).  While the website says these spent their first years in European oak, reviews of the products usually don't mention sherry characteristics.  Add in the fact that their coloring is very light, and one may hypothesize refill-refill-refill European oak casks were responsible.

I wanted to explore this further.  Since wine finishes hold little interest for me and I do like well utilized US oak, I only plucked a sample of the Virgin Oak finish.  Then I found a sample of a "Virgin Oak" single cask.  Then I found an entire bottle of a "Virgin Oak" single cask for my own mischief.  Finally with a weird bit of luck, I found a sherry-free independent Glendronach at a local whisky shop.

So really what you're going to see from me this week is a bunch of Glendronachs that spent a lot of their lives in sherry-free American oak.  Some of these whiskies will still be loaded with tannins, but not all of them, so perhaps I'll be able to get a glimpse of the spirit outside its home habitat.

Notes from a Tasting: Escape to Las Vegas 2015

I've lost track how many times I've been to Las Vegas.  More than 20 times, probably fewer than 25.  Usually my brother is my coconspirator.  He organized my bachelor's party in LV in 2010.  Though we had an awesome ridiculous time there, it was then that I began to learn the time limits to a Vegas getaway.  On subsequent trips, it has become even clearer.  Two nights are perfect.  One night is not enough.  Three nights are wearying, and it's not just one's own gambling and drinking that run its course.  Here's out how it goes:

Night 1 - Woohoo!  You're tired from the flight/drive but by utilizing alcohol and caffeine, you'll just blast through!  Due to exhaustion and sensory overload, you don't really notice much about your surroundings except for the hot people and weird people.

Day/Night 2 - If you didn't lose all of your money on Night 1, you stay sober enough to do some relatively responsible gambling.  Once you or one of your crew have a good night at the tables, you then stay out stupidly late.

Day 3 - You are hungover.  You eat too much at a breakfast buffet, swearing off those feeding troughs for life, again.  You decide to wander The Strip to see the new casinos.  There are no old casinos.  You begin to notice that Americans no longer make up the majority of the tourists here.  But everyone, regardless of nationality, seems to have the same empty look on his and her faces.

Night 3 - Dinner at one of the new, decent, possibly overpriced restaurants.  You're trying not to lose any more money, so maybe you'll just get plastered instead.  But after two beers, it becomes laborious.  So you go back to wandering and people watching.  Gradually the emotional and sensory weight of tens of thousands of people submitting to depression-fueled destruction begins to hollow out your soul.

This March, I stayed in Vegas for four nights.  That was a lot.  Especially with my infant daughter, Mathilda, strapped to me.  My wife had an eleven day (dear god) conference at City Center.  Mathilda and I tagged along for the first third.  We ate well, which is one of the upsides of Vegas.  Dave Chappelle arrived at the hotel just as we did, then I saw him again later at Starbucks.  So that was cool.  My daughter and I walked The Strip a bit.  I ogled the new stuff, mourned the loss of the old stuff, as I'm sure she did as well.

I limited myself to one night of gambling.  After I won a not insignificant amount of money via video poker, I immediately exited the casino (as I always do after winning).  What was I to do with my winnings?  Save it for Japan!  This cash would help make that voyage more comfortable.  But I had to do something now to celebrate.  So, I did what I did the last time I won well there: go to Craftsteak and get some whisky that I couldn't otherwise afford...

Tending bar was Larry, the same friendly chap who was there the last time I'd stopped by to spend my winnings, two years ago.  He handed me a tablet with an interactive menu app.  The first thing I noticed was Craftsteak's selection, while still one of the best in the city, is nowhere near as extensive as it used to be.  They used to have loads of incredible indies and dead distillery malts.  There were tons of "craft" bourbons and plenty of officially bottled scotches on their shelves.  They also still don't have whisky glasses, which is a little weird, so I used a bulbous wine glass instead.  Larry brought over a whole bunch of bottles to the table because I'm a pain in the ass (don't worry, I tipped him well) and also because almost no one else was at the bar.  I almost dropped a mint, a pile, a boatload on a glass of Highland Park 30, but at the last minute I called an audible and spent the same amount of cash on these two instead:

Tomatin 34 year old 1976 Duncan Taylor "The Octave" cask 682039, 46.3%abv

Color - Dark gold, but then again the bar's lighting was dark gold

Nose - Biscotti with Nutella.  Mint chip ice cream.  Milk chocolate.  There was also an herbal + malt note still lingering after all these years.

