Glendronach 33 Year Old - Oloroso Sherry Cask - 2004 Release

Glendronach is one of the most prominent and important distilleries in Scotland’s Highlands. The distillery was founded in the 1920s but came to wider attention in the 1960s after being taken over by Teacher’s, for which it was to become a key malt. After a low period under the notoriously careless Allied Distillers, Glendronach was revived under Billy Walker, whose Benriach Distillery Co. bought the distillery in 2008.

Walker turned around Glendronach’s fortunes by the simple expedient of great cask selection, a high quality core range and prestige bottlings of vintage sherry casks, which were already plentiful in the distillery’s inventory. This good work has continued since Walker sold the distillery to Brown Forman in 2016. At auction, 1970s sherry casks and old Teacher’s-era Glendronach bottlings are always worth seeking out, although prices now reflect the distillery’s popularity.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.