GLENDRONACH 2004 Single cask batch 14

The Glendronach distillery has been gathering itself a big reputation of late for producing some of the finest sherry matured whisky you can buy.  Each year they release batches  of single cask whisky mostly matured in either Oloroso or Px sherry casks and the latest release ( released September 2016) is no exception.  So when I was given the chance to review the whole batch I thought Christmas had actually come early… I am a big fan of the Glendronach single cask releases with several bottles already in my collection so this series of reviews is going to be rather special..

This 2004 release was distilled on the 29th January 2004 into a Pedro Ximenez sherry puncheon #5523,  this is NCF, natural colour and bottled at 58.3%abv ..

Nose.. This starts of very big with instant dark fruits like dates, raisins and figs.  Candied orange with rich dark chocolate and dried tobacco notes feature along with vanilla, dark treacle and thick toffee sauce.. Subtle spices are noticeable in the form of cinnamon and ginger along with rich Turkish delight..

Palate.. Dried fruits with more dried fruits thrown in.. Ok it’s one of those big dark fruit hits that scream a mixture of dates, raisins, figs and plums with a sweetness from vanilla and molasses.. Fruity notes come in the form of apples and oranges, apricots along with chocolate covered almonds and bitter coffee..

Finish.. Long and full of darkness..

Thoughts.. This was always going to be hard for me to put down,  I am a big fan of sherried whisky and even more so with Glendronach single casks but I honestly can’t fault this in any way.. The flavours are big and extremely aromatic, the mouth feel is very well balanced and full of delicious flavours. At 12 years old this is the youngest in the release and shows sherried whisky does not need to be old to be superb.. I just hope the rest of the series lives up to this one..

A big thank you to Benriach/Glendronach and Brown-Forman for the generosity they have shown..