Today is a special day for me… I’m getting married!
That calls for a special dram.
The oldest cask in the GlenDronach warehouses is an oloroso sherry cask filled in 1968. When you hear the GlenDronach team talking about this cask, they refer to it as cask #1.
In 1993 however, long before the current owners had bought GlenDronach, an official 25 year-old 1968 vintage was released and a number of batches (seven casks, or more?) were bottled exclusively for Nippon Airways and mentioned a specific cask number. One of them was named… cask #1. Is this the same cask that’s still lying around? Probably not. All I’m saying is don’t take this too seriously, it’s probably just a nice way of indicating the oldest cask available at the time of writing.
I was lucky enough to try a sample drawn from this cask in 2011. As far as I know, it’s still uncertain when and in which form it would be bottled. There should still be a couple of 1968 casks by the way, so how long before we see sister casks popping up in the yearly Single Cask releases?
GlenDronach 43 yo 1968
(48,3%, cask #1, distillery sample)
Nose: quite punchy for such an oldie, as if the classic figs and dates (which are well present) are now soaked in brandy. Other things that I notice when comparing this to 1971 or 1972 casks is added wax / waxed furniture, mint and ripe apricots. Really nice. Classic sherry with leather, parsley and cardamom. A hint of smoke. After some time: cherries and raspberries.
Mouth: very rich but a little on the dry side maybe. Herbs, raisins and chocolate. Mint. Prunes. Quite some liquorice and cinnamon. I’m missing a little fruitiness here maybe, but it’s certainly not woody.
Finish: very long, with chocolate, oak and hints of oranges.
This GlenDronach 1968 cask #1 has an amazingly fresh nose, and I adore its profile. I didn’t have the occasion to put it against my favourite 1970’s casks but it might be the best GlenDronach nose I’ve tried. Not available (yet), let’s hope it keeps going uphill until being bottled. Thanks for this unique sample, Joeri. Much appreciated.
Score: 94/100