A GlenDronach distilled in 1975 and bottled in 2009 by Ian Macleod for its Ian Macleod's Selection label, at around 34 years old. It was a small independent release made for the Taiwanese market, and old sherried GlenDronach from the 1970s is now hard to find.
About This Whisky
Distilled in 1975 and bottled in 2009, the whisky spent roughly 34 years in sherry wood before being reduced to 43% ABV for bottling. Listings describe it as heavily sherried, which fits the distillery's house style from that period. Cask numbers and bottle counts were not widely published.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Old oloroso, raisin and polished leather, with orange peel and a touch of beeswax.
- Palate: Rounded and mellow, showing dried fruit, toffee, walnut and gentle spice, with the softness of long ageing.
- Finish: Elegant and long, with cocoa, dried fig and fine old oak.
Serving & Food
Pour a modest measure neat into a copita at room temperature. After 34 years at 43%, water is best left out. Enjoy it on its own or with roasted chestnuts, a fig and walnut cake or a slice of aged Gouda.
How to Enjoy
Lovers of old-style sherried Highland malt, and anyone marking a 1975 birth year.
Product Details
Distillery: Glendronach
Bottler: Ian Macleod
Bottling series: Ian Macleod's Selection
Vintage: 1975
Bottled: 2009
Age: About 34 years
Cask: Sherry cask
ABV: 43% ABV
Market: Bottled for Taiwan
Origin: Scotland
Region: Highland
Volume: 700mL
About the Distillery
The distillery has worked beside the Dronach burn in rural Aberdeenshire since 1826, when James Allardice took out a licence under the then-new Excise Act. It went through several owners in the nineteenth century, and in 1960 the Glasgow blender William Teacher & Sons bought it; this 1975 spirit was distilled under Teacher's ownership.
Spirit from that era was made with barley from the distillery's own floor maltings and distilled in coal-fired stills, both of which have since gone. The bottler, Ian Macleod, is a family-owned Scotch company based in Broxburn, founded as a whisky brokerage in 1933 by Leonard Russell. It later bought distilleries of its own, starting with Glengoyne in 2003 and Tamdhu in 2011.