OK, you all know that I love Glendronach, well I just bought four single-cask bottles from a local collector (and may well buy some more if dramfunds permit…)

This is a 20yo OB, PX cask (a sherry puncheon), cask number 3315 which yielded 522 bottles of this deep dark-red, coca-cola coloured dram.

Very viscous dram, really thick spirit. I’m in Edinburgh for the weekend and the apartment doesn’t have any tumblers, let alone proper tasting glasses so I’m drinking it from a 250ml red wine glass. This isn’t actually a bad thing, it has the right shape to really get your nose into the glass and a big measure doesn’t look quite as big as it does in a glencairn…

Powerful sherry on the nose, heavily spiced and intensely sweet. A little acidity balances it nicely along with the usual warm, dusty leather.

Mince Pies! (For those readers not familiar, I don’t mean savoury meat pies, a mince pie is a traditional christmas sweet tart made from heavily spiced fruit and zests in shortcrust pastry – awesome with a sherried dram on a snowy scottish night beside the fire!)

Lots of oak, orange peel, prunes, walnuts, dark chocolate, ginger, apples and cherries on the palate. Hugely complex, very sweet, very spicy, very rich, very intense.

Finish: I’ll be tasting this tomorrow…

One word: Stunning.

5/5