STAFF at GlenDronach are today (8 December) toasting two new awards achieved by its stellar 15 year old “Revival” single malt.
 
Last week, at the Dutch Whisky Awards 2009, it was voted Best Single Malt Whisky of the year in the Netherlands.
 
It also won a top accolade in the prestigious “Malt Maniacs” 2009 Awards.
 
GlenDronach’s Dutch agent Caecil Gerrits of importers Versailles Dranken Nijmegen explained: “On the awards’ website, visitors of the festival were ask to vote for “The Best Single Malt Whisky” out of a selection of three hundred different whiskies divided into three categories. We received over four thousand votes.
 
“Some 62% of the votes in the non-peated category went to the GlenDronach 15 yrs old.
 
“After that, in a blind tasting, the six-person tasting panel chose the four best whiskies in the three categories. Even in this blind taste the GlenDronach 15 yrs was the best.”
 
The second success for “Revival” was in winning the Malt Maniacs’ “Non Plus Ultra Award 2009” in the Daily Drams category.
 
The Malt Maniacs, founded 1997 by Johannes van den Heuvel and Serge Valentin, are the most well known of all web-based whisky communities. Their twenty-four members are scattered all around the globe – in Europe, America, Asia, Australia and Africa – and amongst them are whisky writers Martine Nouet, Dave Broom and Charles MacLean.
 
The Malt Maniacs’ Awards, sometimes called ‘The Formula One Grand Prix of Whisky’, have taken place every year since 2003. More than two hundred whiskies are usually preselected and submitted by more than sixty different distillers, bottlers or brands and tasted blind by independent international jurors.
 
Johannes said: “It was not a huge surprise that the Glendronach 15yo did so well – Serge and I both adored it when we got the chance to sample it earlier and many of the jurors share our love for heavily-sherried whiskies. So many congratulations.”
 
Earlier, on hisWhiskyfun website, Serge Valentin gave “Revival” 92 points and commented: “The fact that some distilleries still have such old-style sherried whiskies may well be the best of recent news from the whisky world. An adorable whisky.”
 
The GlenDronach “Revival” is a remarkable full-bodied malt which is matured for a minimum of 15 years in the finest Oloroso sherry casks. Bottled at 46%, the GlenDronach Revival is non chill filtered and of natural colour. Master Blender Billy Walker’s Tasting Notes are:
 
Appearance
Deep gold with a lovely mahogany heart.
 
Nose
Incredible concentration of aromas. Treacle toffee and chocolate orange.
 
Palate
A very dynamic and full bodied dram for its age. Chewy with coffee chocolate and treacle scones.
 
Conclusions
A veritable feast to enliven the senses.
 
For more information, go to www.glendronachdistillery.co.uk
 
Image of the bottle attached.
 
ends                                                           8 December 2009
 
INFORMATION – Kerry White, 01324 682220 or email kwhite@benriachdistillery.co.uk