Hello Ralfy! I follow you from the early days but never commented until now. First I saw your videos for the whisky knowledge but in the end I stayed for your wise rants and stories. And, if you permit me, I must say that after all these years enjoying your videos, when you upload a new one is like reuniting again with an old friend. Thank you to your channel, I started my malt journey and it couldn't be more happy with it, I discovered an amazing world of memories. Recently I traveled to Scotland, an old dream of my childhood, and I absolutely fell in love with your beautiful country and history. And I had a lovely scottish malt moments too! Thank you for all your work and dedication after all these years, Ralfy. I hope I could go back to Scotland very soon, this time to visit the western islands (and some peated distilleries of course)! All my best wishes too you, cheers!

I usually have 3 or 4 bottles of whiskey open..... and one of them currently is GlenDronach 18, so I had to pour myself a wee dram while I watch. Luckily I live in Japan where tax on spirits is very low, and bargains galore can be had. I don't think it cost me more than US$110, or about 12,000 yen. Alcohol tastes better when it's a bargain!

Hi Ralfy, I watched this review while sipping on the EXACT dram you are reviewing! (2019 bottling!) Totally agree about the 15 yo; it was my tried and true sherry bomb many years ago before the company switched. Having tasted this new 18 yo, I am quite happy with my purchase, and that’s now reinforced by your high praise of the stuff! What fun to do a kind of virtual tasting alongside you! Thank you so much for your lovely content!

‘This is why you should always lick your cigar boxes’ 😂 gotta love a Ralfy review!

Ralfy!!! " the carpets welcome to it"! Its why we love you Ralfy! An honest. Free of flannel , sometimes brutal, opinion and education. Im proud to call you my malt mate and professor of malt university!!

"Non-chill filtered" and "Natural colour" noted on packing tube.

"The carpets welcome to it" love it Ralfy - great review thank you. I have the 15 and 18 year old on my list of soon to purchase

Ordered a bottle of this along with a bottle of Springbank 15...should keep me nice and busy this first lockdown weekend! I know I've said it before, Ralfy, but thank you for these videos. I know whisky is very much 'personal taste', but people like yourself give more inexperienced people like myself an excellent insight into bottles we probably wouldn't otherwise have bought. Anyway, keep up the great work and bring on the weekend!

I have got a Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs choice, Dalmore, cask strength 57.4% and no colour added or chill filtration, and its bloody lovely !!!

Ralfy's eyeroll when talking about Paterson throwing whisky on the carpet made me chuckle. But then when he said that some Dalmores "the carpet is welcome to it", that made me burst out in laughter. Thank you, Ralfy :)

You're the best Ralfy! Love this bottle, got a mothballed one that had 22 year in it! Absolutely amazing.

I’ve tasted and finished , and still own a sealed 2016 bottle. It was wonderful. Had a 2013 bottle of 15 yr old. Side by side I preferred the 15, but the 18 had a more elegant finish and nose. Also, a dusty cocoa finish that wasn’t quite there in the 15. Oddly enough. When there was maybe a 1/4 left of each I mixed them together. The 18 year old dominated the 15. Anyhow. I still hold 3-15 yr olds & 1 -18 yr old. Holding on to them because their prices , especially the old 15 is too hot for me now. With shipping on auction it’s @$230. Great stuff. Poor mans sherry monster now, maybe macallan 12. Glenfarclas 15, Aberlour Abunahd ? Prices need to settle down. Getting too expensive to buy an “old school” quality sherry bottle these days.

Ralfie this by far my favorite single malt! And i love that you are reviewing it. 🥃

The new 18 (this year) will be the same as the current 15 year. The old bottles were raised on sherry casks. When Glendronach restarted production after being sold, they used a lot of bourbon cask. When Glendronach was resold they did a lot of reracking to sherry casks because the new owners knew that Glendronach is all about sherry maturation.

