GlenDronach Revival: After three years, the Prodigal Son returns.
GlenDronach 15yr Revival (2018 release)
GlenDronach Revival (2018 Release)
Review by Sean Russell, The GAS.
Rewind to 2015 and the whisky world was hit with the words "GlenDronach are discontinuing the 15yr Revival"
Cue rampaging through the streets, cars being set on fire, statues being pulled down, and grown men & women sobbing like an infant who has dropped their ice cream on the pavement outside school in front of their friends. Sad times. How would we survive?! We were left with the 12yr, 18yr, and 21yr to hold the core-fort whilst the 15yr went on holiday. A new baby Brother, the 8yr 'The Hielan', did appear in the meantime - but was not really an exciting replacement and it had mixed reviews...
During this period of absence, surviving bottles of Revival that were still in circulation quickly became a commodity and so sought after that people were willing to pay up to £300 for a bottle. Ridiculous? Well, in my opinion, yes. But it's their money I guess. The only comforting news that Alistair Walker told me was "... it will return at some point in 2018. This isn't something we would do lightly, as this is one of our best-selling and most popular whiskies, but we simply don't have the maturing stocks to continue to bottle and supply the GD 15YO over the next 3 years..."
So at least it would return. The countdown clock had started.
Now fast forward 3 years almost to the month, and hey presto, the Prodigal Son returns. With only a few small tweaks to the packaging and wording, its uniform looks almost identical and the distillery/Brown-Forman have been incredibly sympathetic to the original design. But if you look closer, you'll see some differences. This new Revival is now a vatting of both Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso. The tasting notes are different. Brown-Forman is mentioned (and why shouldn't they be), and most importantly, the signature of the Master Blender is now Rachel Barrie.
So, does the Revived Re-Loaded Revival cut it? Does it live up to its previous incarnation? It's not like there was much pressure to get this one right, was there...
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