Scottish Larch Wooden Washbacks
The GlenDronach’s traditional wooden washbacks, built from Scottish Larch wood, enhance the depth of The GlenDronach. While other distilleries’ modern stainless steel wash backs bring more zingy, grassy flavours to the wash; the natural wood materials of our wash backs create a mellowing effect; promoting the complex, full-bodied character of The GlenDronach spirit.
Saxophone Stills
In the next stage of whisky production - distillation - both the shape of our saxophone stills and length of our ‘cut’ optimise the complexity of The GlenDronach new make spirit.
The distinctive shape of our saxophone stills and the slow distillation time promote a robust and rich heart in our final spirit, by allowing greater interaction with the copper.
The ‘cut’ refers to the portion of spirit taken from the elegant neck of the stills and we make sure to take one of the longest possible cuts in the industry; capturing more of the rich top notes and bass notes of the liquid, and resulting in added depth and complexity and the fruity finesse of The GlenDronach.
GlenDronach's Cask Mastery
The founder, James Allardice, was an early pioneer of sherry cask maturation. Sherry was a popular import into Scotland from Spain in the 19th Century and in these casks Allardice discovered the perfect partner to mature his robust Highland spirit.
Sherry casks can often be made from both American and European oak. At The GlenDronach, we take the extra step to select Spanish oak for our casks, just as James Allardice would have done, sourced by our partner bodega in Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucía in Spain.
Spanish oak casks are increasingly rare and expensive, but we select these casks for their higher tannin levels and more porous wood, making them perfectly suited to slow maturation in the cool Scottish climate, to create a consistently rich and full-bodied whisky.