Palate - Loads of cayenne pepper.  A groovy herbal bitterness.  Seared beef with mango and peaches.  The oak can't cover up that fruitiness.  Maybe some soil.

Finish - Tropical fruit, salt, dried blueberries and currants.

Thoughts and things: This was my first Tomatin 1976.  If one believes in whisky vintages then this is considered one of the great ones.  Though I have many doubts about the whole vintage theory (as I've previously stated many times), I still had my expectations high.  So while this was very good whisky, it wasn't tremendous or moan inducing.  I'm wondering if the tiny octave cask had something to do with it.  Anyway the finish, while colorful, was sort of brief.  The nose was nice, but I've found those same notes in younger and cheaper Glenfarclas.  The palate was excellent though, and easily the best part.  If only the other parts could have matched it!  I am thankful for the opportunity to have tried this.  I believe that had I sampled this blindly, I may have had a higher opinion of the overall package.

Grade range:  B/B+

Glenlivet 21 year old Gordon & MacPhail, 43%abv
Color - Medium gold
Nose - Straightforward.  Dusty grains, a little bit of perfume, and lots of apricot.
Palate - Lightly creamy, mostly fruity spirit notes.  Orange, tangerines, peach candy, elderflower syrup.  A moderate amount of vanilla.
Finish - Sweet, but also crisp and tart.  The vanilla, elderflower, and peach remains.

Thoughts and things: There was a motive behind this selection: I've been window-shopping this bottle for over a year.  According to Whiskybase, its average price is $40 cheaper than that of the official (and much more prevalent) 21 year old.  Plus the pour price was reasonable by LA/LV standards.  And......I saved myself $130+ because I don't need to buy a whole bottle now.  The whisky itself is good.  I have no qualms about its quality.  Probably right smack dab in the middle of Grade B Land.  It's simple, easy drinking, without any major flaws.  Exactly what I'd desire in the (shrinking) $40-$60 range.  But it's not in that price range, which is a bummer.  Still, it was a perfectly satisfying one time thing.  And now I can walk away and lust after another pretty thing.
Grade range: B

My indulgences ended here.  A third drink would likely have been wasted on my tired senses, and that money could be better spent in Japan (and it was).  I walked back to the hotel elated and peaceful, for just a moment.  One is allowed so few of those moments as a new parent.

Knockandone: Knockando 21 year old 1962 Extra Old Reserve (Justerini & Brooks, Dateo Import)

Photo, from LAWS, may or may not
be of the actual bottle reviewed here. 

Our Knockando journey which started in 1999 now ends in 1962.  1962 was the year the whisky in the bottle was distilled, back when Knockando utilized its own floor maltings, back when they were owned by International Distillers & Vintners.  It was bottled in 1984, long after the maltings were closed and Grand Metropolitan (future Diageo) had taken over.  According to whiskybase, the "Extra Old Reserve" bottlings had started just a few years earlier, joining the 12 year old in the distillery's single malt range.  Like the 12yos, this one has its vintage year listed, as well as the bottling year.  Unique to the range, though, was the fancier looking square decanter, which is a pain in the ass to pour from.

Distillery: Knockando
Ownership at time of bottling: Grand Metropolitan (via Justerini & Brooks)
Importer: Dateo
Type: Single Malt
Region: Speyside (Central)
Age: 21 years
Distilled: 1962
Bottled: 1984
Maturation: dunno, but there are probably ex-sherry casks in the mix
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
(Sample purchased from LA Scotch Club)

The color is medium gold, darker than the previous four whiskies from this series, and less orange than the 1999.  The first thing I notice in the nose is the peat!  A definite medium level peating.  Then grains like barley and corn.  Then orange oil termite treatment in a moldy basement.  In a good way.  Sheep (yep, sheep), followed by caramel and basil leaves.  After 20+ minutes in the glass, a note of refill sherry casks comes along.  Think hot cocoa and toffee, or perhaps a Heath Bar.  The sherry and peat smoke grow with additional time.  The oily-textured palate is grassy and mossy with a medium sweetness.  Mild sherry and the basement note, again.  Toffee pudding with a glass of Campari.  Moments of salt and mango.  With time, a hint of something darker and industrial arises, followed by a hint of something brighter, like citrus peels.  The finsh is mild and barley-ish with toffee and orange peel.  Hints of hard cheese, black pepper, and peach.  A lemon/grapefruit tartness.

