Glendronach Peated Port Wood

Glendronach from the distillery, at 46%. Glendronach is a dark, sherried Highland malt, this a rare peated release of smoke and dried fruit. Its whisky is now overseen by the master blender Dr Rachel Barrie. It passed to Brown Forman, owner of Jack Daniel's, in 2016 as part of a 285 million pound deal. It was bought in 2008 by Billy Walker's BenRiach company, who rebuilt it as a heavily sherried single malt.

The spirit was worked unhurried through the stillhouse from peated malt, giving a full bodied, smoky Highland spirit. Ex-Bourbon matured, it was given a finish in a Port pipe for a final sweetness. Carrying no age, soft vanillin and dried fruit suggest a fair spell in active oak. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Highland body. Active first fill sherry wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. Maturation runs slow and even in the traditional dunnage warehouses on the Forgue site.

Bottled at 46%, it is rounded and full. Soft smoke, honey and a dark chocolate, with red berry, plum and a dry spice from the cask. Fig, honey and a sweet peat fill the middle. A long finish carries peat, chocolate and a treacle. This is a smoky, sherried Highland single malt.