Glenfarclas
Warehouse Edition 40 Year Old
Age: 40
Abv. 43% vol
Place of Purchase: A gift
This whisky was a present from my lovely wife, so reviewing it objectively could be a bit tricky. On the other hand, it's a 40 year old single malt, can it really be bad or disappointing? Surely it's quite safe to be completely honest.
Nose: Quite calm and balanced, not waspish in any way. First there's sweet raisins that quickly turns to dark chocolate. With the chocolate comes the bitterness. Chocolate remains as the main scent and once the bitterness fades away it's replaced with the sweet oranges that lingers around the chocolate. There's also Christmas spices that are accompanied with tobacco leafs. The whole essence of the whisky is like the old lady in family celebrations when you were younger. A bit too much perfume, old clothes that brings the musky undertone to the whole setting. She then had these little wrapped liquor candies that she passed on the kids while the adults weren't watching.
Taste: Wow, so smooth and lovely. The viscosity with this one is from another world, so thick and oily. Like everything is covered with this smooth creaminess that just balances all the flavours and doesn't allow anything to jump out. It's the sherry that is first to penetrate through the creaminess and with the sherry it's Christmas again. There's also some milk chocolate and bitterness of the oak that turns into the tobacco leafs for me.
After: Quite surprisingly first thing to come is a wave of pepper and once it slowly fades away there's the most creamiest and smoothest milk chocolate and the bitterness taking turns. It's like they are playing tennis in my mouth, pleasant friendly game of tennis where no one tries to win, just keep the ball moving over the net from side to side and my mouth is the court.
The first time I tried this whisky I was just enjoying the fact, that I'm opening and enjoying a bottle of 40 year old single malt. Now I finally was in a situation that I was able to sit down and properly enjoy this beauty and explore what lies in the glass and oh my, there's a lot. I usually enjoy more intense whiskies and I had to take my time to find the flavours from this one. Elegant and balanced whisky that has so many delicate nuances and character, but everything is beautifully coated with this smoothness and creaminess. Great dram.
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