As the nose and palate sizzled, this was shaping up to be a 90+ point whisky, but then the finish fizzled.  Andy, who furnished the bottle, wondered if it felt a bit too watered down at this ABV.  While I didn't find that problem on the nose and palate, it may explain the weakish finale.  On the bright side of things -- and things are almost totally bright with this whisky -- the peating works wonders in the nose, as do the sherry casks.  Both are present and contribute well to the whole without overtaking the experience.  The palate has a slight edge to it that raises it above an average decent Speysider.

Of the six Knockandos from this series, this 21yo 1962 and the 12yo 1966 were my favorites.  There wasn't a stinker in the bunch.  Each was slightly different, thanks to variables like cask types, barley sources, Old Bottle Effect levels, and (maybe) vintage variation.  I have been told the sherry cask Knockandos can be dynamite, and I'm sure this 1962 hinted as much.  Otherwise, I enjoyed the cask selection in these whiskies, and admire the blending work required to produce a good single malt.  Thank you to Cobo, Florin, and LASC for making these two Knockando weeks possible.

Availability - Auctions

Pricing - ???

Rating - 88

Knockando The Time Warp Again! Knockando 12 year old 1965 (OB) Justerini & Brooks Chandon Import

While I don't buy into most of the talk about distilleries' magical vintages (due to all of the variables involved in the creation of a single malt), these old official Knockandos do provide the potential for a more valid discussion.  Their barley was malted in the same place and the barrels matured in the same warehouse.  It's likely that the yeast remained the same and the fermentation and distillation times did as well.  While there are other factors at play, there should be wider interest amongst some of the whisky gods to do further studies on the Knockando floor-malting-era vintages.  While I am not a whisky god, I am going to drink some more Knockando...

Yesterday, I wrote about the birth of the Knockando single malts via Grand Metropolitan and Justerini & Brooks.  I also reviewed a very good 12 year old official Knockando from 1966.  And today, here is one from 1965.  As seen with its younger mate:

Thanks again to Cobo for the sample and the photo!  Thank you for the opportunity to match these two up at the same tasting.

Distillery: Knockando
Ownership at time of bottling: Grand Metropolitan (via Justerini & Brooks)
Importer: Chandon
Type: Single Malt
Region: Speyside (Central)
Age: 12 years
Distilled: 1965
Bottled: 1977
Maturation: ???
Alcohol by Volume: 43%

Its color is light gold, again.  This time the nose starts off with pineapple, lemon peel, green apples, and ginger tea.  There's a little bit of barley in here, salted caramels, and also some of the lemongrass I'd noticed in the 1966.  But it has a bit of an old-bottle-style moldy basement note too.  Some more oak slips in with time, but so does a tropical fruit note.  Ah, the palate has little bit of smoke to it, reminiscent of wood smoke, floating mid-ground.  There's confectioner's sugar, bubblegum, and a light bitterness up front.  It gets a little drier with time, picks up some lime and a simple sweet custard.  Slightly musty.  Pepper in the back of the throat.  The musty moldy basement note lingers into the finish.  I get an herbal bitterness at first, but then it becomes a little sweeter and more citric.  Hints of the bubblegum and confectioner's sugar.  It holds onto the (good) bitterness and tartness throughout.

A different whisky than the 1966.  The nose, while bolder, is less glamorous.  The palate is sweeter and smokier and the finish bitterer.  The musty note, absent from the '66, shows up in various places in the '65.  I happen to like that sort of thing, but others may not.

Overall, I like the '66 more with its lovely nose and lean sturdy palate.  But really if you find either of these, whether at an auction or some magical mysterious retailer, they'll probably be priced well considering their historical value. And they taste pretty good too, if you rightly choose to open the bottle.

Availability - Auctions

Pricing - not as expensive as most other distilleries from this era

Rating - 85