GlenDronach Peated Port Wood

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.

Another of the bonus samples from the SDT. This one was provided by @LeeEvolved. Peated Portwood is a European exclusive release from GlenDronach that Lee was so excited about he blindly ordered 3 bottles. This NAS is bottled at 46% ABV and is non chill filtered and natural color of a beautiful ruby peach. The nose opens with a sugary sweetness and plenty of red fruits. Raspberries, red grapes and strawberries, but more like strawberry candy than actual strawberries, think Jolly Rancher candy. Some sweet port wine notes. A very mild smoke and more fruits. Peaches and apricots. Floral notes, light honey and oak. Not much more than that really, which is disappointing. The palate follows the nose, both in flavors and lack of complexity. Sweetness followed by a mid level peat. A little earthy and ever so slightly bitter with a bit of a vegetal feel. Some light spice, maybe white pepper. Peaches, sea salt, faint port notes and some light oak. A medium to light bodied mouthfeel that is oily and mouthwatering. The finish is medium short with smoky peaches, faint port notes and a light peat. The nose showed promise, but it quickly failed to deliver on that promise by showing a fairly simplistic profile. Sweet with a little peat, a little port and a decent amount of fruits. At times the fruits felt more artificial than natural, but honestly this is a nice easy sipper. One to sip and relax with and not one to ponder over. Probably best for late spring/ early summer. At first it was a 4, then a 3.75, then a 3.5, but late in the game it came back to a 3.75 so that’s where it will stay. Cheers

Nose: Dark fruits and sherry, deep aromatic floral fruit notes intertwined with tendrils of subtle and sumptuously soft earthy peat-smoke. As it opens, more fresh berry fruits become noticed along with apricot liqueur and peach nectar, and it gains a nicely balancing malty hint. A sudden waft of gunpowder is a surprise after it has rested for a while! Palate: Full, rich and grapey-sweet in the arrival, quickly developing an almost mineral styled peat reek. There is no trace whatsoever of plastic or putty notes in the crisp fruity and cereal-laden developed palate, decorated with just a flourish of peat smoke. The texture is perfection - creamy, oily and luxurious. Finish: Medium/long. A figgy, date-centred fruitiness prevails until a touch of brine and spicy tannin carries it off to the lingering end. Lovely. I tasted this hot on the heels of the standard peated GlenDronach (both of which are now hard to find, I think) and I'm conflicted as to which is the superior dram. The Standard peated is lighter but this has an exquisite profile. If you're not generally a fan of peated whiskies and have never enjoyed the heft and punch of Islay smokies, then I commend these wine-sozzled GlenDronach expressions to your attention. They will convert the staunchest sherry-bomb fan. A very pleasant and non-confrontational dram that will please but not test the taster, it's quite the seductress and I may just buy a full bottle. Tasted from a 30ml sample. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)

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]

Glendronach, that very special distillery that makes the best 2 whiskies i have ever tasted: Allardice 18yo and 21yo Parliament. This is a cheaper almost "experimental" expression, peated and matured in port wood. The result is a very powerful and "out of the box" dram that is best on the nose and not as good on the palate, without been off-putting. Bottled at 46%abv. Nose is close to perfection: herbal peatiness, like grass burning. The sweetness on this is something else, seems like a dessert. Thick caramel. Smoke and salt. Toffee and Nutiness. SNICKERS chocolate. Very pleasant for a peated whisky. On the palate it is a Peated beast that has a slight sweetness and then a spice bomb. Super note of red hot chili. A rare bitterness like prunes peel. Wasabi. Maybe too spicy for me. Finish is very strange and interesting: HOT CHILLI and wasabi. Like a spicy, almost rotten, oranges. Some puff of smoke like A bonfire. Overall this is a special dram, not intended for everyone. My score for it is 82 over 100.

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.