GlenDronach 15 year old Revival review

GlenDronach is a well respected whisky distillery, offering quality stuff mostly matured in sherry casks. And so is The GlenDronach 15 year old Revival, matured in Oloroso casks. The distillery was founded in 1826 and is one of the first licensed distilleries in Scotland. Nowadays it’s owned by BenRiach.

GlenDronach 15YO marks as the release of whisky under new ownership. This whisky won a Silver Medal in Malt Maniacs Awards 2009.

NOUVELLE VAGUE – reincarnation of something great!

GlenDronach 15 year old Revival has to be one of the greatest sherry whiskys out there. Greatly balanced, rich palate with sophisticated sherry appeal. Revival is a spot on name, because this dram is like a rebirth of something great.

Movie called Nouvelle Vague comes to my mind. Not because the movie in question is nearly as good as GlenDronach 15 yrs Revival. But because it is about reincarnation and it is a retrospective by Jean-Luc Godard. A look back on his previous work.

GlenDronach 15YO Revival is much more easier to understand than the Godard film. Revival is smooth and easy, yet complex. Far better and more characteristic, than their 21YO Parliament for example.

Matured in:

Oloroso Ex-Sherry casks

Colour: Dark amber

Nose: Starts with intense sherry and rubbery side smell. Develops into malty citrus and dried fruits. Water brings the toffee.

Taste: Toffee and malt in a nice thick way. Nuts and sherry delicately on the side and dry notes, like dark chocolate and dried fruits.

Finish: Spices and oak in a dry and warming way. Sweet fruits rise in the aftertaste.

Balance: Rich, best sherried whisky, I’ve tried so far. And 90 points from a guy, who doesn’t usually enjoy sherry whiskies, is an outstanding mark.

Scoring

Nose:Taste:Finish:Balance:

Distillery: GlenDronach Region: Speyside ABV: 46% Non-chill filtered, no added colour

Did you know?

Check out this interesting blog post about Glendronach’s age statements. Apparently, because the distillery was closed for 6 years, you might be getting older whisky than the label says. As an example, Bert Rutkowski has mentioned in his original blog post about the subject, that a 15yo Revival, bottled in 2013 should be 18 years old.

Found a nice presentation of GlenDronach distillery by Heehaw Digital