Glenfarclas 12 Year Old

Nose: The initial sniff has a salty tinge to it, almost like brine. This brine then evolves into dried fruit like raisins and possibly dried prunes. While all this is going on there is a smooth sweet scent floating around the background playing with your nose. I didn't think that the nose was overly complex in any way.

Palate: There's no alcohol bite at all. You taste sherried dried fruits but that is swiftly overwhelmed by a large smooth and thick sweetness that coats your mouth. It's a chocolatey caramel flavour. Hints of vanilla and oak dance around on the taste buds just enough to let you know that they're there.

Finish: It's a medium finish for the chocolatey caramel flavour but the sherry undertones in the finish are long-lasting. After a minute those sherry undertones evolve into a somewhat nasty fermenting fruit flavour left in your mouth. Maybe this is reflective of it's age?

Overall: This is a young Speysider that has an excellent balance and is very sweet. It was a very smooth dram with it's flavours passing over my tongue in a silky way. It's not overly complex but just complex enough to keep it interesting for an experienced whisky drinker (although I'm still more of an amateur). I'm not a big Speyside fan but this is one excellent whisky. The only thing keeping this malt from being a 90 is the fact that the 15 year old is so much more excellent.

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