What follows is a full and detailed profile of the Glenfarclas distillery. I’ve prepared and written up similar distillery profiles and feature pieces for many different publications and outlets in the past, and this feature piece will be no different. But, in the interests of full disclosure, let’s declare all interests: Glenfarclas is my favourite distillery. There. I’ve said it…
Tag: Sherry
The Top Four Whiskies for Christmas
{Update: The article below was first written in 2014 and has been superseded/replaced with a more up-to-date article. You should read the updated article here.}
Need a whisky for Christmas? Once upon a time, whisky was whisky, and Santa wasn’t too discerning when it came to what special dram you left out for him on Christmas Eve. In decades gone by, there was also less distinction – by both marketers and consumers – about the significance of sherried versus non-sherried whisky. Of course, with the huge decline in sherry consumption and the corresponding rise in the cost of sherried single malts, the distinction and noise around sherried whisky is now more stark and louder than ever. (And that’s before we even mention words like European oak or sulphur candles!)
When I first started hosting whisky tasting events in 2001, I did a fair bit of freelance work for Macallan. This was back when the core range was simply the 12yo, 15yo, 18yo, and 25yo – all of them made with Golden Promise barley, and all matured exclusively in sherry casks. I used to describe the flavour of these sherried whiskies as being like “Christmas pudding in a glass”. The really great sherried whiskies showcased all of the dried fruits you’d find in Christmas pudding (e.g. raisins, sultanas, dates, cherries, apricots, etc); as well as the butterscotch and toffee notes you’d associate with the brandy butter or Christmas sauce. Some of them also exhibited a bit of the spice that we commonly associate with European oak, and occasionally there was also the pleasant bitterness of cloves and Christmas mince pies, or the sweetness of cinnamon.
As such, for me, if I’m going to drink a single malt at Christmas time, it’s got to be a sherried whisky. And, certainly, when it comes time on the 24th to put out a dram for Santa, it’s been a Glenfarclas for jolly Saint Nick every year since my kids arrived on the scene.
Glenrothes – style & grace in a bottle
Glenrothes. The name itself sounds majestic. Located in the town of Rothes, not far from the Spey, many wonderful secrets are tucked away in this great distillery hidden back from the main road.
The single malt scene was very limited in Australia when things just started to pick up in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. But Glenrothes, in its distinctive, round, dumpy bottle, was one of the more exotic and “interesting” bottlings that would grab your attention on the shelves of the local liquor store.
One of the reasons Glenrothes stood out from the pack was because its bottlings were vintage-dated. In a sea of bottles with 12yo, 15yo, and 18yo age statements stamped on the labels, Glenrothes was all the more attractive with its labels declaring years like 1973, 1985, and 1989, etc.
These days, the vintage bottlings are still the norm, although some non-descript NAS expressions (such as the Select Reserve, Elders Reserve, and even the new Alba Reserve, which is a certified Kosher whisky!) are now available on the market. Glenrothes is a highly sought-after malt for the blenders; its rich and silky spirit adding both a lovely base note and a top dressing simultaneously. Years ago, the corporate word was that one in every 100 casks would be selected for going towards the OB Glenrothes single malt bottlings; today the figure is around 3% as the brand continues to grow in its own right. That might still sound like a low percentage, but as recently as the late 1980’s, 100% of all Glenrothes spirit went off to the blenders, and the owners focussed on other distilleries in the portfolio to showcase as single malt bottlings.