Glendronach Peated

The Glendronach Peated is bottled at 46% and was released in November 2015. Loving most of the expressions from this distillery I was curious about it since the news came out of the release to see what a peat combination does with the character we know of them. Thanks Ronald for the sample so I was able to taste it at home, much appreciated! This is what Glendronach tells us about this expression...
The most unusual expression of the trio is the new GlenDronach Peated which is just astonishing. In contrast to the traditional, non-peated character of The GlenDronach, this particular whisky has, unusually, been distilled using peated malted barley. Vivid harvest gold in colour and bottled at 46%, it was first matured in bourbon casks followed by a second period of maturation in the finest Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. The result is a superb “first” for GlenDronach – a sensational and beautifully balanced smoky/fruity dram bursting with character and flavour. The delicate peat influence provides a smouldering charred wood character filled with freshly ground barley and hints of vanilla toffee.

Well, that for sure sounds great, lets have a look what I can find on the nose to start. Creamy vanilla with notes of oak to start with. Mixed with lots of gooseberries and grapefruit that give it a bit of a sour freshness at first. Getting some baking spices, toffee and mocha hidden away in between the oak. After a bit of warming my glass it releases some charcoal and roasted ham note to me with redcurrant, heather honey and raisins. You know the smell of garlic that has been roasting with vegetables in the oven? Getting that soft and a bit caramelised note, full of soft flavours, that are mixing quite nicely with the citrus notes on this nose. 

Moving on to the palate I find some creamy, fresh and sweet notes of different types of fruit. Honeyed mouth feel with some liquorish notes coming forward through the pink grapefruit, orange, red apple, banana, black current, thyme and lavender. The notes from the nose are also on the palate giving it a bit ashy and smoky feel to it mixed with the rich other notes. Toffee, barley, powdered sugar, cream bun, cherry and peach. It has a soft and sadly not too long finish, but feels balanced all over and has some nice sweet liquerish notes in the end. But thinking it could even be better when having some more depth in it? Or maybe I expected a bit too much...? It is a nice whisky, but missing something. Doubting in scoring it a bit but going for a small 7,5 out of 10 due to it having loads of good elements in it even when I was hoping for them to be more strongly present and not have the very sugary sweet overpowering in the end. 

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