Yes, those numbers are correct. This is an old one! A 16-year old single cask Glendronach, bottled in 2009, from the very first batch of single cask official bottlings!
Glendronach's single cask releases have changed quite a bit over the years. Well obviously the character, flavour and quality all varies with individual bottlings, as is the nature of single casks. But much like the distillery's core range they've also changed in style and approach, with vatting, re-racking and cask finishing (both declared and potentially undeclared) occurring and with more younger releases in the batches, and there have been quite a few releases that are notably lighter on the sherry influence than was previously the case. Obviously the massive increase in global demand for sherry casks has a part to play there, and so does the distillery closure from 1996-2002 that has been a major thorn in this booming distillery's side over the last five years or so. Along with its siblings Benriach and Glenglassaugh the distillery has also undergone a change of ownership, from private ownership under Billy Walker & Co. to corporate ownership under American company Brown Forman in 2016. There was also a change of master distiller / master blender in there too, with Rachel Barrie taking the reigns from Billy Walker soon after the sale of the distillery. Naturally there's also an increased demand for whisky in general now, particularly for high-end whisky in the last two years or so which has to also play a part, and has seen certain casks in these batches being sent only to certain markets and/or regions. So it's understandable that there would have to be changes in the way things were & are done, after all we are talking about over a decade of time now and the world is now a very different place, with another 15 batches of single cask Glendronachs released in the meantime. Other cask types have also worked their way in there more recently, from slight deviations like port casks to major swerves like virgin oak maturation, which again I'd assume to be loosely related to the huge demand on sherry casks and the massive price increase that goes along with it.
Speaking of which, we have to wonder where it's going to stop. Sherry casks are now seriously expensive, and demand still outweighs supply. Sherry-heavy distilleries and brands have all increased their pricing substantially in order to cover some of this increase, and in many cases they have also changed in style and character - whether that be less sherry influence, or younger whisky, or both. Let's also remember that these are sherry "seasoned" casks, where they have held sherry for a relatively short period of time, usually two years or less, before that sherry is tipped out and the cask is shipped to the whisky producer / distillery for filling with whisky / spirit. The natural thing that'll happen is that seasoning time will become shorter, resulting in less influence from the wine and more influence from the wood itself during maturation. Shortcuts will be taken by the cooperages and/or bodegas in order to sell more casks, and the only real alternative to avoid this is to use other cask types. Distilleries that only a few years ago were loudly & proudly only maturing in ex-sherry casks are these days releasing other cask types, including of course ex-bourbon, resulting in a completely different whisky to what that distillery or brand's customer were used to. This is also why we've seen other cask types become more popular, such as madeira, port, rum, sauternes, non-fortified wine, and the rest. It was also probably a major factor in the Scotch Whisky Association's revising of their regulations governing permitted cask types, where previously they had to be considered "traditional", but are now allowed to travel much further afield - to Mexico, for example. This is no bad thing, and only allows for more innovation and experimentation. Even when talking Glendronach, we've already seen small amounts of madeira, sauternes and port casks come to market, and I'm sure there'll be more to follow. The consumers and customers will just have to adapt! Will we see a Mezcal cask Glendronach in future? Now that'd be an interesting thing!
But I'm digressing, this particular single cask Glendronach pre-dates all of that drama. When this bottling was released in 2009, in the first ever batch of Glendronach single cask releases no less, Billy Walker and his consortium had only owned the distillery for less than a year. The distillery had been revived from its moth-balled slumber in 2002 under Allied Distillers, and was then purchased by Pernod Ricard in 2006, and prior to the re-opening the distillery's malting floors had been decommissioned, while in 2005 the four pot stills had been converted from direct-fire external heating to indirect internal steam heating, which of course meant major changes to the spirit character. If you've tasted a pre-closure Glendronach and then a 2006 distillation or newer it's impossible to argue that the spirit itself hasn't changed in character. When Billy & Co. came along in 2008 they secured quite a large amount of maturing stock in the deal, and set to work releasing new core range bottlings and revitalising the presentation standards by bottling at a minimum of 43% ABV, but more often at 46% without any chill filtration or added colouring, then selecting the "cream of the crop" to be bottled at cask strength as a single cask release. And I think it's safe to say that some of those releases have been amongst the greatest sherry cask single malts that we (or at least I) have seen in modern times. In this particular case, we have a 16-year old single Oloroso sherry butt, distilled in November 1992 and bottled in July 2009, with a yield of 598 bottles at a strength of 57.2% ABV. Obviously it's also non-chill filtered and no artificial colouring has been added. If memory serves this is the oldest Glendronach I've tasted to date in terms of the year of bottling, but it's a relatively young example at "only" 16 years of age. So, let's see how this little blast from the (recent) past goes, shall we?
Cask #1140, distilled November 1992, matured in a single Oloroso sherry butt, bottled July 2009. Batch 1 of Glendronach's single cask releases. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 598 bottles.
Colour: Dark rusty red.
Nose: Rich, sweet and syrupy. A sherry bomb, of course! Dark chocolate mousse, well-spiced plum pudding with brandy sauce. Orange rind & brown sugar. "Rancio" around the edges with cured meats, aged balsamic vinegar and earthy mushroom. A fistful of roasted nuts too - hazelnut and walnut in particular. Touch of spent coffee grounds and musty old wood further in.
Texture: Medium weight. Full-flavoured, rich & syrupy. Not quite as sweet as the nose suggested, but it's far from dry! No heat at all but a slight bitter astringency.
Taste: Spicy plum pudding with brandy sauce again. Orange rind and more roasted nuts, earthy mushroom and aged balsamic. More wood spices, brown sugar and a touch of treacle, or even molasses. Touch of rum & raisin ice cream (with slight vanilla) as well.
Finish: Long length. Slightly brighter and lighter here initially with tinned cherries in syrup, some marzipan and stewed dates. Then balsamic again, a little ginger, and more orange rind - maybe blood orange here in fact, there's more bitterness. Slightly astringent with more dark chocolate to finish.
Score: 4 out of 5.
Notes: Big, rich, full-flavoured & massively sherried. But also not a one-trick pony like some of the modern sherry bombs are. It's very interesting to try a younger 16-year old version of these single cask releases that is still heavily sherried like the 24-28 year old casks are in the more recent batches of single cask Glendronachs. I'm not sure if it's worlds better than they are, but it's different. A little brighter perhaps, and also heavier on the cask influence, or at least more aggressively sherried. Plenty of power, and possibly the sweetest Oloroso cask Glendronach single cask that I've tried to date, where the older more recent examples tend to be less sweet and more spicy & wood-driven. I don't mind that sweetness though, in fact I tend to prefer the PX single casks from Glendronach by a small margin.
This is a great big sherry bomb that is well suited to Christmas time - maybe more so in the northern hemisphere though, currently 35 degrees C here in Brisbane as I write this, with plenty of humidity as well. Thank god for air conditioning!
There's something bittersweet about tasting this 16-year old single cask from 2009. The single casks will be getting back to that sort of age now, on the other side of the distillery's closure from 1996-2004. But those contemporary equivalents will not be like this. No floor-malted barley and thus no trace of peat, and no direct fired stills, and the availability of quality sherry casks like this is pretty much dead & gone. Much like the core range bottlings from Glendronach I'm sure they'll still be good whiskies, but much like those core range bottlings they'll certainly be different. They're still the kings of sherry cask whiskies if you ask me, particularly in the single cask releases.
Cheers!
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