GlenDronach, a little history before the Taste Off

After twice referencing in April that I was going to do this in May, I am now conducting my GlenDronach Taste Off in August.  I ordered the minis through The Whisky Exchange back in May and they have since been keeping company with other future blog post subjects.  Not anymore, though, as I'm setting them free.

The sherriest bunch of minis

I've been telling folks that I've been looking for a Macallan Killer this year, and I should probably qualify that remark.  I enjoy Macallan considerably.  They do an excellent job with their products and when their whisky is affordable I often recommend it.  But with their well-oiled worldwide distribution machine and luxury marketing team, they are giants.  They have the third largest share of the single malt market (behind the Two Big Glens) and the fourth largest distillery capacity.  And with all of that weight they have taken major shelf space away from smaller whiskys.  Consuming bar and store shelf space equals broadening brand awareness.

Just because they're bigger and have a larger presence in the whisky world, doesn't necessarily mean they're better.  They do have the financial means to get the lion's share of good oloroso casks from Spain.  They do have good stills and great staffers.  This all results in a very good consistent product.  In order to be consistent there's great cask management, but there's also chillfiltering and caramel color (and low ABVs).

And also, I like supporting small(er) businesses.  Aside from my favorite baseball team, I always like to root for the little guy.  Heck, my family is full of little guys.  <--- That's a stature joke.

Anyway, all of these aspects combined have me on the search for other great sherried whiskies.  That search has been a little passive of late with my peated spirit obsession.  But I really would like to find a go-to sherry-cask-matured whisky that isn't Macallan.  Especially since no one knows what's going to become of their upcoming non-age statement bottlings.

So I'd like to give GlenDronach a try.  As I write this, I haven't started the Taste Off; in fact I've never even tried their whisky.  But in every whisky corner, they've been getting raves.  So let's take a look at their goodies this week.  (And perhaps this Autumn, we'll snoop around other sherried whisky brands.)

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In 1826, the Glendronach Distillery Company was founded in Aberdeenshire by a group of investors headed by James Allardice.  A decade later, most of the distillery was destroyed in a fire.  With the help of executives from Teaninich Distillery and Glenfiddich, the distillery was rebuilt and production restarted.  Walter Scott of Teaninich owned the distillery until 1887, after which ownership bounced around a few times:

1887 - 1920 - A consortium from Leitth
1920 - 1960 - Charles Grant of the Glenfiddich Grants
1960 - 1976 - William Teacher & Sons (known for their blends)
1976 - 2005 - Allied Breweries (later Allied Domecq)
2005 - 2008 - Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard)
2008 - current - BenRiach Distillery Company

(Source)

The distillery underwent a number of changes over those 120+ years.  Under Teacher's ownership they doubled their stills from two to four, thus doubling their potential output.  They did their own floor malting up until the distillery was mothballed in 1996.  Upon reopening in 2002, they began buying their malt (now unpeated).  They were one of the last three distilleries to heat their stills via coal firing, but when Pernod temporarily closed the distillery in 2005 the heating system was switch to steam.  Pernod soon reopened the distillery and produced whisky for a short while before selling it all to Billy Walker of BenRiach Distillery.

Walker and company capitalized the 'D' in the name and relaunched the entire range in 2009.  With a healthier wood-management budget, the distillery's new bottlings were now unchillfiltered, caramel additive free, and with higher ABVs.  GlenDronach has had massive success with their single cask releases (some of the most critically acclaimed whisky in the world), and also tinker around with special wood finishes every year or so.

GlenDronach's capacity is 1.4 million liters, though they're up to 1.1 million right now (1/8th the size of Macallan's production).  Half of that booze goes to Pernod Ricard's blends.

But I'm interested in the stuff that's going into their single malts.  So stay tuned for the 12 year "Original", 15 year "Revival", and 18 year "Allardice" this week!

Please the bottom half of my Whisky Notes page for sources.