Glenfarclas 15 Years Old Limited Edition for The Netherlands 52.1% NV

Professional reviews

BOW (86)

maltfascination.com:

Sniff:
The nose starts slightly feinty, with notes of mold and soil and old wood. Dunnage warehouses, with hints of mushrooms and spices. Old fruit and lots of oak.

Sip:
On the palate I get dry oak, porous and corky. Like rotting wood, or mulch. There’s notes of fruit with a bitter and spicy hint. Red chili, plum stones and sticky dates.

Swallow:
The finish brings hints of orange, out of the blue. It adds a bit to the bitterness that was already there, because it’s mostly pithy notes.

This is quite an interesting whisky, to be honest. It does feel a bit inconsistent between the nose, palate and finish, but absolutely not bad. I like the dunnage and moldy notes, and wouldn’t have disliked more of that on the palate. I also would have liked for the orange notes to show up earlier.

OTHER (84)

words of whisky:

Nose: Somewhat grassy but mainly sweet stone fruits (peach and plums) and vibrant orange zest. Finally some rum raisins and figs, with just a touch of sandal wood. Pretty attractive.
Taste: Quite a bit of musty oak and pleasant wood spices—somewhat drying too. The mouthfeel is oily and rich with some nutmeg, leather, tobacco leaves and dates, as well just a touch of burnt toast, black tea and fennel. Even some coffee and mocha.
Finish: Some faint strawberries and black berries. Drying and medium to long.

Score: 84

Not unpleasant and in a way actually quite likeable, but you’d have to enjoy oak-y single malts. It’s not the virgin oak type of sawdust-y influence, but rather dustier and drier. Not usually something I encounter in whiskies as relatively young as this one.

Personally, I like this more than the rating suggests, but because of the overly oaky side, it wouldn’t feel right scoring it much higher. Still available in a number of places.