dhsilv2
Glenfarclas 17 Year
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
September 1, 2019 (edited June 16, 2021)
My score was 1 star for the 25...is the 17 any better?
Nose - light berry, vanilla, oak. There's a bit of a nutty character here.
Taste - vanilla, cream, oak, warming alcohol (43% so that's nice), and a touch of fruit. I can see this as lightly butter scotchy, where those nutty notes in the nose are coming from perhaps. Edit - straight up buttered toast here!
So I'm a bit torn. I came into this brand expecting sherry whisky. This isn't that. It's much more a bourbon barrel, a very well worn bourbon barrel. There might be some sherry casks in here but if the are, they're USED. i like the fruity and perhaps white chocolate notes. It's nice and yeah I like the 17 more than the 25 I think.
The 17 is more bourbon cask notes while the 25 is more sherry with berry and fruit notes coming out a bit more. The 17 is more nutty and butter scotch. The 17 is more unique an experience and for me that's a win. It's just more interesting. The 25 is just a bad example of sherry whisky.
So scoring this a 1.75. It's not great. It's 100+ bucks. I don't recommend it.
108.0
USD
per
Bottle
Create Account
or
Sign in
to comment on this review
So just felt like adding to my notes that I get buttered toast, I said buttery but I didn't bring in the toast and it's totally got a toast element.
@dhsilv I'd doubt that even Glenfarclas could tell you exactly what the proportion of first-fill is without considerable research. It's certainly possible, but Glenfarclas is also a distillery that not only accepts significant batch variation, it positively embraces it. The 105 is fruitier and more intense than the age statements, but to me it has also always seemed a little 2 dimensional in comparison. The Family Casks are often stunning.
@cascode locally the 12, 17, 25, and cask strength are the only ones available to me. I have just had the 25 and 17. I have been told to try the cask strength, but I'm also hearing that the newer bottlings are less first fill.
Have you tried the Glenfarclas 15? I'm not recommending it as such, I'd just be interested in your opinion. I'm a Glenfarclas fanboi but the 15 is the one expression that I've never taken to at all, but for many folks it is the outstanding expression from that distillery.