GlenDronach Allardice 18 Year

직선적이고 살짝 꿉꿉한 쉐리향과 자극을 주는 크랜베리류의 건과일 캐릭터 재밌고 강렬하고 맛있지만 엄청 복합한 느낌은 아니다 그래도 잼 같은 맛이 자극이 필요할때 꽤 맛있게 먹을듯하다 4.4

Literally the best whisky i had so far Ok let me get into some detail. When you smell into this the first thing that hits you is how dense and thick is the aroma. The one that jumps out is this overy ripe almost sour fig or cherry, that is so dense it turns into a little savory note almost meaty with like sime sweet and sour vinegar or it, it is almost salty. And it also has the typical olorosso sherry character behind this turned up by 300%. It is stunning. And so is the taste. It is creamy it, it is mouthwatering. The overripe figs and sour cherry delivers on the palate too, with thick raisins and some zestyness. And this lingers on for long. I can only repeat myself: Literally the best whisky i have ever had, so far.

Deeply complex dram with sherry, leather and blood orange notes.

Dry fruit, sherry, deep, nutty, almond, spicy

So the 12 is good, the new 15 (in my book) is exceptional, the 21 is just plain bank busting but the 18... this is achievable for the majority of us if we can be selective about what (and how much) we drink. The pour is a lovely amber with very sparse, very slow legs. For 18 years there is a surprising amount of honey malt on the nose and a blast of sherry. Off the line the nose more closely resembles the 12 than the 15. Odd. There is plenty of raisin, a bit of hey, caramel, slight lemongrass, slight dark cigar wrapper and maybe a bit of leather and buttered toast. The palate... aged wood, slightly bitter walnut, allspice, cayenne, leather and a dark cigar. The youth that the nose would suggest is nowhere to be found. There might be a base of deeply caramelized malt but no hey or honey (think Oban 14) to speak of. The mouthfeel isn't viscous or oily and is honestly a bit hot. The earthy, aged flavors slowly subside through a layer of varnish and then into a light blanket of raisin and tobacco. Breathing out of my nostrils leaves me feeling like I've smoked a cigar rather than sipped whiskey. My tongue, however, says nutty PX sherry well beyond 4-5 minutes So the nose is deceptive and resembles the 12 but the palate is like the 15 cranked to well above 18. Per sordid internet wisdom it may very well be over 18 as GlenDronach was rumored to blend in much older stock for a while (up until 2016?). I would beg the question - is that a good thing? Like 15-18 year bourbon that tends to be predominated by wood and earthy notes (Rhetoric 21, Kentucky Senator 15, Masters Keep BiB 17, etc) this begs the question can scotch be too old? I honestly have no idea. Glenfarclas 25 is something that I find to be amazingly well rounded. This bottling is a bit overboard for my taste buds. It's not that the aromas and flavors aren't there, but rather how they unfold. I would love some of the honey on the nose to show up alongside the earthy notes on the palate and the sherry-forward finish to play a more mid-palate roll rather than appearing like a ghost in the corner. With further sips it does start to come together but unlike the parabolic flavor explosion of 15 this has it's peaks and valleys leaving me puzzled. Wonderful, but puzzling and expensive when the 15 is very reasonably priced and at least for now reasonably available once again. If you like aged wood and earthy notes this is likely to be your jam and could be well worth the price.