Singapore found itself in the private room in Wakuda Marina Bay, where The Glendronach unveiled something extraordinary: their first ever 30 Year Old and the ultra-rare 40 Year Old (2025 Edition). The media here were among the very first in the world to taste them.
During the rare cool late afternoon in this city, I met with Dr. Rchel Barrie for the first time. As one of the firsts to taste the limited released expressions, we were told not to post anything prematurely.
And then she appeared, chatty, warm, and instantly at ease, Dr. Barrie, Master Blender with over three decades in whisky, was in Singapore not for the first time, but for her first Glendronach event here. This was personal to her as she revealed that she grew up just five minutes from the distillery, and spoke of it the way one might talk about a family home.
The Valley of Brambles
Rachel described The Glendronach with the intimacy of someone who never really left it. Founded in 1826 by James Allardice, the distillery sits in the East Highland hills, surrounded by fertile farmland.
At one point she asked the room if anyone knew what “Glendronach” meant. Silence hung in the air, no one daring to consult the internet. She revealed it herself: “valley of the brambles”, after the berries that grow wild there. Fittingly, she wore a deep burgundy jacket, the same colour as the fruit when it ripens.
Glendronach is one of only three distilleries in northeast Scotland, but by far the best known for its robust Highland spirit. Its saxophone-shaped stills, long fermentations in wooden washbacks, and its uncompromising use of Spanish oak sherry casks give it the hallmark notes of bramble fruit, chocolate, and even tobacco.
As Dr. Barrie put it, “Glendronach is an old-style Highland malt, matured in Spanish oak sherry casks. It’s who we are, it’s what makes us different.”
Dr. Rachel Barrie, Master Blender of Glendronach, holding a bottle of 40-Year-Old at the media preview in Singapore, the first market in the world to taste the limited release. [Image source: Brown Forman]
The 30 Year Old – A Three-Cask Symphony
The Glendronach 30 Year Old isn’t just another age statement. Dr. Barrie called it a “three-sherry cask symphony”: Pedro Ximénez for its dark, sumptuous base; Oloroso for its spice and citrus lift; and, for the first time in Glendronach’s history, Amontillado, which she described as the most enveloping of sherries, bringing toasted hazelnut and crème caramel.
In the glass, it kept shifting as I nosed Morello cherry, raisin, Brazil nut, marzipan, Medjool date as the tasting notes described it. On the palate, it was the PX moving like bolero; Oloroso like flamenco; and finally the Amontillado, like rumba, lingering on. Rich, generous, and full in mouthfeel, like the kind of whisky that holds you in its rhythm long after you’ve swallowed.
The 40 Year Old – Distilled Wisdom
If the 30 was symphonic, the Glendronach 40 Year Old was an aria. Dr. Barrie told us only 300 bottles exist worldwide, each presented in a rosewood case with brass clasps, perched on a golden plinth. It was beautiful.
The whisky was composed from casks filled in 1978, 1983 and 1984 (my quest to track down a 1981 cask hits yet another dead end). Dr. Barrie used the winemaking term “élevage” to describe how she nurtured and polished it, marrying spirit in PX and Oloroso until it reached this pinnacle.
In the glass, the colour was deep, almost black-ochre. On the nose: luxury cocoa, polished raisins, black cherry. On the palate, suede-like texture, perhaps I was influenced by Dr. Barrie’s jacket, but it gave a sense of snobbery. Some of the liquid was older than me, and I was too afraid to ruin it with water.
Dr. Barrie called it “distilled wisdom”, and I couldn’t disagree. You don’t often taste something that feels like it has absorbed four decades of seasons, patience, and restraint.
What struck me most about this event was that Singapore was chosen for their world debut. Dr. Barrie recalled her first visit here five years ago, when she was astonished at how tastings began not with 12s or 15s, but with 30s. “You have such exquisite taste,” she laughed.
Perhaps that’s why this city became the stage for a historic moment in Glendronach’s history.
As I left, I thought of how Dr. Barrie kept coming back to music metaphors, and the classical strains that played as we tasted the 40YO. Maurice Ravel’s Boléro, with its gradual crescendo, long and intense, leaping into an abrupt, dramatic stop, mirrored the whisky itself.
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