Hi Ralfy, I live in Brisbane Australia and am very grateful for all your good advice and appreciate your honesty and conviction. Thank you. I have an open bottle of 2015 Glendronach 18 which is just under half full so I decided to buy a few more bottles. But when I went to buy they were all sold out in Australia, so I panicked and bought 3 bottles from the UK which I got for around what they sell here in Australia for. However I bought them thinking they were the 2019 bottling and they arrived with a bottling date 2nd June 2020. I keep hearing that the 2020 bottles are not very good and that they have no older whisky in them. I did read on a Whisky forum that there is a chance that a mid 2020 bottle could have very old whisky due to the time it takes to dilute with water from cask strength, they were saying sometimes up to 12 months, which would mean a June 2020 bottle would still have the older whisky. Ralfy, could you please shed some light on this? Thank you in advance

So glad to hear such a complimentary review! My mother in law bought me a bottle for my 30th recently and its sitting alongside the other Sherry monsters in my cabinet 👍🏼 Thank you for the time you take Ralfy to put this together and help me navigate my way through the world of Whisky 🥃 Good Health!

Another interesting review..glad to see your subscribers grow in number, Ralfy! Ciao!

My current scotch industry observation: “The new $200 bottle is the old $90 bottle with a fresh label”...

I Love you Ralfy . One of the few tell it like it is reviewers on KZfaq. Keep it Up

Ralfy has a clever way of burying his criticisms in praise.

Well Ralfy, looks like you're costing me another few quid here after this review! (joke ;-) I have been scratching my head over this one for some time as to whether or not to add it to the collection...sounds like now might be the perfect time to bite the bullet! Great review mate, take care.

Is it not OK for people like Richard Patterson or Charlie MacLean to swirl their whisky as well, or just us regular folk?

Great review!! I remember many years ago at a local liquor store I had purchased the 18 for $112 Canadian and the 21 $120. I told folks get this now before pricing becomes out of control. Miss those days. I’ve walked away from whiskey now for two years due to becoming disappointed more times than not. Also, where pricing has gone and with all the special editions out there it’s a big risk of money to be disappointed and most of my favorites like this one priced itself out of my wallet.

I'm about 14 months into my whisky journey. My wife and I have been working our way through a bottle of this for about 11 months and it's nearly gone. Made the classic mistake of just buying anything I could get hold of in the supermarket and whilst it's helped inform to some degree what I do and don't like, what you say about buying "quality rather than quantity" completely resonates with me. Interesting that your malt mark is a 90 - exactly the same as the old 15 year old? I have yet to try the old 15, sadly but on the back of this review I'll certainly try and find a bottle. Glendronachs 21 parliament is a bit too much of a challenge to reach for it regularly whereas the 18 year old could easily come out every week if you can allow yourself to reach for the bottle. It does make me wonder, as a newbie, if the 18 is a better drop, or, if the problem is me and I'm just not experienced enough to get the most from the 21 year old. Do you think there's much of a corrolation between enjoyment and experience, Ralfy?

I tried this at a restaurant yesterday and it was an absoulte homerun! One of my favorite whiskeys I've had.

Hefty price in New Zealand (200 - 215 dollars nz). However - I had a couple of bottles of the old 15 year old and so will give this a try. Oh, and Ralfy - I do agree on the Dalmore comment - both sides of the discussion. I also had a newer bottle of the 15 year old and was right with you there - it was a good whisky - but just not on the same playing field as the old one.

Inquiring minds want to know if this is the 2020 bottling that contains 18 year old casks ??? Thanks Ralfy

I've been waiting so long for this one! Enjoying the 12yo more with each dram, but always wondered what the 18yo was like! Thanks Ralfy. Read my mind

Oh Ralfy - how I miss the lightheartedness of your older reviews when you first started.

Just opened my bottle last night, very good whisky. Considering buying another bottle to save for later. Thanks for another great recomandation Ralfy.

I'm on my 5th bottle of Glendronach 18. I belive it's my favoritt. I bought my first one 3 years ago for 80 pounds. I was hoping Ralfy would clarify the rumor that the Allerdice contain much older whisky than stated because of the mothballing in the 90's.

