A belated Happy Father’s Day to all father’s out there. If you happen to be a whisky lover then I am certain that a nice new bottle of whisky would have been the perfect gift to celebrate the day. Now, if you are still looking for a late gift to give to a dad, then take note.

If you live in the Boston area or are ever in the city, one of my favorite places to look for whisky is Federal Wine and Spirits on State Street. Joe’s whisky selection and his whisky knowledge are always a cut above. So much so that when we stopped by Federal on Saturday to purchase a gift for my boyfriend’s dad, who happens to be a whisky lover, there was someone else there at the shop thanking Joe for his previous recommendations as they loved what he had recommended for them to buy.

When it was our turn, Joe listened as my boyfriend told him what tasting notes his father liked and in no time we had an option to buy and that was GlenDronach 17 year-old Pedro Ximenex Sherry Puncheon.

The GlenDronach distillery was first founded in 1826 by James Allardice and has been operating for nearly 200 years. In 1906 the distillery was purchased by William Teacher & Sons and since 2008 it’s been owned by The BenRiach Distillery Company. My first experience with GlenDronach was with their 21 year-old Parliament http://wp.me/p3Zt2k-4r.

GlenDronach is known for producing sherried single malts using high quality sherry cask, this 17 year old doesn’t fall short of that as it uses Pedro Ximenex Sherry Puncheon. If you aren’t familiar with a puncheon it is cask that can hold between 72-120 gallons. In whisky, a puncheon is mainly used to finish whiskies.

Each year, for their single cask bottling range the GlenDronach master distiller selects a handful of casks to be bottled and released as their limited release. This 17 year-old is a part of that limited release. There were only 643 bottles released and the bottle number we got was number 358.

Getting right to the whisky, this 17 year-old is absolutely AMAZING!

Tasting Notes

Nose: oak, sweet, spices and toffee

Palate: spices, caramel, vanilla and oak

Finish: extremely smooth with a balance taste in flavors.

My initial concern with this whisky was that it might be a little too sweet but I soon released that it was not. GlenDronach has done a fantastic job at creating a tasty balanced whisky. I highly recommend trying this single malt. It is beautifully made and although a little pricy at $137, it is well worth the price. If you’d had the opportunity to try this GlenDronach or any others I’ve love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers!

Note: The contents on my blog are solely my opinion. To me every palate is different! Although I may or may not like a product, I always recommend for people to try it and make up their own minds.