I had the chance last night to try a couple of single-cask whiskies from very different parts of the world courtesy of a traveling friend. I highly recommend keeping whisky-loving friends around by the way, it often pays off!
The first was a Glenfarclas Family Cask, distilled in 2002 and bottled this year as a ten-year-old at a nice cask strength of 60.6%, exclusive to the Willow Park liquor store in Calgary. The idea was to try it against the 105 20-year-old I reviewed last time to compare and contrast. Well, we did that, and the two whiskies couldn’t be more different! I suppose it’s a good illustration of the role the cask plays in transforming the distillery’s spirit into different whiskies.
The first thing I noticed when nosing the 2002 was the massive maltiness that flowed out of the glass. I’m pretty sure I’ve tried new make that wasn’t as malty as this. It gives the whisky an incredible freshness and vitality and it seems younger than its 10 years.
Now, I have no idea how this whisky was matured; there’s no information on the bottle as to the cask type, but being Glenfarclas you’d probably expect it to be a sherry butt. The cherrywood colouring would seem to lend some credence to that theory, but on the nose and the palate I got much more in the way of the classic signals of ex-bourbon maturation. Honey, lemon, fresh pear were the dominant flavours – this is nothing like the standard house style. Their website does suggest they use around 1/3 bourbon casks and 2/3 sherry butts, so it’s entirely possible that’s the case here.