Last week one of my readers, Ken, sent me a link to a Reddit post asking if I’d seen the post about GlenDronach now being chill-filtered. I haven’t been on any of the whisky Reddits in a long time (2017) so I didn’t see it, but clicking on the link I was surprised by what I saw.
Photo taken by Anathemathema and posted on Reddit
The above photo is from the post and here you see two bottles of GlenDronach 12 side-by-side. One calls out the familiar and welcoming Non Chill-Filtered, but the other bottle is missing this familiar marking. NCF is a hallmark of GlenDronach, it’s something fans have long appreciated the brand for. There’s no way Brown-Forman would mess with that and no way Rachel Barrie would condone it… right?
Thinking this was just a typo I reached out to GlenDronach and this is what they had to say on the matter.
“The GlenDronach has removed ‘Non Chill Filtered’ from its packaging to provide the flexibility in their whisky-making processes to optimize consistently exceptional quality, flavor, clarity, and stability. The GlenDronach continues to be crafted to exceptional high standards and of true Highland style, perfect for slow maturation in sherry casks. The change does not affect the flavor of its richly-sherried Highland Single Malts which continue to be of natural cask imparted color from the sweet fruity flavors of the Pedro Ximénez casks or the dry and nutty notes of our Oloroso casks the Master Blender carefully selects. “
“Removed ‘Non Chill Filtered’ from its packaging”…. “clarity, and stability”… WTF? You don’t need to read between the lines to see that B-F has decided to chill-filter GlenDronach so they can start pushing hard for mass-market acceptance. What’s next? Drop the 12, 15 and 18 for NAS whiskies? Release some gaudy new bottle and label design? Attempt to turn this from a whisky brand into a lifestyle brand so they can chase after the fading myth of Macallan?
The only drinker “clarity, and stability” matter to are the uninformed/new drinker who doesn’t understand some harmless flocking. And, like so many brands before it, instead of taking the longer-term vision of consumer education, they’re taking the easy route and just removing the natural oils and fats. The sad purpose was now clear, but what wasn’t clear was how deep this went.
Was this new chill-filtering process only going to pertain to the core line? Would this new edict start messing with the GlenDronach Single casks or the Grandeur releases? How many more changes were coming? I reached back out and here’s what I got.
“We appreciate your interest! Yes, this relates to all GlenDronach’s core single malts other than Cask Strength and its Cask Bottling program. They have removed Non Chill Filtration to provide flexibility in their processes to optimize product quality, consistency, clarity, and stability.”
It looks like the high-proofed/cask strength releases (which include single casks) are remaining untouched for now (phew). Though that begs the follow-up of “for how long”? The reason whisky lovers have flocked to GlenDronach for so long is that the product quality and consistency was already there – no need to fix something that wasn’t broken. It’s long been a reliably bold whisky at a decent price. And now?
Now they risking alienating the core fans who’ve supported them for so long and helped bring the brand up to where it is today. I hope this is the end of the changes, but looking at the whisky market as a whole these days I doubt it. I just hope they don’t completely lose sight of what’s made them so loved while chasing that lifestyle brand Macallanization so many others have fallen into. It would be a shame and huge loss to whisky fans everywhere.
