Glenfarclas 12 Year Old - Circa 2000

One of Speyside’s greatest distilleries, Glenfarclas continues to plough the same furrow of exceptional quality spirit, sherry cask maturation, unfussy packaging and unbeatable value for money that has served it so well for decades, with the distillery’s careful stewardship of long-aged stock reserves and refusal to abandon the use of sherry casks leaving it perfectly placed to pick up the growing number of disillusioned Macallan fans.

Glenfarclas is a classic old school Speyside distillery and has been owned by the Grant family since 1865. The Grants have maintained the best traditions of old school whisky-making, using long fermentation times and direct-fired stills, and have been rewarded with an army of loyal followers. Independent bottlings of Glenfarclas are exceptionally rare; thankfully, the consistent quality of the official bottlings ensures that their absence is not felt.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.