As World Whisky Day arrives with its annual invitation to sip, savour, and salute the enigmatic dram, we turn our gaze to a Highland distillery that eschews trend for tradition, crafting richly sherried single malts from the rolling valleys of Forgue…
There are whiskies, and then there are epics bottled in glass — peat-scented sagas that swirl with the ghosts of barley past. Among the latter, The Glendronach resides like a velvet-cloaked figure in a Gothic novel: brooding, complex, and unnervingly seductive. Deep in the Scottish Highlands, near where the River Deveron meanders through lush, Highland hills, this venerable distillery has, for nearly two centuries, produced sherry-cask single malts that speak in sonorous tones of history, craftsmanship — and just a dash of mystery.
Founded in 1826, by a collective of forward-thinking farmers headed by one James Allardice — who, legend has it, peddled his whisky through Edinburgh’s parlours under the pretext of medicinal elixir — Glendronach was an early adopter of the Spanish oak sherry cask maturation that defines its identity today, using the finest sherry casks from Jerez de la Frontera in Southern Spain. Prized for its rarity, porosity and natural tannins which contribute to intense flavours and a deep, natural colour, while others have since followed suit, few wield Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso casks with such symphonic finesse.
Walking into the distillery today, one senses not a factory, but a sanctum. The great pagoda roof punctuates the grey skyline like the steeple of a whisky-worshipping cathedral. Inside, the stills gleam with coppery defiance against the modern tide, their bulbous torsos unchanged by time. Everything here is done slowly, deliberately, carefully, in that charmingly Highland way where patience is a quiet courtesy rather than a hasty demand.
And then, of course, there’s the liquid itself.
The core range — especially the Glendronach 12, 15, and 18 year olds — offers a journey through indulgence. The 12, the gateway, is anything but simple. Rich with stewed plums, dark chocolate and gingerbread, giving it that tell-tale sherry warmth, it’s the sort of dram that demands an armchair and a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson.
The 15, aptly dubbed ‘Revival’, resurrects deeper, richer notes of black cherry, roasted coffee, and an echo of in leather-bound libraries. Meanwhile, the 18 year old ‘Allardice’, named for the founder himself, is a full-throated aria of treacle, cigar box, and Christmas cake left just too long under the tree. It’s whisky that makes you nostalgic for memories you’ve never had.
But what truly sets Glendronach apart is not just the opulence of its palate, but the soulfulness with which it’s made. In an age where many distilleries have sold their heritage for efficiency, Glendronach has preserved the old ways. Floor maltings are gone, yes, but the distillery remains fiercely traditional: worm tub condensers, wooden washbacks, and a reverence for time that borders on ecclesiastical.
Even under modern ownership — now part of the Brown-Forman stable, alongside BenRiach and GlenDronach’s peaty sibling Glenglassaugh — the integrity has not been compromised. If anything, the recent reawakening of single cask bottlings and reintroductions of older age statements suggests a distillery not content with resting on laurels, but one eager to pen its next chapter.
So, next time the evening fog drapes itself across your windowpane and the world seems to beckon for a richer, slower sip of something meaningful, pour a dram of Glendronach. It’s not just whisky — it’s Highland storytelling, aged in sherry and served with a flourish.
Glendronach expressions are available to buy from The Whisky Shop. For more information about Glendronach, including its story, approach to its craft and, of course, its collections, please visit www.glendronachdistillery.com.
For more information about World Whisky Day, visit the official website at www.worldwhiskyday.com.
