Simple answer - no! Vintages don't matter a bit when it comes to the taste of the whisky, but do matter when it comes to being able to sell them. At the moment, any whisky from a year ending in '8' is a piece of cake to sell whereas something ending in '7' is going to be stuck on the shelves for the best part of another decade. But the vintage really doesn't have any effect on the taste at all as there is no noticable vintage variation in the grain being used, and even if there was, there is rarely any consistency or traceability of supply. The three main factors that change a whisky are the size of barrel (the smaller a barrel gives more oak reaction), the type of barrel (previously used for another product or if they are brand new barrels) and the amount of time kept in the barrel.So if vintages mean nothing, why bother with them? Most 'vintage' whiskies comprise of a selection of casks from that year, blended together and bottled for a specific style and is then given a distillation and bottling year. A single cask bottling, however, is something special. It is one cask that for some magical reason has become slightly better than all it's siblings distilled on the same day and the producer decided to put this into bottle as a very limited bottling, and this is what Glenfarclas have done with 43 barrels of whisky.
A while back, Glenfarclas, released their Family Cask range. A barrel of every year from 1952 to 1994 has been bottled, and with a full set of these whiskies costing just under £15,000, they aren't cheap! Having said that, you will rarely, if ever, get a chance to have as many sequential years of whisky from any distillery which will mean that most of these bottles will be put into a display cabinet, never to be drunk, and hoarded by sad people with no lives. I call them whisky collectors.
I got the chance to try eight of these whiskies this week. I like Glenfarclas, it offers very good value for money and even their top whisky, the 30 year old, is a steal at £120. But are these whiskies actually worth the money you are paying for them and I'd also like to know if there is any real point for such a collection of vintage single malts, when, as we have established, vintages mean nothing. Only one way to find out, and that was to grab a glass.
1993 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 11, Refill Sherry, 58.9%, 592 bottles
Cream, vanilla and orange peel with a touch of chocolate orange and, strangely, pineapple! Warm christmas pudding, a dusting of white pepper and a lot of burnt twigs on the palate. After adding a little water, I got a lot more chocolate and vanilla fudge and burnt match. It is nice but a bit dry and fruitless on the palate. Also, for £120 you could get any of the normal range of Glenfarclas and you'd be getting a better whisky - including the 10 year old! You'd only buy this if you had all other forty two bottles and were missing this from your collection.
7/10, £120.00
1983 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 50, Refill Hogshead, 56%, 302 bottles
Pungent. Stale water and wet cardboard. Almost like very newly distilled spirit with rotten pears. I really don't like the nose on this. The palate is like grappa. It is very fruit but with a touch of toffee. Still dry and peppery. Add water and it becomes drinkable, but it is a pretty bad whisky. I can think of a better way to spend £200, including getting three colonic irrigations at York Clinic.
5/10, £199.00
1976 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 3111, Refill Butt, 49.4%, 595 bottles
A chinese takeaway! Black bean sauce and green peppers, then coffee and toffee. The palate is very dry, a maltiness with lots of dry cereal and a little charcoal. Very clean and very soft. A bit dusty and you get a 'rain on wet tarmac' flavour. Good.
8/10, £256.00
1973 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 2578, Sherry Butt, 58.8%, 457 bottles
Acetone, passion fruit sweetness and a bit of warm brandy. A soft aroma. The palate is then hot and sweet, a lot of raisins and a bit of burnt jam and a lot of spice. With water, you get so much vanilla toffee and then a semi dried lemon, all rich and sweet with a tiny zing to it. It is dry with tropical fruit - did I get dried apricot? - and a sweetness like you would get from tinned pears in syrup. A blast of Earl Grey on the finish.
8/10, £275.00
1971 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 140, Sherry Butt, 57.1%, 459 bottles
Burnt sugar, toffee apples, cinnamon and a bit of chocolate and over ripe banana. A rich, sweet flavour, lots of dark chocolate, stewed prunes and pencil shavings. A tiny amount of smoke as well. This is glorious.
9.5/10, £290.00
1967 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 511, Sherry Hogshead, 58.5%, 181 bottles
Cherry cola and Christmas cake - fruit cake and marzipan - and a good handful of chocolate raisins. The palate is warm with dried blueberries and coal tar soap bubbles. It dissolves in your mouth and leaves a flavour of poppy seeds! With water you lose the cherry coke, but everything else is the same. A little hot spice and a little burnt onions are added.
8/10, £325.00
1966 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 4177, Sherry Butt, 51.5%, 514 bottles
Warm summer pudding, a little bonfire toffee and dark caramel. A lot of boiled cinnamon sweets, a bit herby. The palate is punchy with dark tobacco, dried leaves and burnt orange peel. With water it is much better. Clean with honey and cloves. It is nicely toasty with lemon pith flavours and a little alcohol heat on the finish.
8.5/10, £315.00
1955 Glenfarclas The Family Casks, Cask 2211, Sherry Butt, 46.1%, 545 bottles
So much toffee and cough drops. A little nail varnish remover and banana. The palate is herby with menthol sweets and a smoky oak flavour. Elements of bitter chocolate and then dry, smoked fish and charred beef flavours. Warm and vegetal. A bit too old?
8/10, £750.00
It is interesting to try these whiskies, it always is interesting trying old single malts, but I can't help thinking that this exercise from Glenfarclas is purely a marketing exercise to say "mine is bigger than yours" to any other distillery with a range of sequentially vintage whiskies. The other big problem I have with the eight whiskies I tried was inconsistency of quality. I grant you, there are always going to be malts that one person will prefer over the others, but paying over a hundred pounds for a 14 year old whisky, even if it is a single cask, is asking a bit much.
As a celebration of this distillery, the Glenfarclas Family Cask collection has a purpose, but that is only available for prestigious hotels or whisky collectors with fifteen grand burning a hole in their pocket. For a whisky lover or a not so rich collector, this series of malts does nothing. The collector cant afford the lot, and the drinker looks at lots of whiskies without a clue which one they would like. This is a marketing exercise, nothing more, nothing less. And there is nothing wrong with that, but if you are a whisky lover save your money.
Buy a bottle of Glenfarclas 21 year old.
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