Glenfarclas 15 Year Old
A chocolate Farclas
0 185
Review by @Robert99
- Nose21
- Taste21
- Finish21
- Balance22
- Overall85
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- Brand: Glenfarclas
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Speyside
- ABV: 46%
Yes another review of Glenfarclas 15 yo. What for! The answer is easy: for batch variation! It is not only A'bunadh that we need to revisit. I thought that another modern classic deserved the same treatment. So here I go...
I bought this bottle a month ago and opened it a little bit over two weeks ago. For the first two weeks it was simply undrinkable the alcool coming out of the block really roughing your senses to the ground. Now, it's a surprise.
The nose has more malt than usual and the sherry is all about chocolate at first. Then you have this fine leather with nutmeg a gentle cinnamon and none of the spicy side of the clove. The spices are again incredibly gentle. There is also a sour note coming from the malt with a vegetable hint if you look for it.
The palate translate the nose with a lot of extra. First there is a splash of hot spices I can't described. There is some pepper and something else. Then the leather is superb, even if you have a bit of chemicals with it. But it seems this leather has marinated in a mix of nutmeg and cinnamon. The malt is not as present as in the nose but the vegetable is still there. And from beginning to end the chocolate is coating nicely everything even the vanilla that came at the end. I don't like to add water to my whisky but when I used my saliva the fruit were coming out from the sherry, mainly raisin and plum.
The finish leave you with a more conventional Farclas integrated flavor without the chocolate or the pepper. Not very long on the strong side but your memory has to go on for ever on those gentle spices leaving you salivating for more.
This Farclas 15 yo was a surprise to me by is big chocolate and the alcool bite that came at first. A few weeks before I bought this bottle, I had a dram of the 17 yo and it was more winney, and with the spices I associate with Farclas. In fact, this 17 yo was more like the 15 yo I had 2 or 3 years ago than the 15 yo I am now reviewing. This Farclas is reacting very well and very fast to air: even a pour should not be left unattended for more than half an hour. It is just a guess but I doubt this one would stand at his peak longer than a few months. It doesn't matter because this bottle will be long gone before that!
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A month later, this scotch as sustained very well. The chocolate as faded more than a bit to leave place to coffee notes. Everything else stayed about the same. I would like to add that this 15 yo taste younger than the previous 15 yo and what it lacks in refinement it mades up in boldness. Although I think I was too generous and need to bring back my score from 89 to 85 as I am missing the smoothness of the baking spices of the old 15 yo.