So after the contemporary Glenfarclas 15 yo, let’s get to the ‘modern’:
Glenfarclas 15 from the Seventies had this look, with a dampy, squared bottle, with screw cap. Thanks to our Delorean, we managed to get in the wonderful years of punk rock and protest and we took a samples of this
copper-coloured whisky – but hey, dark copper it is! Alcohol volume is 46%, hopefully in the thirty years of bottle maturation it didn’t lose too much. Let’s see.
N: compared to his nephew, another category, another class. The old school here shows itself with much darker and fuller accents: wooden barrel, moist, impregnated, a lot of very juicy red fruits
(strawberry, raspberry, even blackberry jam – it almost seems like a berry-flavored jelly); then, there are those splendid notes that we find only in sherried whiskies of a certain age: silky suggestions of rhubarb, propolis and beeswax; then cola and tamarind… And then again, perhaps the most nourished field: the laboratory of cakes! We are reminded of Grand Marnier infused sweets, amaretti (what an intensity), tiramisu… It keeps changing, it continues to sting us with new
suggestions: liquorice toffee, pipe tobacco, fragrant red apples… Dates? An absolutely striking nose.
P: we like it a lot. It finds an admirable and unexpected balance between the bitter roughness and the roundness of the sugars, given the size of the two heavyweights who compete for the champion’s belt on the palate. In substantial consistency with the nose, a very sherried and heavy profile remains, with generous notes of wood soaked in alcohol, with rhubarb (great!), propolis, coffee notes. Then, as we said, the juicy sweetness: a severe but splendid red fruitiness (strawberry, blackberry, cherry), caramel, burnt sugar, blood orange juice. It loses the more ‘tarty’ side (although these notes of tarte tatin, mmm, lovely…), but it finds a new happy balance halfway between nervous wood and fresh red fruit. Red apples?
F: very long and intense, still harmoniously divided between tobacco, rhubarb, juicy cherry, chocolate…
Mamma mia!, gentlemen, what a dram. Sometimes we’ve been a little critical towards some Glenfarclas bottlings, but this single dram is enough to let us perceive in a very clear way the bright
clarity of the distillery: a very balanced whiskey, which manages to combine freshness and gravity, winks and elegance, sighs and carnal pleasure. It’s truly a very good malt, seems ideal – if you have a bottle – to use it for a toast around Christmas; but also to toast at Easter, even in mid-August… 92/100 is the vote, chapeau.
Recommended soundtrack: In solitude – Sister.
