Glenfarclas

When on the hunt for sherry cask matured whiskies, Glenfarclas should always be somewhere on your horizons. The majority of the distillery’s whisky is sherry matured (mainly from ex-oloroso and ex-fino sherries) from spirit which is produced via direct gas fired stills. 

Glenfarclas 8 year old is a less commonly seen younger expression from the Speyside distillery famous for its sherried whiskies and large selection of age-statement malts.

The 10 year old expression in Glenfarclas’s stable of core expressions is, like nearly all of their whiskies, 100% matured in oloroso sherry casks. It is the distillery’s standard entry-level whisky and comes with a very affordable price tag.

The 12 year old bottling adds an additional two years of oloroso sherry cask maturation from the entry-level 10 year old, moving more towards a slightly heavier sherried style of whisky. It comes with a slightly higher ABV of 43%.

This TWE special edition of Glenfarclas takes a break from other recent Whisky Exchange exclusives – in that it’s not a single cask release. Created from a vatting of sherry seasoned oak the release is offered at old style 100 Proof. The Proof measurement originated in the 16^th century and for a time was focussed on measurement via the “gunpowder method” for the testing of alcoholic strength – which offered significantly less variability than whether or not a spirit would simply burn if set alight (a phenomenon heavily influenced by ambient temperature) – the solubility of potassium nitrate was used until calculations and tools had been created for determining the specific gravity of liquids.

Glenfarclas 15 year old is the only bottle in the distillery’s core range (other than the 40 year old) with an ABV of 46%. Why? Well according to Glenfarclas, it was because previous family owner George Grant simply preferred it that way! A firmly established favourite and winner of several industry awards over the years.

The 17 year old expression was originally released for the travel retail sector, and is described as combining the smoothness of Glenfarlas’s younger expressions with the greater depth of its oldest.

Glenfarclas 18 year old is another of the distillery’s travel retail offerings – though it is now commonly available elsewhere.

The multi-award winning 21 year old expression is another established favourite in the Glenfarclas core range of aged-statement whiskies.

The second of two TWE exclusive Glenfarclas’s (Glenfarcli?) this edition has been composed of a vatting of oloroso sherry seasoned oak casks that have been matured for 21 years. It’s offered at 95 Proof – which is 54.2% in ABV terms. Bottles are available for £125 from the TWE website.

The key selling point of Glenfarclas 105 is in the name: it’s cask strength at 105 old British proof, or 60% ABV, every time. That means the casks for each batch have to be selected not only on taste, but also on ABV. It’s a curious conundrum for the blender. Imagine their dismay at creating the tastiest batch of 105 ever only to find it weighed in at 59.6% or 60.8%. A total disaster.

This mature classic Glenfarclas is often labelled as epitomising the long-aged sherried style of Speyside whiskies. Described by the distillery as an after-dinner whisky, the bottling has been bestowed with a raft of industry awards over the years.

Some of you aren’t going to enjoy reading this. You’ve already made your mind up – there’s nothing I can say that will convince you. It’s just a fact. It has to happen eventually. It can’t keep going on like this…..can it?!? Well friends, as dogged and determinedly minded as some of you are, for all the talk of the impending collapse, of prices having to hit reverse, the situation to my mind looks virtually unchanged as it did 10 years ago. Actually, that’s disingenuous – it’s worse. Over the last 10 years I’ve seen countless articles (some with well rationed economic analyses) highlighting the inevitability of the beginning of the end – the bursting of the whisky bubble. And yet, a decade later, nothing remotely close to this has happened. Prices have not fallen, we’ve not all miraculously re-emerged into a cheaper whisky utopia. Today it’s high time we burst some bubbles of our own and I’m sorry to say it, but I believe there might not even be a whisky bubble…..

Originally distilled when present Brand Ambassador George Grant’s grandfather was head of the Grant family - this very mature expression highlights the large volumes of aged-whisky that six generations of the Grant’s have been able to distil and mature up in Ballindalloch.

The Glenfarclas Family Casks have a history that draws from across the past 60 years. As such, they almost feel like they’ve been around forever, despite only being launched a little over 10 years ago in 2007. The series, which seems to have its origins as a bit of a ‘two-fingers incident’ to another distillery also possessing deep aged stock, started as 43 vintage single malts spanning the years from 1952 to 1994. In the 11 years since, there’s been nearly 400 bottles released for the various vintage years, and likewise new expressions from 1994 into the millennium have seen the light of day. It’s a series steeped in the history of Glenfarclas itself – it’s also ready made for celebrating birthdays.

Glenfarclas 40 year old debuted at the Spirit of Speyside festival in 2010 and has become a firm favourite with whisky reviewers, generating some impressive scores, as well as winning numerous industry awards. Bottled at the higher ABV of 46% (the only other in the range at this % being the 15 year old).

It sometimes seem strange that despite spirit resting undisturbed for decades in cool warehouses, that once in the glass yet more patience is often required. But, then again, what’s a few minutes compared to years of oak maturation? The resting of whisky is a commonly practiced, but little discussed concept (especially when compared to wine where there’s a wealth of information) - some malts, especially older ones simply require a little time to open up and unwind before revealing all of their secrets.

Mystery ‘undisclosed distillery’ bottlings invariably result in guesswork – sometimes reasoned, oft-times wild. In an effort to work out a distillery of origin, folks will assess the colour (is it obviously sherried?), the age statement, the vintage and even the ABV of unnamed bottlings. In doing so, perhaps they remove some of the enigmatic behind these bottlings, but who can blame them – everyone naturally loves to solve a puzzle. Sometimes unidentified bottlings come with subtle hints (Boutique-y Whisky’s cartoon labels love to lead folks on a merry dance for example), other times they’re much more obvious. Perhaps none more so than today’s 40 year old Single Speyside Malt bottled by Cadenhead’s, which rather bizarrely still lists the distillery quite clearly on the bottom of the bottle.

This month’s outturn starts at the beginning with distillery no.1. The cask was laid down in April 2011 in a 1^st fill ex-bourbon barrel before being bottled 8 years later.

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Back to where it all began with another ex-bourbon Glenfarclas. This one a 9 year old drawn from a 1^st fill barrel.

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Glenfarclas is no stranger to full-term oloroso maturation – indeed, much of their stock does down this well-trodden path. Here we have a refill ex-oloroso sherry butt utilised for a whole decade.

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This Glenfarclas was initially matured in ex-bourbon, but spent the last year of its maturation in a 2^nd fill PX hogshead.

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Back to where it all began. Farclas – 23 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead and then finished in a 1^st fill PX hogshead.

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Today’s Boutique-y Advent calendar dram offers us some sherried goodness from a ‘secret distillery’ based in Speyside. It doesn’t take much digging on the Interwebs to find out a little bit more – popular, purveyor of massively sherried whiskies and known for its independence. Bingo. This one is 9 years old and bottled at 51.7%.