Glendronach
15 Year Old
Revival 2018

Nose

Instant sherry, dried fruits such as; raisins, dates and prunes with freshly made butter toffee. Dark chocolate, barley, orange, polish and macadamia nuts. After 10 minutes in the glass there’s a subtle hint of coconut and honey appearing with some salted caramel.

Palate

Initially sweet with a velvety texture, a mixture of red and dark fruits with the butter toffee appearing from the nose. Honied bread, slightly salted with hints of cracked black pepper, cinnamon and cloves. More dark chocolate and macadamia nuts, oak and a peppery cedar wood note appearing before the finish.

Finish

Medium – long, more wood spices, cloves and orange oil before a slight drying end.

Overall

So, the controversial conclusion… The new Revival certainly has big shoes to fill and as a standalone 15 year-old whisky it is a great product, does it meet the high bar of the older brother – sadly not. This is not necessarily a bad thing; however, nostalgia kicks-in and you can’t help but compare the older, richer discontinued version to the newer, sweeter version.

Honestly, Glendronach should have been smarter and branded the new release differently, rather than rehash the Revival name as it’s a solid core range product in its own right. Sometimes it just makes more sense to have a clean break from the old and make way for the new.

We’re certainly not disappointed with the new 15 Revival as we enjoyed this release for what it is. Colour wise, it’s lighter in appearance and slightly spirity on the nose, less body and richness and less heavy on the sherry. We have to keep in mind that the older Revival was matured solely in Oloroso casks and rumoured to be considerably older than the new, true 15 year-old, vatted Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso release.

See our tasting of the original Revival release. https://maltmusketeers.com/brand/glendronach/15-year-old-revival#tasting