Glenfarclas 50-Yr-Previous Malt Whisky: There’s No Substitute For Time

Often, I get uncovered as a hypocrite. Strive as I would, it occurs.

Each on this web site and elsewhere, I’ve usually raised the idea of ordinary launch spirits, and sure status examples, being of a high quality and worth that one wouldn’t hassle with the so-called unicorn whiskies. Certain, they’re of curiosity, however you don’t want to pay hundreds for sensible ingesting.

You don’t, however…

Typical knowledge? Older is best, proper? Wines, music (nicely, not too outdated however definitely a minimum of way back to the 60s to the 80s), sure cheeses, dry-aged beef, Balsamic vinegar and spirits are all higher the older they’re. Or so says typical knowledge. Little question we might argue music for days (and you continue to is not going to persuade me), however in the present day, we’re spirits and particularly malt whisky.

The world has been conditioned to consider that the older the whisky the higher.  Is just not all the time true and the issue is that this creates demand, big worth rises, and a false actuality. Be assured that there are numerous nice whiskies which might be customary releases out of your favourite distilleries nonetheless extensively out there.

Whisky wants time. An ideal blender would possibly be capable to create magic by incorporating some youthful elements, however typically, nothing replaces time. It doesn’t must be a long time, however this isn’t in a single day stuff. There isn’t any method round it. The worth rises are reflective of this as each barrel of aged malt used, both as a discrete bottling or included into a bigger mix, means one much less barrel out there and the necessity to time.

It’s one purpose we’re seeing many distilleries drift extra to NAS whiskies (non-age assertion whiskies). It permits them to supply glorious whiskies with out dealing with the everlasting disgrace of providing one thing to the market with a humiliatingly low age on the label, resembling ‘8-Years-Previous’ and even ’12-Years-Previous’. Oh, the inhumanity.

We’re an impatient world and ready isn’t one thing we like doing. Additionally, people undergo phases. Return a number of a long time and few individuals ranked the very best Burgundies anyplace close to high Bordeaux. Now, how issues have modified. Once more, just a few a long time in the past, malt whisky was largely within the doldrums. Bourbon had a popularity as a reasonably common type of American whisky. And so it goes. In the mean time, Burgundy, malt whisky and Bourbon are all in big demand. Aficionados are ready to pay huge quantities for the rarest and the very best.

So why shouldn’t the distilleries take the chance to money in? Who is aware of, maybe in a decade the curiosity can have waned and the distilleries can have warehouses filled with growing old, undesirable spirits. I doubt it, however stranger issues have occurred.

In the mean time although, unicorn whiskies, the superb aged releases which might be normally restricted to a couple thousand bottles, generally significantly fewer, are extremely common. Regardless of the costs of a few of these bottles – some price the equal of a automotive, or perhaps a home – seems to be a phenomenon that’s not going away any time quickly.

Costs have escalated at such a charge that those that approached these whiskies purely from an funding perspective have been nicely rewarded.

However like all such issues, they’re a chance. How many people would have been ready at hand over $27,500 just a few years in the past for a single bottle of whisky when the Yamazaki 55-Yr-Previous malt was launched (the outdated argument you could all the time drink it in the event you don’t make a fortune is a bit skinny if you find yourself speaking these costs)? Had we identified that inside two months, the identical bottle would fetch over $800,000 at public sale then we could have been much less reluctant.

Just a few distilleries specialise in outdated releases. The Macallan is well-known for this. Their ‘The Attain’ was launched after 81 years in a sherry cask. Solely 288 bottles had been made and we are actually speaking round $300,000 a bottle. In addition they launched a 78-Yr-Previous malt at round half that worth, and a 72-Yr-Previous for comparable cash. Gordon & MacPhail even have some unimaginable aged malts – their ‘Generations Glenlivet 80-Yr-Previous’ for $110,000 was provided in simply 250 decanters, which had been designed by architect Sir David Adjaye. Their ‘Generations Mortlach 75-Yr-Previous’, solely 100 decanters launched, was $43,000.

Dalmore has a 64-Yr-Previous, which was initially a mix from 1868, 1878, 1926 and 1939, earlier than it was aged an extra 64 years. Solely three bottles.

One other Japanese instance is the Karuizawa Classic Sherry Cask Aged 50-Yr-Previous Malt. 473 bottles at $170,000.

Not all are loopy cash. The Final Drop Firm has constructed a enterprise accessing tiny portions of unimaginable outdated spirits (and fortifieds) and releasing small numbers. Their 50-Yr-Previous Blended Scotch Whisky was ‘simply’ $3,900. It was a mix of greater than 82 whiskies. Their ‘1980 Buffalo Hint Straight Bourbon Whiskey’ is a contact steeper at $21,500. We might proceed to listing these for a very long time.

Glenfarclas Household Cask Trunk

One other distillery famed for each its customary releases and a few gorgeous older bottlings is Glenfarclas. Some years in the past, we checked out a rare launch from this Speyside distillery, their Glenfarclas Household Cask Trunk. Contained in the trunk had been fifty 200 ml bottles of whisky, classic dated, and representing yearly from 1954 to 2003. Solely 60 trunks had been launched, for a mere £100,000 every.

