GlenDronach Peated Port Wood

Thanks for the sample @LeeEvolved! Right out of the gate, the drive-by nose was pleasant. Port and peat was forward in a nice way to me, mixed with the sherry. this dram takes a ton of time, like Lee stated, so I gave it 45 minutes to open. The palate is great on impact, but leaves also in an instant. Plums, black currants, purple gumdrops, mixed with the peat. If fino sherry is in here, that explains the dry acidity. This heavy grape finish dissipates so fast, that it's too much of a tease. Medium mouth coat, but too damn dry and salty. 3.75 for me. The finish builds up enough character to enjoy, but you have to drink a lot of it, and spend a ton of time with it. Therefore, the theme should be "Time" by Pink Floyd.

Peat, port all at 46%. Sounds like a great combination for a scotch. @LeeEvolved provided this sample and was eager to taste and take this all in. An initial wave of funked caramel or butterscotch (not sure which) are immediate on the nose. That funk is (probably) attributed to the peat mixing with the sweeter nature of the spirit. Grape juice, straw, vinyl (new shower curtain vinyl), tangerines, milk chocolate. Peat, earth, sweetness and spice, in that order, compose the palate. Blueberries, butterscotch come on late. That succinctly sums it up in flavors (for me). A youthful quality permeates throughout the entire palate. A long ashy finish that’s punctuated with black pepper and drying oak. This is a hard one to nail down. It’s not sure what it wants to be. It’s sort of somewhat bidimensional (smoke/peat and sweetness). It’s not terrible yet could be, wants to be, so much more. The potential is there, but then became an afterthought and forgotten and was then suddenly released. [85/100][Tasted: 3/3/18]

Ah man LeeE and PB Mich called it so I was prepared but yeah flat and uninspiring. Dramfest '18 the distillers saved some for me but they shouldn't have have bothered. Very little port influence. Glendronach is going down hill unfortunately.....

I did a double take on this one. Pink hue!?!? Seriously. It’s pink. Like a rose’ wine. WTF? Looks like rose’, but doesn’t smell like rose’. This sample was provided by my friend @LeeEvolved, and he’s not the rose’ drinking type. Anything but. This is a weird little pour. Aroma of oak left out in the rain too long. Not in a good way. The palette is fleeting berries, but my god the finish is L-O-N-G and bitter. Glendronach...what the hell, man? This just ain’t right...go back to your normal sherry cask work, and leave the crazy batshit experiments to other distilleries. Like Ardbeg. They can get away with an experiment like soaked in casks that previously held snail slime, and still manage to sell out well over asking price.

Every once in awhile a whisky grabs my focus while simultaneously causing me to lose the little bit of restraint I have. Back in November of 2017, Glendronach released this special NAS whisky over in the UK. I suppose they wanted to capitalize on the relative success of the GlenDronach Peated from 2015, by one-upping it with some port wine finishing. This is the result. I am a huge fan of GlenDronach. I am a huge fan of peated whisky. I am a huge fan of port wine finishing. So, needless to say, I lost my flipping mind when I saw this. I have been patiently waiting for its USA release but I could never find any info on whether it was coming to our shores or not. Almost 3 months had passed and I still didn’t see it available here online so I bit the bullet and bought it from an online, UK-based seller for $72 a bottle. I had such high hopes I even ponied up for 3 bottles. I just knew... This NAS GlenDronach comes in at a robust 46% ABV and it is NCF’d. The color is a nice pink gold and it makes some wonderful thick legs in the tasting glass. Then, it happened... The initial pour had some slightly undesirable notes on the nose right from the start. There was a huge blast of butterscotch and overly sweet marshmallows that clouded anything and everything for well past the first 30-45 minutes in the glass. I flat out refused to even taste it until those notes became a bit more tamed. It took awhile. Much later on, the usual GlenDronach spice profile appeared, along with some milk chocolate and your typical sherry. The tiniest bit of smoke arrived well after the one hour mark. Holy hell that took way too long. Finally, I allowed myself the first sip. There it is: oak and pepper spice, earthy peat moss, red berry and chocolaty sweetness arrive only to be ushered out the door by a stinging bit of astringency and hot alcohol. This must be the youthful base making its presence known and in a bit of a rude way. The oak and alcohol take what should’ve been a luscious mouthfeel and turn it on it’s head. This shouldn’t be happening with a 46% dram IMO. The finish is long, lingering but ultimately warming with a bit of a campfire ash residue hanging around. Subsequent sips didn’t seem to make the total experience any more refined or complex. None of the flavors seem truly intertwined like I hoped. There wasn’t enough port wine flavor- heck, there isn’t enough peat here either (which makes the bottle of GD Peated I have a little more suspect now.) Overall, not only do I feel let down I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. This amalgam of my 3 favorite things shouldn’t end up this way. This was supposed to be my Disneyland. I have to say it’s definitely a serviceable dram and maybe my expectations were too high, but boy I feel like it missed the mark. I’m sending a few samples out to the guys in my tasting group and hopefully they’ll get something that I didn’t. I hope a little time and oxidation will do something, too. As it is- I can only muster up a 3.25-3.5 score for this one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go ball up in the corner in the fetal position.