GlenDronach Parliament 21 Year

Review coming soon. Gave up drinking for Lent, and we’re close enough to the finish line that I decided not to let the global pandemic derail that. In the meantime, I picked this up today, and when I popped the cork, it was moldy. The juice seems unaffected, and luckily I had an old GlenDronach cork that I swapped it out with (always save your corks folks!). Seems like the bottle sat in the back room at Total Wine for a while (2017 bottling), and some condensation built up. Anybody else had this happen before?

Nose- Raisins, dark fudge, plums, red grapes, walnut, red apples Palate- Raisins, wood spice, dark chocolate, plums Finish- Medium, oily finish with notes of raisins, dark fruits, and wood spice Underwhelming. Quite a surprise... the 12, 15 and 18 rock. This is quite one dimensional. It’s all sherry, and nothing else. Raisins dominate throughout everything, and especially at this price, this disappoints me. I get a little bit of PX notes, and the nose gets better over time.. but the palate is dominated by Oloroso, which i’m not a fan of.

Hail to the new king! This is now my favorite scotch of all time. From the moment it is poured into the glencairn this incredible aroma gets into your nose and you know you are about to experience something amazing. I think is safe to say that Glendronach is one of the top 3 or at least top 5 best whisky distilleries, everything they do is great and 2 out of my 3 favorite whiskies are from them. This expression is called "Parliament", and it has nothing to do with politics or government. Actually "parliament" is an english word for "a group of owls" which happen to be something common near glendronach distillery. It seems like the owls live near the distillery and when tourists come near they just fly away and then they return after the visitors are gone. Bottled at 48%abv, the most beautiful mahogany color. On the nose, it was fantastic. Coffee, Tiramisu, Walnut, hazelnut, Incredible sherry, maraschino cherries, Milk powder, Dulce de leche ice cream, Orange liquor and Chocolate notes. Cocoa butter after first sip, and then lots of chocolate. Amazing. On the palate, it is a spicy little fellow. Instant cherry flavor but then a spicy explosion, but super pleasant, black pepper, oak spice, sherry. Sweet but not too sweet, bitter chocolate. Tiramisú, hazelnut, cocoa butter, maraschino cherry syrup. Lots of delicious stuff going on. Aftertaste is WONDERFUL. A puff of smoke from burnt hay, incredibly long, with ginger and allspice. Just marvelous. Letting it breath will release chocolate with caramel with bitter herbal notes to the palate. Overall, hands down this is my favorite dram from 2018, and it is now my new favorite whisky. I score it 110 out of 100. Slainte Mhath, friends!

92/100* *I rank my whiskey based on a 100 point scale. It is a cumulative score with each category of nose, taste, finish, and balance worth up to 25 points. Here is how this score translates to the number of stars I give: 0 stars = 50 or below 1 star = 60 2 stars = 70 3 stars = 80 4 stars = 90 5 stars = 100 The score is rounded to the closest 1/4 star increment.