GlenDronach’s once in a lifetime release

May 12, 2022
By Ioni Doherty

The GlenDronach Distillery is releasing its first-ever 50 Year Old Single Malt: the Highland Distillery’s oldest and rarest whisky to date. Just 198 bottles, each individually numbered, will be available worldwide with a small number destined for Australia.

The release marks an important moment in the near two-hundred-year history of The GlenDronach Distillery, one of Scotland’s oldest distilleries and only the second to be granted a license to produce whisky after the Excise Act of 1823.

It coincides with the news from earlier this year that , distillery manager for Brown-Forman’s Single Malt Scotch Whisky Distilleries, Alan McConnochie, is retiring after five decades of service to the whisky industry. He personally helped to nurture those casks of the Single Malt over the fifty years and counts being one of the custodians of this rare expression as one of his professional highlights.

Laid down over five long decades in rare Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry casks from the Spanish bodegas of Jerez in Andalucía, the liquid was finally matured in a single Pedro Ximénez cask selected by Master Blender, Rachel Barrie, one of the world’s best.

Brown Forman say, “This rare liquid has survived floods and howling Highland winters, as well as being haunted by the legend of a Spanish ghost*. This expression tells a story of the rare dedication and mastery of those custodians who have devoted their lives, through highs and lows, to protecting and nurturing this exceptionally rare Single Malt.”

Ms Barrie has been with Brown-Forman since 2017 and is responsible for crafting the exceptional quality and unique identities of The GlenDronach, Benriach and Glenglassaugh’s Single Malt Scotch whiskies.

In July 2018, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh for services to the whisky industry and was inducted into Whisky Magazine’s illustrious ‘Hall of Fame’.

In 2020, she as inducted as a ‘Keeper of the Quaich’. Mr McConnochie was inducted in 2018.

Laura Tolmie, the current distilleries production manager, is taking over as the new Distillery Manager now, having worked alongside Mr McConnochie since she was appointed by Brown-Forman in 2017.

Bottled at 43.8 per cent ABV, each bottle of GlenDronach 50 Year Olf Whisky is individually numbered, with exceptional care taken to ensure this whisky is bottled at its peak. Each bottle is protected with a bespoke wooden stopper featuring a gold engraved inlay and presented in a fine genuine leather box embossed with The GlenDronach Distillery marque.

Rare and super-premium, a bottle of GlenDronach 50-Year-Old Whisky sells for $40,000 from selected specialty whisky retailers and venues across Australia.

* It is folklore that the ghost of a Spanish lady travelled to Scotland in a sherry cask. To this day, some have heard her at the distillery, so dedicated to her beloved GlenDronach that she will not be swayed to leave.

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