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| Hello, that is one in all our (nearly) day by day tastings. Santé! |
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January 17, 2022
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Glen
far
clas
ses
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I consider nobody’s ever selected the plural for ‘Glenfarclas’. Is it Glenfarclasses? Is it Glenfarcli? Glenfarclii? Jogs my memory of that previous joke ‘Please one Glenfarclas! Whilst you’re at it, make that two…’ Let’s have just a few extra from our older bins, fully at random…
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Glenfarclas 10 yo 2005/2015 (60.9%, OB, Tiger’s Best Choice, China, cask #2424) 
It was about time, I agree. The tiger isn’t me. Color: darkish amber. Nostril: chocolate and low in all places, with very tiny hints of gunpowder and new rubber. Steadily switches to meaty and fermentary sauces, hoisin, bulldog, additionally copper polish. One thing metallic, not disagreeable in any respect. With water: autumn leaves and cigars, copper polish, magazines and only a load of bitter chocolate. Cocoa, Van Houten… Mouth (neat): thick and wealthy chocolate, malt extracts, stout, walnut wine and brandy de Jerez, with some salty sauce. Worcester. Some earlier batches of the well-known ‘105’ have been like this, so far as I can keep in mind. With water: sweeter and fruitier, way more marmalade-y, as anticipated. Raisins. End: lengthy, thick, raisiny. Feedback: as some silly author would have, effectively, written, like brandy de Jerez however incomparably higher than any brandy de Jerez. Nice drop for Taiwan (I appear to recollect), mega-good.
SGP:651 – 88 factors. |
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Glenfarclas 1991/2007 (57.9%, OB, Household Cask, #5623, 613 bottles) 
An previous pattern from the Malt Maniacs Awards that I used to be nonetheless having. Frankly, they normally do not maintain that lengthy, decanting your finest bottles into some wee 5 or 10cls mini-bottles isn’t a good suggestion in case your intention is to maintain them for years. Whisky’s extra fragile than you assume and plastics, all of them, are your worst enemies. By no means, ever consider makers or retailers’ web sites. Color: amber. Nostril: I’ve saved this one in my glass for a superb one hour in order that it may breathe. With success I’ve to say, these grassy raisins and figs being of erstwhile high quality. Candy mushroom sauce. With water: some paraffin – tsk tsk, that is the previous pattern. Paraffin is nice when it is built-in, it is a unhealthy signal when it actually ‘covers’ every thing. Mouth (neat): thick walnut wine, chestnut liqueur, plus some gravy and a few oloroso from a superb home. With water: Seville oranges and meaty liqueurs, however this paraffin offers it away: it is wrecked to some prolong. End: neglect. Feedback: it is bought some fantastic afterglows and stuff, but it surely’s wrecked. What’s nice is that these flaws are extraordinarily straightforward to detect. Having mentioned that, preserving such a pattern for greater than ten ears is a horrible thought within the first place, except you have cryogenised it. Now, chilly kills oils…
SGP:481 – (no) factors. |
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Glenfarclas 10 yo 2006/2016 (60.3%, OB, for Mr Tiger, China, sherry, cask #618, 640 bottles) 
Let’s pray… Color: mahogany. Nostril: chocolate all over the place, as a soup, as a drink, as a tea, as a sauce… With water: previous weapons and new books. How literary, eh! (that was awful at finest, S.) Mouth (neat): good state, ueber-rich, extraordinarily gamey, filled with soy sauce, hoisin, chocolate, tabasco, mole, Maggi, glutamate… With water: these ones would ship you to Jerez moderately than to Ballindalloch, and we shan’t complain. A variety of chocolate, espresso, salty meaty sauces, ham, balsamicos, black olives, bitter sweets… End: lengthy, very dry, very chocolaty. Chewing your cigar. Feedback: I appear to note that these thickish types are slowly drifting away and leaving right now’s whiskydom. We should always talk about these points, ought to we not. Oh yeah, this is excellent.
SGP:362 – 87 factors. |
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Glenfarclas 2006/2016 (60.4%, OB, sherry butt, cask #619, 561 bottles)
A neighbouring sister cask! How cool is that, after so a few years? Color: espresso. Nostril: espresso, roasted chestnuts, pine needles, umami sauce. That is about it. With water: metallic polish and an previous Norton bike. Beat this and we discuss later. Mouth (neat): good, aggressive, complicated, salty, rustic, civilised, vinegary, pleasant, chocolaty. Lengthy story brief, it was/is good. With water: an excessive sherry monster, and but there may be some magnificence in there. Glazed chestnuts, for instance. End: lengthy and really salty. It is gotten a soup. Feedback: Glenfarclas, moderately than Glendronach, have taken over from Macallan’s, everybody’s figuring out that – this was simply one other ingredient of proof. Cheques to ‘Whiskyfun Barbados S.A.’ please.
