GLENDRONACH
Something of a modern phenomenon these days since Billy Walker took over and re-launched the distillery. However, Glendronach has long been prized by connoisseurs and has in fact been bottled as a single malt at least since the 1930s. Nowadays people associate the distillery's house style with sherry, but for decades it was much more in the direction of a very distillate-driven, old style highlandd malt whisky. Old official bottlings under the Teacher's labels and the old licensed bottlings by Gordon & MacPhail were often hugely waxy, mineral, slightly austere and beautifully fruity with big notes of beeswax, tropical fruits and wild flowers. The old bottlings at the higher 80 proof, such as the Rufino import 8 year olds at 45.7% were majestic whiskies. The best of the more modern bottlings is undoubtedly the sherry matured examples from vintages such as 1968, 1970 and 1972, all of which are sublime whiskies which are often better that Macallans of the same era.