GlenDronach 18 Allardice review. At about £185 this is a bottle that tests your relationship with money, because the 15 at £73 is so good that you have to ask what the extra £112 is buying. The honest answer is: depth, and a very long finish.
It is a sherried malt in the old-fashioned style, at 46%, matured in Oloroso sherry casks, and it has the dark, serious character that made GlenDronach popular with people who like their whisky the colour of a good cigar.
GlenDronach is the Aberdeenshire distillery owned by Brown-Forman, and the Allardice is named after the founder, James Allardice, who established the distillery in 1826. It is the 18 year old of the core range, bottled at 46% and matured in Oloroso sherry casks. The GlenDronach distillery page has the history.
It follows the GlenDronach 15 Revival and the 12, and it is the first bottle in the range where the price starts to look like a statement. The recipe is the same, but the spirit has been aged long enough for the wood to turn from a colour into a character.
Like the other core bottles it is bottled without chill filtration and without added colour, and the very dark colour you see in the glass comes from the casks and not from caramel. Chill filtration and colour explains why that is worth knowing about.
Black cherry, dark chocolate and walnut oil, all in a very dark room.
The nose is deep and polished: black cherry, plum and dark chocolate, with walnut, a little coffee and a hint of leather. The sherry is dry and nutty, and there is a vein of dark spice running underneath it.
The palate is rich and slightly bitter in the best way. Dark fruit, cocoa and toffee lead, with walnut, coffee and a long, soft spice. At 46% it is thick and mouth-coating, and it keeps its shape with a little water.
The finish is very long, dry and nutty, with cocoa, tobacco and a faint sweetness that hangs about. This is the part that justifies the price, because it keeps going for minutes.
Neat, in a good glass, and slowly. A little water is fine, and ice is a waste. Water and ice has more if you want it.
This is a one-glass whisky. Pour one, do nothing else, and give it your full attention. It is not for a loud evening or a mixer.
About £185 for 70 cl. The GlenDronach 15 Revival scores 83 at about £73, and the 18 scores 85, so two points cost about £112. It is not a good deal by the numbers.
It is a good deal against some of its peers, though. Glenfarclas 21 scores 84 at about £200, and Balvenie PortWood 21 scores 83 at about £230. The Allardice beats both for less money, which makes it a sensible choice if you are shopping at this level.
The ladder for the family is simple: the 12 at about £50 scores 82, the 15 at about £73 scores 83, and the 18 at about £185 scores 85. Each step gives you a little more and costs a good deal more, so the sensible place to stop is the 15. The Allardice is for the day you decide you do not want to be sensible.
The case for the 18 is not that it is the best GlenDronach for the money. It is not. The 12 and the 15 are both better value. The case is that it tastes like what old sherried malt is supposed to taste like, with all the rough edges gone and a depth that younger bottles do not have.
If you have tried the 12 and the 15 and want to know what comes next, this is it. If you have not, start lower and work up.
It also helps to think about what you want from an expensive bottle. If it is flavour per pound, look elsewhere. If it is the feeling of drinking something finished and balanced, with nothing out of place, this one delivers it, and it does so at a strength that lets the whisky speak.
If you want the style for less, or a different version at this price, these four are worth a look:
About £73 and a very good match for the money.
About £50 and the best-value sherried malt in the family.
About £200, drier and more traditional.
About £230, port-finished and smooth.
GlenDronach 18 Allardice is a deep, dark, beautifully made sherried malt. It is expensive, and it is worth it if you want what it offers: a long finish, a rich palate and the sort of polish that comes only with time.
It is not the best value in the range, and it is not meant to be. It is the one you buy when you have decided to treat yourself properly.
Caskable score: 85 out of 100.
Black cherry, plum and dark chocolate with walnut, coffee and leather.
Rich and slightly bitter, with dark fruit, cocoa and toffee and a long, soft spice.
Very long, dry and nutty, with cocoa, tobacco and faint sweetness.
Deep, dark and beautifully polished, and priced accordingly.
Thomas Grønvold is the founder of Caskable and a whisky enthusiast who believes the best way to learn about whisky is simply to drink it, compare it, and stay curious. From supermarket favourites to bottles from distilleries around the world, he writes about what he actually tastes and experiences, without pretending you need to be an expert to enjoy a good dram.
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