4 months late to the party. but just have to say that I've just added water to this with ralfy (at 15 mins in) and I can't believe the transformation! Much like an Arran 18. Lovely. Complex. Wow! a 90.

I had one bottle about 1.5 years ago, it was really an experience. I do like the 21 year Parliament even more :)

Ralfy, it does say "non chill filtered & natural color" on the box. I know, the label is the contract, but at least they state it somewhere. Also, what is the bottling-date on your bottle here? (can be difficult to see, black letters on dark whisky, bottom on the back) This is imperative, because if it is up to and including 2019, it can be a 24 year old whisky you are drinking there. This will surely influence the smell, taste and experience. A 2020 bottling is supposed to be "gradually younger towards actual 18", but if it is still good, I might just splurge and get one or two. I bought 6 bottles last year (wonderful stuff it sings after about 30 minutes in the glass, even neat). Really interested to see how the actual (new) 18 year old differs, once it gets there. Lots of questions here, but I hope you can clarify a little, great and fun review.

The Allardice a number of years ago was my first real "wow" moment with whisky. It was so rich, so amazingly flavoured, so beautiful. I've had a lot of sherried whiskies since then and I still haven't found something on the same level, let alone at the price point which was around €70 at that time. Luckily I stocked up, same as with the 12 YO bottled in 2013 which is basically an Allardice Light - same type of flavours only less rich. This style of whiskies will just be impossible to find in 5-10 years time.

Got half a bottle left of the '18 vintage and a full bottle of the '19 vintage, glad I picked them up before the price took off.

This is one of the best dram I’ve ever had.If it was bottled in 2019,it’s actually a 24YO.

Glendronach has been bought and sold so many times that there is no way we are going to receive consistency in the cask selection. The 18 would have been distilled by Allied Distillers as would the first release of the Revival version. Several owners later the place is now owned by Brown Forman, the Jack Daniel's people. Anyone unhappy with the cask treatment of the 12 or 15 can blame Pernod Ricard.

This cost $160 USD where I’m at. Wish it was a bit cheaper. Grabbed two bottles when it went on sale for $130

All the talk about oloroso, spices, savory, leather etc. I've got to try this soon. I think it will broaden my horizons hugely as an amateur scotch enthusiast.

so cool to hear Ralfy speaking French. I don't care if he said "poivre (pepper) instead of poire (pear). That was great.

Ralfy, I opened a 2019 bottling about 4 months ago the first few weeks drank just over a quarter bottle, lovely dram and then left it for 6 weeks. On going back in, it was very odd, sour and sharp, not nice to be honest, I'd goes as far as saying I should have gassed it. Not sure why the newer version did not stand up overtime as well as the pre 2015 bottlings but maybe I just got a bad bottling for some odd reason. Funnily enough I tried it last night as my last dram of the evening after two 'Glenmorangie's A Midwinter Night's Dram' and it seemed to have improved slightly, jury is still out for me on the newer bottlings. Great review cheers JK

On the front of the cardboard tube, it says natural color and non chill filtered.

Thanks for the review, Ralfy. Last year I managed to snatch one 2017 and two 2019 bottles. I paid 71 euro for the 2017 bottle and 2 x 80 euro for the 2019 ones. Local dealers basically didn't have a clue about what were they selling, they just have put their regular margin over the price :) Now I'm left with the hope for a proper occasion to come by so I can get one of those beauties opened :)

Here's something for your notebook, Ralfy. This is about the Glencairn glass. There is one aspect of this glass that hardly any people know about. Pour exactly 60 ml, today’s standard measure, into the glass. It will fill the bowl of the glass to the last ml. Now lay the glass on its side. The whisky will reach a mm short of the lip of the glass without a single drop dripping out! Push it gently and the glass will move in an arc around its heavy base without spilling a drop.