There have to be only a few distilleries anyplace on the planet, producing any kind of spirit, in a position to provide such a variety of outdated examples. This isn’t the primary such launch. In 2007, Glenfarclas put collectively a set with 43 whiskies together with each 1952 and 1953, however these vintages are actually exhausted. The worth on the time was £6,500, which appears a surprising discount in the present day. A while in the past, additionally they launched a Sixty-Yr-Previous from a cask stuffed in 1953, simply 360 bottles. Search the web and also you’ll discover just a few on the market, across the €30,000 mark.

The primary data of Glenfarclas date again to the late 18^th century, though their first license was not granted till 1836. In 1865, the distillery was bought by John Grant and it’s nonetheless in household arms. He was succeeded by his son, George, and it appears that evidently each subsequent male household Member is known as John or George (absolutely they might have tossed in a Paul or a Ringo). Since 1976, they’ve operated with six stills, three wash stills and three spirit stills, 4 of that are in operation at anybody time with two held in reserve. The distillery has round 68,000 barrels quietly maturing, with these shares going again a long time. In 2022, Glenfarclas gained ‘Distiller of the Yr’ on the Icons of Whisky dinner.

Apart from one-offs just like the Household Cask Trunk, Glenfarclas’s customary vary is exclusive.

They provide 10-Yr-Previous, 12, 15, 17, 21, 25, 30 and 40-Yr-Previous malts. They’re very good whiskies and, whereas private choice will all the time rule, the older examples do actually have one thing particular about them. 15 and 25-Yr-Previous are additionally private favorites. There was an 8-Yr-Previous, however I’m not sure whether it is nonetheless in manufacturing, and there are ideas that they’re suspending the 21-Yr-Previous for the second (it’s one among their extra common whiskies in order that would appear unusual). Glenfarclas had been additionally the primary distillery to launch a cask power malt, extremely popular in the present day, again in 1968.

And so we come to their newest launch and the publicity of my appalling hypocrisy. For all my discuss of ordinary releases matching a few of these unicorn whiskies, when the chance got here to strive a fifty-year-old malt, there was no hesitation. Sure, I used to be the bloke crawling over the damaged glass.

Glenfarclas 50-Yr-Previous Malt whisky

Glenfarclas 50-Yr-Previous Malt Whisky

To have a good time the 50^th anniversary of chairman, John Grant, first becoming a member of the trade, Glenfarclas have launched a really particular, restricted version 50-Yr-Previous Highland single malt. The present ‘John’, is the fifth technology to information this unbiased distiller. Bottled at 50% ABV, it was chosen for bottling by the Glenfarclas Distillery Supervisor, Callum Fraser, and Managing Director, Douglas Belford. The person who initially laid it down was then Distillery Supervisor, Douglas MacDonald.

Callum Fraser had this to say, “creating merchandise like Glenfarclas 50-Yr-Previous is the rationale I come to work. Producing one thing so particular, which has such an unimaginable story behind it, is tribute to the eagerness that runs by means of all the pieces we do at Glenfarclas. This new whisky is a testomony to the craftsmen who made the spirit and laid it down within the late Sixties and the foresight of the Grant household so a few years in the past.

To me, this dram is beautiful. It has an unimaginable depth of character and showcases each ingredient of the whisky making course of – from the earthy odor of the dunnage warehouse by means of to the sunshine, pure smokiness of the Speyside peat that was used again then and the distinctive style of the water we use in our manufacturing course of. A whisky that evolves over time, each on the nostril and on the palate, is really thrilling because it’s ever altering and creating.”

John joined the whisky trade in 1972, shifting to Glenfarclas in 1974 and dealing his method by means of the assorted sectors of the enterprise. He performed an essential position in creating their worldwide gross sales markets and have become Managing Director in 1979 and chairman in 2002. His contribution to the whisky trade was acknowledged in 1997 when he turned a ‘Keeper of the Quaich’. He was then inducted into Whisky Journal’s Corridor of Fame in 2021.

Glenfarclas 50-Yr-Previous Malt whisky

As has grow to be de rigueur for unicorn whiskies, the presentation is beautiful. An engraved Glencairn bottle, which is nestled inside a presentation field. Solely 836 bottles can be found and we’re a worth across the USD$9,500 per bottle. Who is aware of what it is going to be months from now?

Tasting notes – Merely gorgeous. All one might hope for in a whisky of this age and pedigree. A stunning bronze copper shade. The rapid impression is of a freshly baked apple pie, straight from the oven. Teak, woodsmoke and pastry dough, simply made. Cinnamon and orange rind, a touch of fudge and caramel. A mixture of white and darker chocolate. Wealthy, complicated, intense, extremely lengthy, impeccably balanced and with such persistence. An incredible spirit. Bucketlist stuff, if assets enable.

For extra info, please go to https://glenfarclas.com/whisky/the-aged-range/

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