GlenDronach Single Cask 1994

Glendronach is a Highland distillery founded in 1826 near Forgue, the second distillery to be granted license to produce whisky in Scotland. Though the distillery was briefly mothballed 1996, it reopened in 2001 and is now owned and operated by Brown-Forman. It is a stream-fed distillery, with water supplied by the Dronac burn, which runs through the facility. This is a single-cask offering, part of a yearly Limited Release and selected by Master Distiller Billy Walker. While many Scotch single malts are finished in sherry casks, this malt, distilled in 1994, was fully matured in a Pedro Ximenez Sherry puncheon, and bottled in 2015 after 20 years.

The 1994 pours a dark, rich amber, with a bright ruby tint, indicating straightaway the hefty age statement and pronounced barrel character. As soon as you lift the glass its clear that the spirit inside is dripping with lavish sherry character; a perfectly oxidative mahogany cherry pie, lively with citrus highlights, warm with the cask strength, just shy of 110 proof. Imagine being served a stack of blueberry pancakes smothered with warm maple syrup in a dusty, wood paneled library. As you sip, the sweet hardwood character is warmed even further with complex baking spices; cloves, coriander, allspice, nutmeg, there's almost no end to the warmth and coziness on tap here. All of this is elegantly balanced with a drying tannic finish, just on the verge of over extraction, leaving only the desire for another sip.

In the theater of the imagination, this is the enchanting liquid ensconced in a crystal decanter glinting in the firelight as the aging tycoon draws up his will, never hearing the soft footsteps of his bitterly estranged offspring. If (old) money can buy any kind of happiness it surely tastes like this whisky, opulent without being decadent, extravagant but never gauche, perfectly balanced on the precipice of ignominy and destitution.

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