One of few distilleries that makes product which couples well with dark chocolate. I encourage any with orange or raspberry or cherry in the dark chocolate. It must be proper chocolate. It really works, despite what’s known re: chocolate not partnering well with whisky.

Great Review, I loved this one and stocked up before the price rise

Been drinking a 2019, and picked up a second 2016 today. I haven't tried them all, but it would be hard to best this one.

Funny how the 18 is now sold out that my online retailer, but not the 21 for $20 more. Thanks a lot ralfy!

GlenDronach has become one of my favourite distilleries over the last year and I’ve been waiting for this review to help decide whether to buy a bottle of the 18. Sounds like it lives up to the hype! Cheers for the review

Fantastic episode, thank you!

German webshops say: No colour added! 😁

Great review, Ralfy! So I saw that this is natural color and non chill-filtered, but it only says so on the tube, not the bottle. I do not understand why some distilleries share important information in such a way.

Finally found a bottle of Glendronach 18 today ($219). I was a little disappointed, not because it wasn't good, but because it tastes exactly like the Arran 18 year, to me. And the Arran 18 is $80 less expensive. I was just hoping for something new and different from the Glendronach 18. But after 2-3 years looking for it, it never could have lived up to my over-hyped expectations anyway.

bought a bottle, lovely stuff, Antique bronze, that was funny the way you said it

I’ve wondered recently if a good wine-cask finished whisky, ultimately offers a more intense, beautiful experience compared with wine itself. Whether sherry, port, burgundy - certain harsh traits are erased when expressed as a cask-finish. This is why I actually like very heavily wine finished whisky a lot of the time, to the point that it just tastes like incredible Armagnac. Because the way I see it - though I’m not sure - it seems we get to enjoy the essence of good wine, through whisky - perhaps to the point that it’s a more pleasurable method of experiencing grape. New Zealand and Australian wine cask finished whisky is a fine example of this.

Surprised to find this week, side by side after having the 18 a few times this year - that I prefer the 12. Anyway, Glendronach get the smell just right for me - the lid - it always smells of leather, tobacco, along such lines. Nothing else seems to, so reliably, while delivering something quite smooth. I’m not too experienced but it seems to me Glendronach at least offer a “feeling” which Macallan were perhaps able to 10 years ago; something refined, simple, “elegant”, same basic notes it seems; though with a slight funk, thankfully not Springbank-ish but sherry funk. For me, the 12 tastes a little more open - there - strong. 18 has a more subtle character expression to me. Surprising; but glad for wallet.

Had to have a re-watch of this one. "The price will go up after this..." oooooh boy did it ever! :)

Gotta be honest...I’m not a huge fan of this bottling. Maybe it’s just the bottle I bought, but there’s a note in there that I just don’t like, and I can’t put my finger on what it is. I do enjoy the 12 year old Glendronach though. Edit: I went back to this one about 1-2 years later after the open bottle had been sitting in my liquor cabinet for a while. The whisky has become much more approachable over that time, and whatever the overpowering note was has calmed down a lot. I actually enjoy this quite a bit now, although I still wouldn’t pick it over some other 18s in my collection.

Ralfy, I'm curious about your thoughts on tasting notes derived from smells. I often come across tastes that remind me very closely of smells I have come across before. I think this is where things like "cigar box" and "leather" come from. I certainly don't lick cigar boxes, but the smell of an unlit cigar is one of my very favorites and I do find tastes connected to that smell in sherried whiskies. In general, I wonder if connecting tasting notes to smells is helpful to average consumers because they have encountered a wider range of smells that they can recall over exotic tastes. Just some thoughts -- love the channel and thank you for empowering my own malty adventures with your excellent personal knowledge!

Maybe the best whisky I ever head👌 Unfortunally to expensive for me now

This is my 'go to' Christmas (tipple only) along with Highland Park - Ness of Brodgar's Legacy (12 yr). NOT to be rushed !

Ralfy knows where Dalfloor belongs 👍 BTW it should say Non chill filtered on the whisky tube. For some reason it's not on the bottle. Cheers!

