My apologies for the photo. As you can see from all of the others, I usually take a snapshot of the bottle next to a dram of the whisky. When the bottle is empty, I remove the label and add it to my journal. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the picture back when I first did the tasting. I’ve since finished the bottle and added the label to my collection. Oops.

Believe it or not, I write most of these reviews while walking on a treadmill in our (currently) unfinished basement. That’s right. Because I need to exercise my mind while exercising my body, I built myself a nifty little device, a shelf of sorts, which attaches to the machine. It has an LED light, my laptop, and enough desktop space for a travel mouse. I can’t walk and listen to music. I can’t walk and watch TV. If I’m going to walk in place and, quite literally, go nowhere, I need to feel as though I’ve accomplished something. And so, I write stuff. In fact, many a sermon or article has been written at five mph with a .5 incline. Any faster and I have difficulty with the keyboard. I’m at 5 right now. Watch what happens when I bump it up to six. Here goes…

I’m typing at sizx anad its a little harder.

Not bad, actually. Only two mistakes. Anyway. My wife has teased me for quite a while saying that I should put a note at the bottom of each post indicating the total number of miles walked and calories burned. I’ve considered it, but obviously, I’ve never done it. Not sure anyone would really care. Folks are here for the booze review.

The reason I am sharing this with you is because I wanted to show you the view from my treadmill. It is directly connected to the whisky at hand. Well, kind of.

As you can see from the photo, just beyond my treadmill, is a giant stuffed frog sitting at a red desk. His name is “Pistachio.” My wife and I bought him for our oldest son many years ago while we were visiting Chicago.

So, what’s the point?

Well, sitting in the basement, Pistachio is sometimes forgotten. He sits in the corner, overstuffed and overlooked. I am quite the nostalgic man, so I am conscious of this. The context of his acquisition — an anniversary get-away with my wife and the purchase of a really cool gift from FAO Schwarz for our firstborn son — as I descend into the darkness of my writing/exercise seclusion, I am stirred each time to greet my green friend with a friendly, “Hey, Stash.” And when I leave, “Later, Stash.”

It would seem that after the folks at BenRiach purchased GlenDronach in 2008, this somewhat forgotten distillery has been slowly returning to the hearts and minds of the scots, and even more so, is visiting with America and befriending such men of lowly estate as myself. In short, it is a Speyside toy that no longer sits in the corner only coming to mind when you see it, but is fondly considered and regularly embraced so often and by so many. In particular, the GlenDronach 15 year old Revival Edition is one reason why.

The nose is, at first, a bit vegetal, giving the sense of rich cooking sauce. But this disappears rather quickly and becomes something more reminiscent of freshly cut wood in a carpentry shop. This may sound strange, but it is a pleasant smell, very distinct, and incredibly warm and truly inviting.

The palate gives over something completely different. There’s fruit (and I’d say cherries), but then there’s a touch of something spicy. I would describe the whole sensation as something similar to a good cherry wheat ale, except better, because its bite is heftier, and…well…because it’s Scotch.

The finish is shorter than you may expect, giving over the cherries with a little more distinction while the sense of the ale drifts away to a sweeter attribute — vanilla.

In all, you can see why this whisky has a good following. It is unlike so many others, and with that, I am actively pursuing its kin. But as I’ve written before, Michigan rules our whisky market with an iron fist and it is sometimes hard to find anything but the “knowns.” In the meantime, rest assured that I won’t give up the search until I am rewarded… and because I just walked for 65 minutes and burned about 734 calories, I am indeed feeling healthy and expecting to live long enough to get my hands on the others.

“Later, Stash.”

The finish is shorter than you may expect, giving over the cherries with a little more distinction while the sense of the ale drifts away to a sweeter attribute — vanilla.

In all, you can see why this whisky has a good following. It is unlike so many others, and with that, I am actively pursuing its kin. But as I’ve written before, Michigan rules our whisky market with an iron fist and it is sometimes hard to find anything but the “knowns.” In the meantime, rest assured that I won’t give up the search until I am rewarded… and because I just walked for 65 minutes and burned about 734 calories, I am indeed feeling healthy and expecting to live long enough to get my hands on the others.

“Later, Stash.”