Rich, golden amber color in the glass. Complex sherry notes really please the nose along with a bit of caramel and dried fruit. Lots of body and fullness on the tongue in a nice balance between sweet sherry and a malty backbone. Lovely long finish, where the beautiful sherry notes persist with an elegant sweetness.
Glenfarclas Distillery has been family-owned since 1865, and it is the Grant family who have established the Scotch whiskey distillery as one of the world’s best. Glenfarclas is one of the few remaining Scottish distilleries still family owned. Since 1865, the distillery has been in the hands of the same family: The Grants. John Grant was actually a cattle breeder when he bought Recherlich Farm and Glenfarclas Distillery in 1865 for £511. It is six generations of whiskey connoisseurship that benefits us consumers today. This continuity has allowed Glenfarclas to still use older ways of making whisky. Not because of romance and a longing for history. Glenfarclas is a success, and rightly so.
As George Grant, sixth generation of the family puts it: “We’ve lived through 22 recessions. We make the whiskey we can afford to make and never borrow money to make it.” During the 1980s, when the whiskey industry itself was cutting back on production, Glenfarclas’ was on the rise. Glenfarclas has larger quantities in stock than most distilleries. An aversion to independent bottlers using the distillery’s name on their (rare) offerings has also helped maintain a strong identity for the Glenfarclas brand itself. At Glenfarclas, they also stick to maturing their whiskeys in former sherry casks. It contributes to the whiskey achieving greater fullness, complexity and sweetness
Crazy about fire – and dishes from Spain
Glenfarclas make use of direct fire on their stills. Not to please tourists or other whiskey nuts, but because of the quality of the finished whisky. Steam was tried in 1981, but the conclusion was that too much of the strength went out of the whiskey and they went back to direct fire. Fullness and strength are needed to cope with the tannin structure and full impression of fruit in the old sherry casks.
Today, all the wood comes from Jerez and cooper Miguel Martin. A mixture of butts and hogsheads are used, all of which are old oloroso casks and made from European oak. Glenfarclas’ core range is aged in a mix of first-fill and re-fill casks. In 2007 the Scots released ‘The Family Caks’ – vintage releases from each year between 1952 and 1998.
Glenfarclas also claims to have pioneered the bottling of Cask Strength Whiskey when it launched its 105Ëš in 1968. However, it was certainly one of the first distilleries to open its doors to visitors in 1973.
Glenfarclas means “The Valley of the Green Grass” in Gaelic, and the skilled Scots get the water used in the distillation from a small spring that springs from the beautiful and dramatic Ben Rinnes. The distillery is located at the foot of the heather-covered mountain, where the water springs up from the underlying granite when the winter snow melts. The combination of the very clean, soft water and the completely unique shape of the potstills used by Glenfarclas contributes to the distillery’s unique Highland Single Malts.