What have I done wrong Ralfy ???? So confused down to a third of the bottle and it’s absolutely fabulous ! I was hating this dram even till half way.

I have 2019 bottles and the container says Billy Walker and not Rachel Barrie. I have a June 2020 that has Rachel Barrie on the container. It would be interesting if Ralfy could comment on how long it takes to dump, proof, marry and bottle an aged whisky like this. The new Glendronach spirit hit 18 years old in May and I don't believe that the 3 weeks was enough to create a batch with the new spirit. I think the new batches should be coming out now or soon...

90/100 - respectful bar set right there by GlenDronach

Tube clearly says natural colour and non chill filtered Ralfy...great review though, love your videos, cheers 🥃🥃

I haven't yet tried this one, only the 12 year old and the 21, which I actually kind of found to be a little bit "dead", probably because of the 3 year long px finish on top of all the oloroso it had already been soaked in. But I kind of regret not having bought one or two bottles of this when it still went for ~70€. Simply knowing that it was that price just about 1,5 years ago makes me refuse to pay the ~110€ it costs now here im Germany, even though that new price doesn't actually seem to be that bad compared to everything else. Just today for example I saw a new Signatory bottling of Caol Ila from a Sherry Cask for the same price, although just 9 years old! Pretty crazy! When I see stuff like that I wonder if I should just go out and buy as many bottles that I know to be good and still affordable as I can right now, before things like a Springbank 15 for example hit the 1000€ mark 😅

I find that this expression requires more time to breath and open up compared to other 18 year olds. I pour at least 30 minutes early, add a bit of water (1/2 teaspoon) and leave it with a cover. The sour harshness (to me) goes away and the syrupy fruit characters shine. I was not as patient and actually never got to the "bliss point" with my first bottle. I preferred the 15 year old expression (Rachel Barrie version) until now. Time in the glass improves the 18 YO greatly.

Dalmore should be presented in a Rug Doctor bottle. It does what it says on the label 🤣

Ralfy, any chance you could do a “real time” first tasting sometime? Like literally make a 30-60 (or more) minute video letting us see how you genuinely enjoy your first dram out of a new bottle. I’ve heard you describe how it is best to take your time with a fine dram, but I would really love to see a full length video of your first experience as you would naturally pace it. Would be highly educational!

Great review. I can't wait until you review the 50 year old Glendron😃ach.

God I've got to start licking my Cigar boxes according to GlenDronach. Haha....

The carpet might like dalmore as much as sanitisers. I haven't had them since the price hike and a bad bottle of 15 year old!

Ralfy, many thanks for the multi-faceted review - entertaining and instructive as always. Can you help us all out by mentioning the bottling date on your bottle, please? As we know, the distillery was mothballed from 1996 to 2001, so it would be interesting to know if you've got a fresh 2020 bottling, produced by Master Blender Rachel Barrie, and thus containing genuinely 18-year-old stock. Or whether you might have a bottling from the years 2015 to 2018 in which GlenDronach were forced to use older stock just to keep the core range on the shelves. The other thing that I found fascinating about GlenDronach is the fruity and floral nature of the new make which I had the opportunity to taste at the distillery 2 years ago. Fresh off the stills it's hard to believe that this distillate is GlenDronach; as you said in your review, we're really talking almost solely here about the calibre and quality of the casks used for maturation which really dominate the taste profile of the end product. One way or another, it's a classic sherried malt and I can well understand why most whisky enthusiasts might have a few bottles of it squirrelled away in a dusty cabinet, under the bed or down in the cellar. This is the perfect dram to welcome in the cold months of the northern hemisphere with its (natural) autumnal hue and heavy, spicy palate. Cheers!

Finished already 10 bottles or more. That supposed to be storaged for XXX years but to tempting.

There are some Dalmore bottles that the carpet could just soak up. I might be more bothered about the stain than the loss. Lol. Carpets share...