SGP:472 – 88 factors. |
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Glenfarclas ‘105’ (60%, OB, 100cl, +/- 2016) 
Only for enjoyable, everyone knows this one, which we’re following yr after yr. So, we’re merely filling a gap right here, let’s do that rapidly… By the way in which, is it 8 or is it not 8? Color: deep gold. Nostril: butterscotch. I would wager they’ve modified the way in which they’re getting ready the casks. Extra charring? With water: beautiful maltiness, candy and spherical beers, breads, focaccias, Mars bars, Twixes, millionaire shortbread… Mouth (neat): glorious. Truffles, nuts, malt, marmalade, contact of ginger. With water: cautious, that is its Achilles’ heel. The 105 by no means took water evenly, in case you ask me, most likely a matter of oils. Some struck matches and easily sulphur popping out. End: not nice, vegetal… Feedback: all batches are completely different, that is maybe not among the finest. For instance, one from 2020 has been a lot larger in my e book (WF 87).
SGP:361 – 81 factors. |
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Speyside’s Best 16 yo 2004/2020 (53.1%, The Whisky Mercenary, for Whisky Troef, refill sherry, 115 bottles) 
A drunken little fowl advised me this was Glenfarclas. Color: white wine. Nostril: the fatter facet of Glenfarclas, in any other case a mean barleyness and a few breads. With water: putty and natural teas. Mouth (neat): superb truffles, then some lousier leathers. Maybe not the best indie GF. With water: a little bit higher, beerish. End: moderately lengthy, unexpectedly grassy. Kirschwasser and vacationer’s slivovitz. Feedback: maybe not precisely Speyside’s ‘most interesting’, maybe not fairly this time, if I’ll… And maybe not even GF, I may be fully improper.
SGP:461 – 79 factors. |
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I’ve a nasty feeling, however redemption may be shut…
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Glenfarclas 17 yo 2004/2021 (53.5%, OB, Autumn Version, Netherlands, sherry cask)
Cross fingers, our pricey Dutch pals deserve it, in any case they’re alleged to sink into the Atlantic anytime quickly based on some awful press… Color: gold. Nostril: trendy and really good. Beautiful cappuccino and nougats, having mentioned that this could possibly be any Distillery up there. Butterscotch, Guinness, malt extracts, inexperienced walnuts… With water: ? Bitter beers. Mouth (neat): a tad oak-forward, frankly. Bitter, oak spices… Will get a little bit too spicy, troublesome. With water: to be honest, somebody very thirsty after having crossed the Sahara on a camel would drink an entire glass of this. In any other case, I believe it is a very heavy spicy drop. End: dry, grassy, a little bit disagreeable in my view, a little bit too concoctiony. Feedback: one thing should have occurred. Like, some alien life kind has stolen this pattern at WF Towers and changed it with some Kazakh turnip and allspice eau-de-vie aged in some IBC with toasted pinewood chips. Or a wrecked pattern certainly.
SGP:461 – 78 factors. |
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Let’s lower to the chase right here, it was downward spiral anyway. However accidents occur and as at all times, all a matter of particular person style. What’s extra, this many sherry monsters inside one single session may not be a good suggestion. Sherry fatigue? Tempo e salute.
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HOLD ON. Would you consider this, as quickly as I used to be completed with this spiralling session, a brand new Glenfarclas rang on the door (so to talk). And since I hadn’t revealed my session but, I may simply add this wee newcomer on the final minute…
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Glenfarclas 43 yo 1977/2021 (43.1%, OB, personal for Jeroboams, fourth fill oloroso sherry hogshead, cask #7288, 215 bottles) 
These are attention-grabbing vintages as a result of 1977 was, so far as I do know, the very starting of the so-called whisky loch. The truth that they knew it was 4th fill is nice too (that will counsel that they had at all times been utilizing the cask themselves). And we have a tendency to like refill, after the aforementioned heavy sherry monsters… Color: mild gold; Nostril: echoes of some older ‘white label tall bottle’ expressions, which is fairly excellent news. Particularly this floral facet (dandelions, acacia) mingled with many issues almondy, similar to, effectively, almonds but additionally plum spirits, apricot spirit, marzipan, small berries (sorb)… In fact it jogs my memory of my grandmother’s mirabelle tarte, which she would have scattered with floor almonds as a result of ‘almonds would take in the juice’. After 5 minutes, roasted peanuts and pecans would present up, along with sugarcane honey and maple syrup. After ten minutes, whiffs of previous hessian and previous wine cellar rising. Outdated instruments, previous paint pot, previous putty. It is a movie-malt, it retains altering and telling you tales. Mouth: the wonders of refill. There’s fairly some oak but it surely expresses itself by way of many infusions (rosehip, lime-flower), embrocations, the identical sorts of almondy notes as on the nostril… Then we have now roasted and caramelised nuts in addition to roasted raisins – I suppose the primary fill model was a real sherry monster – and plenty of honeys, plus some lighter tangerine liqueur and syrup. Zests. End: longer and more energizing than anticipated, moderately extra honeyed, with a little bit mint. No straight tannicity in anyway. Limoncello within the aftertaste. Feedback: actually distinctive and splendidly drinkable (cautious!) The fruitiness is exceptional. I keep in mind a 1977/2017 ‘Household Cask’ that got here from a 4th fill hogshead as effectively and that had been good certainly. I would like to know when the cask was crammed for the primary time, having mentioned that. Even earlier than WWII?
SGP:651 – 91 factors.
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