GlenDronach Peated – 46% abv

Info:  Peated, unusually for GlenDronach. Initially matured in bourbon casks before being finished in Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks. NAS.
Colour: Ripe straw to light gold.
Nose: Instant peaty hit, we’re talking a smoked peat, a lightish mossy highland peat rather than a punchy coastal TCP island style. There’s rich malt playing nicely with a medium level of peat, both complimenting each other with good level of sweetness from some sherry cask influence. The peaty malt has a dusty quality with a sweet toffee fruit note. A very smellable dram!
Palate: Sweet peaty malt covers your tongue with nice thick oils. It’s not over powering, meaning that you can hold it on your tongue for a long time to enjoy and explore the flavours.
Finish: Long, slightly spiced, sweet, peaty and rather fabulous.
Thoughts: The rich highland style that GlenDronach has works really well with some peat, I would imagine they’ll be doing this again and again. Their brother distillery, BenRiach, does this fantastically well and it’s great to see that GlenDronach is just as good when it’s peated. If you’re a ‘peathead’ who likes Islay drams, then why not push the boat out to see what else is around. It might be NAS, but actually the quality of the dram speaks for itself and you can trust that the price (in this case) is very reasonable.
Available: Master of Malt – £36.74

Thanks to GlenDronach for the sample.