Glendronach 39 yo 1971 oloroso sherry butt #489 vs Glenfarclas 21 yo 1980 Imported by Filliers Graanstokerij
Sherry vs sherry, or.. Just because it’s sherried doesn’t mean it’s the same.
Glendronach 39 yo 1971/2010 oloroso sherry butt #489 Batch 2 48.8%
Nose: Glorious. Perfect thick old time sherried nose with loads of character – pulls you three ways: Sinfully overripe purple fruit. In Japan I had black plums begging to be eaten, sugar oozing though the skin. Yet it’s also woody with leathery notes and ancient lacquered oak tables and faint ‘chinese medical hall’.. also some tar some unsweetened cocoa. And again there is a juicy tropical fruity core under the weight of all this.
I sense it but also see that the power of the richness and decades of wood has all but almost overwhelmed that core. Not a hint of harshness or spiritiness. Completely silken and viscous at the same time, like thick honey. Lots of woody clove and aniseed, and mildly musty dug up branches.
Palate: It is all that. Also still supple despite the huge wood. Juicy creamy core, youthfully vibrant, jammed with loads of well.. jam. Espresso, no sugar. The wood is really shouting at the point. Bitter herbals and medical teas. Wood ash.
Finish: Really long, but also a bit of weakness here. Tad flat and tannic-woody-bitter and it doesn’t end.
It’s amazing to put this side by side with a GOOD 20 year old oloroso matured Glendronach, which in itself is great with all those dry oxidised rich notes, but the intensity of this suddenly makes that nose like Johnnie red.
Glenfarclas 21 yo 1980/2002 ‘Imported by Filliers Graanstokerij N.V./S.A.’, dark oloroso sherry cask, 53%
Nose: I am becoming convinced Glenfarclas’ spirit is bolder, tougher even than Glendronach’s. This one has shrugged off 21 years in a dark oloroso cask. I find the Glenfarclas in here very forward. I sense a sweetness and wood in the pheriphery but the indomitable spirit stands up: Sweet malt, flints, green sap, unripe stonefruit next to the classic oxidised richness.
Palate: Ah .. much more integration here. Yes dried fruit wood really comes out now, a sweeter fresher sherry than the Glendronach, the spirit though is far brighter and sharper, though less hugely expressive, still I find lots of leather and wet wood, tobacco, cocoa powder. Getting bitter with herbals again. Drying.
Finish: Long long long. More of these drying bitter herbals and leather and wood.
Much preferred this one on the tongue, and while the wood is big, it is not overbearing. Which is a fine line to tread I think, when it comes to wood in whisky.
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