It's so true, Rum over 15 years getting some kind of harsh. 15 year old Rum is perfect. I like Whisky a lot, and I tasted several ones (I guess 50+) but I never smell or taste any details people do. This is a real bummer, still I like it ;-) About Glendronach, my beloved spirit is a Glendronach 1995, you tasted it as far as I can remember. Besides that one I had the 12 and 21 year old Whiskies at home. I dunno why but these Whiskies acted strange. On one day I loved it on a other day it was not really tasty at all. Can you make any sense out of what I'm trying to say? My lucky guess was the ambient temperature, but in this case that should be a influence on other Whiskies as well, right?! You have a great dialect. Cheers from Germany :)

Ralfy, in the box says cleary: NON-CHILL FILTERED NATURAL COLOR

the best whisky I've drank was a Glendronach 18 in a whisky bar in Edinburgh, a couple of years ago. not much smell but the taste was sublime. sadly, the bottle that I bought to bring home was nothing like that. surprisingly spirity and dull. some common dried fruits and not much else. the old Bunnahabhain 12 (the black label one) was above it at all levels. now, of course, Bunnahabhain is worthless too.

Hey ralfy big fan from France ! Just to say, you said "poivre" means pepper, when you mean "poire" ;)

Could you mention the bottle code of your bottle Ralfy? It's usually at the bottom of the back label. Only that way will we know if the bottle you got is post or pre change in ownership!

Oh @ralfy , when do you come to Belgium ? I will show you around a very nice tasting whisky house ^^

Thanks Ralfy

The clicker didn’t like your opinion of the Dalmore

One of my very favorites. I have three bottles of it 😊🥃

aaahhhhh thats better...the clickers not working, normal service has resumed ...

Dalmore makes some fantastic whisky, iMO. It's just that they don't bottle any of it themselves. You can find some proper gems from the Independents, though. ;)

This Allardice whisky is unobtainable here in Canada ! I had to order a couple bottles last year from the UK (Amazon) and have my inlaws bring them back duty free for me. I was also able to get someone who travelled to Quebec to bring me back 2 bottles of the 21 (48 abv Parliament) at a very reasonable $202 Canadian each. Here in Ontario the 21 at the time was $280 and as I say the 18 cannot be had anywhere. Ralphy, have you considered reviewing the 21 Parliament?

Love the review, and glad I was able to stash a handful of these before they evaporate from the market! Curious what year was the one you reviewed bottled in?

is the 2021 bottling of lesser quality if you have tasted it ? @ Ralfy

Ralfy, can we all come together for your 1000th video? Such a great community has developed... why not invite us somewhere? We will all bring our best bottles of whisky and help pay for the venue. Who else here thinks this is a promising idea?

I have a recent bottling and in my opinion, you have to make a large effort to enjoy the dram. I will not buy again, unless I see evidence that it has improved from the situation in 2020

90 really good

Dear Ralfy. In review 496 (Glendronach 21) you said you did not like the 18yo (I my spaniard ears heared well) and now you recommend it, specialy the oldest ones (I've heard in your last video uploaded). What has changed in your mind? Thanks!

Actually ralphy, it says on the bottle tube for this edition that it is non-chill filtered and natural colour.

i have drank glendronach for years, the old 15 revival was my favourite and at great price until it crept up and up till it disappeared, then re-appeared 3 years later at about £15 more a bottle for an inferior product with the same name, riding on the back of the revivals success, and during this time the price of the 18 crept up also, both far above inflation. I dont like feeling that i'm being ripped off, & even though I love the Allardice, i'm looking at alternatives to get my sherry monster hit and voting with feet, as i wont be buying many bottles in future if at all.

Rally you need to do a follow up to this video to answer all the comments in the facts that you missed

Nothing to do with Glendronach, but a few days ago read an article about Covid restrictions and Islay distilleries getting closed. They compared to Arran opening, and quote "Lochranza and Lagg, were built to be operated by one person". WTF, one human and a computer does all this.

But right now i have a Clynelish 14, and damn, so good, i love that one, just like the glen scotia 15.