GLENDRONACH 2002 12YO BATCH 10 - DISTILLERY BOTTLING

Not long after the release of Glendronach's Batch 10 of Single Casks was announced, the hype surrounding these bottlings showed itself - especially in a couple of dedicated groups on Facebook... and as soon as they hit the shops, they sold out too, especially the 1993 vintage, which apparently has a reputation for being one of better 'recent' vintages - but of course, not at all comparable to the fabled 1972s.

This time, there were only 2 oloroso casks in the batch, a 1992 and a 1993  - the rest were from PX casks... and no really old vintages this time, with a 1990 24yo being the oldest release in this batch.

I'll be skipping 30 years ahead from the fabled 1972s to 2002 and, as you might have guessed by now, a bottling from the recent batch 10 release.

The Glendronach Spirit Safe, April 30th 2011 © The Malt Desk

Glendronach 2002 12yo (11.06.2002/xx.06.2014) 56,7%, PX cask#1500, 565 bottles, Distillery bottling

Colour is dark mahogany

Nose:
Starts off promptly with a thick sweetness of fresh raisin, Madeira?, burnt sugar, dried tomato. Lots of must and dark earthy notes in here as well. Cheap cola notes, dark toffee and some herbal notes lurke in the background as well. The addition of about a teaspoon of water bring out danish marzipan and milk chocolate notes... I even find hints of smoke on the nose :-O

Taste:
Rush of sweetness, extremely mouth coating, molasses and old rums, some but in no way invading wood spices, honey'ed mead, sweet orange notes, medium roast coffee beans, chocolates again filled with Grand Marnier liquor, some BBQ tomato/pepper/mustard marinade as well...

What a great single cask bottling this is...

89/100!