WHISKY REVIEWS, NEWS, HISTORY & FOLKLORE
A Long Story With Many Characters
Illegal distillation is certainly dying a natural death but this is to be attributed more to the liberal encouragement of the Treasury to the legal distiller than to the punishment of the smuggler.
– Inverness Courier, 18th November 1824
Glendronach is an old distillery with a long history. There’s something about the place that seems to attract interesting and colourful people. It sprung up in the wake of the 1823 Excise Act, which made it easier and more affordable to buy a distilling license. That Act would prove hugely successful in curtailing the smuggling and illicit distillation that had long been taking place in the north-east of Scotland.
James Allardice was one of the many to take advantage of the new law. He had inherited Boynsmill House and Estate from his Father and established Glendronach Distillery on the grounds, in partnership with J. R. Thain of Drumblair, Robert Stuart of Aucharnie and William Davidson of Aberdeen.
Allardice (sometimes spelled Allardes) was a larger than life character and many tales are attributed to him. One tells of an evening at Gordon Castle when Allardice had taken on a sizable quantity of whisky, produced by a rival Speyside distillery. Emboldened by the spirit, he spoke freely to the Duchess, in a manner she found most displeasing. In the morning, the Duke chastised Allardice for his behaviour but ever the salesman, the distiller advised that it was the inferior whisky he had consumed that affected him in such a way. He ensured the Duke that his own fine Glendronach would never have had such an effect. By the end of the conversation, the Duke had agreed to buy a cask for his cellar.
Despite having the gift of the gab, Allardice was declared bankrupt in 1842 and his distillery was taken over by Walter Scott, a self-made man, born to a lowland farmer. Scott worked his way from clerk to distillery manager at Teaninich before investing in Glendronach in 1837. By 1860, he was the sole proprietor.
Scott turned Glendronach into a huge success story. The distillery was renowned and by the time of his passing, its spirit was much in demand. Notices of Scott’s death spoke of his “juvenility and buoyancy of spirit” and noted how deeply his loss would be felt in the region. Scott was more than a distiller it seems. Among other things, he was a renowned agriculturist, who kept a prize-winning herd of shorthorn cattle and served as a Justice of the Peace for the county.
It is understood that the well-known Glendronach Distillery, Forgue, Huntly, will be closed at the end of this month, and the whisky will all be removed in the course of the next two weeks. As is known, distillers are not making whisky now, and this will in all probability continue for the duration of the war, if not for some time after peace is declared.
– Aberdeen Press & Journal – 4 September 1918
Glendronach was forced to halt production throughout the course of the Great War. In 1920, production resumed under the watchful eye of Captain Charles Grant, son of Major Grant of Glenfiddich and Balvenie. Charles had worked in distilleries since he was 14 and took to the task with relish. Another impressive character, he lived his life with a bullet lodged in his shoulder, a hangover from the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.
The 1960s saw the distillery taken over by Teacher’s who regularly used its spirit, along with that of their other distillery, Ardmore, in their Highland Cream Blended Scotch. However, expansion in 1968 saw a quantity of the distillery’s whisky ring-fenced for “marketing as a pure Highland malt.”
By the new millenium, Glendronach was under the control of Pernod Ricard who sold in 2008 to the Benriach Distilling Company. The company was headed up by Billy Walker, a Master Blender of great repute and experience who would go on to establish the brand as one of the go-to expressions for lovers of sherry cask matured Scotch.
Nowadays, the distillery is under American ownership in the form of Brown-Forman and the responsibility for maintaining the malt’s high standards falls on Rachel Barrie, a Master Blender with more than 30 years experience and an iconic figure in her own right.
Aye. There’s definitely something about the place.
The Whisky
The dram in question is a very old, very expensive single cask that was bottled by independent bottler, North Star Spirits. It’s an impressive 31 years of age and bottled from a single refill sherry butt at a strength of 44.4%. Safe to say this isn’t the kind of whisky I get to sample very often.
*Full disclosure: the sample featured in this review was gifted to me. As always, I will strive to give an honest opinion on the quality of the dram and the value for money it represents.
Smell: Really interesting nose and not at all what you might expect from Glendronach. There’s no abundance of dried fruits, though it is old, you get a real sense of the time spent in oak. There’s woodstain and woodwork shops. Sawdust. Fresh honeycomb. It’s almost meaty. Some chocolate. Some light citrus. Pineapple. Lemon curd and orange marmalade. Golden syrup. Wee dusting of pepper. Hobnob biscuits. Aniseed. Liquorice. Lots going on.
Taste: The arrival is quite soft with the marmalade and curd notes from the nose coming through. It develops some woody, peppery spice and has a thick, weighty consistency. It’s oily and oaky – but not an old, damp, dunnage oak – more like freshly sawn oak. Also honey and lemon throat lozenges. Some soft spices on the finish. Chocolate orange. Dark chocolate undercurrents. Some black pepper round the sides. Slight bitterness into the finish.
Thoughts: Interestingly, this is not an instant knock your socks off whisky. It starts off pleasant enough but reveals its quality slowly and hands out wee subtle reminders of its age. It manages to be woody without being over-oaked and even showcases some malty spirit character – no mean feat after 31 years. My experience progressed over a few sips from “it’s alright, I suppose” to “hang on a minute” to “wow, this is stunning!”. It’s an excellent whisky but not at all what you might expect from an old Glendronach. A dram that suggests there’s much more to this spirit than big, dominant sherry casks.
Whenever I taste a dram like this, the question “is it worth it?” comes to mind and the answer is always a resounding no. It’s a great dram, don’t get me wrong, but there just isn’t a big enough step up in quality to justify the price. Now, people buy bottles like this for all kinds of reasons. If you’re looking for something for a special occasion, or perhaps the year of distillation has some personal significance or maybe you’re a big Glendronach fan that collects every expression you can get your hands on, well you’re going to get a very, very good dram for your money and I suppose that’s all anyone can really ask for, regardless of how much it actually costs.
Price: £1600. Fair to say it’s slightly out of my budget. In fact, it’s out of most people’s budgets, which is a shame. It’s a pity that so many don’t get to try whiskies like this. I’m not pointing the finger of blame because independent bottlers can’t control the price of casks on the market. Someone is going to buy the cask, and someone is going to buy the bottles. It may as well be North Star and its customers and, to be fair, this bottler does a decent job of putting out drams all across the price spectrum.
For more on North Star Spirits visit here
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