Glendronach 12 year OB 1980’s v 2019 H2H
(1)Glendronach 12 year 1980’s ,The Original Pure Highland Malt 40% 72371
(2)Glendronach 12 year 1980’s , sherry casks,The Original Pure Highland Malt 40% 25645
(3)Glendronach 12 year 2019,The Original Highland Malt 43% 9096
Nose
The 1980’s (1) has more power than (2), the sherry bottle is a little distant in comparison to it’s sister bottle. The 2019 (3)is similar to (1), with the same DNA but less expressive.
The clear winner here is (1) followed by (3) with the old sherried bottle (2) bringing up the rear.
This smells creamy and reminds me of some old blends because there is some vanilla and lots of mango mixed with other white fruits. There is an almost industrial quality to it, like paint to be honest but it is ok and not off putting, just unusual?
My initial impression is telling me that this needs water to open up, rather closed neat, there is a nice parma violet note in the mix, rose water and a little spice.
Similar to (1) just not as pronounced, hints of vanilla but coming through is a juicy yellow plum note mixed with wisps of smoke, very nice.
So the 1980’s original shares similar vapours with the 2019, the sherried 1980’s is more closed, being less expressive generally.
The 1980’s (1) has more power than (2), the sherry bottle is a little distant in comparison to it’s sister bottle. The 2019 (3)is similar to (1), with the same DNA but less expressive.
The clear winner here is (1) followed by (3) with the old sherried bottle (2) bringing up the rear.
Palate-neat
Very nice, on sweet candied fruit of lemon, apricot, peach and mango, lemon sherbet fizz.
Slightly thin at first but way better than the nose suggested, a little cream but then a wave of fizzy sherry with a little peat and the balance is really good, tasty.
There is no way this is 12 years old more like a 15/16 year old.
This is a little smoother than it’s older siblings, more manufactured, engineered if that makes sense?
Cream soda and a wave of sweet peat which I was not expecting, icing sugar, a little barley sugar and a lovely sweet spice note
Palate (with 5 drops of water from a pipette)
More lemon sherbet with a dash of water added, very good balance , still fizzy and lively.
The water has brought more sweetness out, and a bubblegum note
Still sweet, with some barley sugar now and hints of lemon sorbet
Finish (with water)
Remaining sweet, fizzy and flavours are packed together tightly.
The finish is full on lip smacking sherry, with parma violet on the tail.
Similar to (1) sweet and fizzy basically.
Summary
I kike the nose on (1) the best, the palate of the sherry cask 1980’s (2) is really good and a point or two infront of the others but the finish on the 2019 is a point in front of the other two older offerings.
So for nose/palate/finish it looks like this :-
Original 1980`s 89/88/87
Original 1980’s sherry casks 86/90/87
Original 2019 87/88/88
A really enjoyable head to head, not much to separate them, all three were really tasty, no duffers here :)
