GlenDronach Cask Strength (Batch 6), 56.1% abv

Info: Matured in a combination of Spanish Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso Sherry casks. Bottled at cask strength, 56.1%, non chill filtered and at natural colour.
Colour: Slightly rusty rich gold.
Nose: Fairly rich nose, lots of malt and lots of sweet sherry notes. Reasonably sour sherry, slightly damp and mossy. With some air there’s plenty of cream, and some milk chocolates notes, and a hint of younger more virgin oak wood cask type smells. The sherry then turns sweeter with some honeyed qualities.
Palate: A nice fairly nutty and reasonably beefy malt greets you, with gentle but well pronounced sherry notes coming out quickly. It’s a little hot because of the high strength, nothing some water wouldn’t sort out no doubt. The strength helps it feel really oily on your palate, with a reasonable pinch of spices, and a good amount of sweetness. Plenty of green and red apples, mushed down with some vanilla custard.
Finish: The finish is medium to long, the oils stick to your palate for a long time keeping the flavours going, mostly fairly sweet, with hints of malt and an afterthought of cask char.
Water: Takes water easily, and you can put in a fair slug without issue, it stays just as oily, but makes it easier on your palate, upping the creaminess, and bringing out some green fruits such as gooseberries.
Thoughts: The GlenDronach Cask Strength is always a fairly steady and well built dram, and this is no exception, it follows on from the others and keeps the quality just as high, if not higher. If you’re bored of Aberlour A’Bunadh (shocking!) then try this.
Available: Master of Malt – £56.53

Thanks to GlenDronach for the sample.

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