Not long ago I tried the Glenfarclas 1999 Family Cask from the Summer 2022 releases. Today I’m having a younger example from the same batch. This is a 2005 Family Cask bottled from a refill butt.
Glenfarclas 2005 (61,3%, OB ‘Family Cask’ 2022, refill sherry butt #1030, 504 btl.)
Nose: hints of dusty fabrics, followed by cereal notes, grassy olive oil, bread with mixed seeds on top. Then some earthy spice, light hints of (shoe) polish, leafy tobacco and whiffs of hessian. Mild oaky notes and vanilla. Hardly any fruits, except for a few apples aand oranges perhaps.
Mouth: bready and spicy. Baguette, hints of dough. Then lemon curd, hints of vegetal oils and faint mineral notes. Even a herbal, almost medicinal side as well. Balm, light hints of putty and limestone. Then green leafy notes and slightly harsh whiffs of aspirin. An interesting hint of bottle aged malts as well. Water brings out grapefruit towards the end, with just a faint sweet orange note in the background.
Finish: quite long, still malty, herbal and zesty, with grainy biscuits in the end.
Overall a really naked, malty spirit – interesting whisky but slightly austere so but maybe not for a whole bottle. Glenfarclas is one of these distilleries that don’t shy away from filling the same cask three or four times. Maybe that’s the case here. However, if your USP is sherry casks, that’s just a form of avarice. Available from Whiskysite.nl for instance (also samples).