Glenfarclas 105 Review

Glenfarclas is one of the last family-owned distilleries in Scotland. The Grant family, one of the legendary families of Scotch whisky, have owned Glenfarclas for six generations.

In addition to being family owned, the distillery does several other things the old fashioned way. Glenfarclas is one of the few distilleries who still direct-fire their stills (most distilleries use indirect heating, probably due to cost and safety concerns), which is said to result in a richer, more flavorful spirit. They don’t use a whole lot of fancy packaging, as their label and bottle design are rather subdued and far from what you might call trendy. And they bottle most of their single malts at 43% ABV (unfortunately)—with a few exceptions, such as the 105.

Glenfarclas 105 is a cask strength single malt whisky aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks (with the emphasis on the sherry casks), before being blended to an ABV of 60% (which in the British system is 105° proof, hence the name). There are actually two versions of the 105, one with a 10-year age statement on the back of the bottle, and one with no age statement. My understanding is that newer bottlings have removed the age statement entirely, which is unfortunate. My bottle is the age stated version, so this is a 10 year old whisky. The bottle makes no mention about this being non chill-filtered or natural color, although I would think it might be both. But if it’s not on the label, then we don’t really know.

Glenfarclas 105 Review

Type: Single Malt Scotch
Region: Speyside
ABV: 60%

Nose

Lots of fresh fruit, including red apples, lemons, and berries. Golden raisins. Banana candy. Pink wine. Heather. Lavender. Vanilla cream. Marzipan. Hints of baking spices.

Palate

More fruits, but more like fruit syrup. Apples, oranges, strawberries, and rhubarb. Chocolate malt. Walnut oil. Marzipan. Vanilla icing. Brown sugar. A touch metallic… like licking the cake icing off of a metal beater. Some baking spices. Overall fairly sweet… maybe a touch too sweet? On the backend, the sweetness takes over completely without enough savory notes for balance. Wonderfully thick, full, and warming mouthfeel, nice and creamy, almost syrupy.

Finish

Fairly long. Fruit syrup. Marzipan. Barley sugar. Toffee. Vanilla. Cocoa. A little malty. Like the back of the palate, too sweet to my taste… the sweetness sticks around too long.

Overall

This is a tasty dram. It’s not the most balanced or complex whisky out there, but there are some nice flavors to be found, mostly on the fruity and sweet side. One of the things I’ve always liked about Glenfarclas is the slightly metallic note that I find on the palate, which I assume has something to do with how they direct-fire their stills. Metallic sounds kinda bad, but in the case of Glenfarclas, it really works.

As much as I like this whisky, I find that I get tired of it quickly. Way too quickly. If I pour a small dram, I’m ready to move on to something else after a few sips. The initial palate is quite good, but a sticky sweetness starts to take over on the mid palate and on through the finish. Too sweet and unbalanced. I really wish the baking spices played a more prominent role—a good kick of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice would elevate this dram quite a bit.

SCORE: 81/100

Final Thoughts

This was a tough one to score. The mouthfeel of this is great, and I highly value mouthfeel in a whisky. And the flavors are pretty good too. But the sticky sweetness and lack of balance drag the experience down significantly. If there was some sort of savory note or peat or more oak, this could be terrific, but as it is, I find it’s a bit lacking. Like I said, I tire of it quickly.

Buy again? Probably not. This is hard to find near me for some reason, but if it were readily available, I might buy a bottle once in a while, mainly to see if other batches manage to dial down the sweetness. But now that it’s lost it age statement (apparently), I doubt I would buy it again even if I could find it easily.

Drink This Not That: If you’re looking for a high ABV, sherry-influenced Speysider, I would recommend Tamdhu Batch Strength ahead of Glenfarclas 105.  And an even better option, if you can find it, is the Creative Whisky Company’s Exclusive Regions Speyside, which is an 8 year old Glentauchers bottled at 50% ABV that is significantly less expensive (and better).

Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.

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